St Louis Blues Greatest Offseason Thread Ever

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tlombard
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Re: St Louis Blues Greatest Offseason Thread Ever

Post by tlombard »

I think over the weekend I saw that 22 of the 23 players who appeared in the Finals are back for next year with Maroon being the only one gone. Wow. I can't wait for next year!

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Popeye_Card
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Re: St Louis Blues Greatest Offseason Thread Ever

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tlombard wrote:I think over the weekend I saw that 22 of the 23 players who appeared in the Finals are back for next year with Maroon being the only one gone. Wow. I can't wait for next year!
As much as I like the thought of this, I think we need to brace ourselves that the team could go through some ups and downs this year. As good as the team was from January on, they were also pretty much the same roster (sans Binnington) that was in last place starting January. This is not a roster where superior talent will just carry them. They have to continuously grind and put in the work--there will probably be long stretches that look more like last fall than the playoff run.

I think what I'm looking forward to the most is seeing Thomas develop, along with how productive the 4th line might be throughout the year.

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GeddyWrox
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Re: St Louis Blues Greatest Offseason Thread Ever

Post by GeddyWrox »

Agree with you Popeye. I'm looking forward to seeing Thomas, Barbashev, Dunn, and hopefully Kyrou all continue to grow. I hope Binnington doesn't have a sophomore slump, too.

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JCShutout
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Re: St Louis Blues Greatest Offseason Thread Ever

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I read something a bit ago about the Blues style of play. Basically aggressive, taking the skill and speed out of your opponent. When everyone buys in and works at the system, it smothers, as we saw. When someone doesn't buy in or guys are winded (its an exhausting style of play), you can get blown out, which we saw a fair amount of in their playoff losses.

There will be stretches during the long grind of a season when they don't look as good due to fatigue, injury, etc, but if they play their system, they should be in contention for the division and a threat to go deep in the playoffs, which is all you can really ask for in a league with this much parity.

I have a feeling the Blues are banking on Thomas being able to fill a top6 role next year in place of Schenn, so lets hope he does take a step.

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Re: St Louis Blues Greatest Offseason Thread Ever

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A good comp is probably the Kings from their Stanley Cup years. They struggled to stay a top team during the regular seasons, but were still a very tough out come playoff time. I think that would be an optimal outcome.

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Re: St Louis Blues Greatest Offseason Thread Ever

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I just looked at the Kings’ franchise history to make sure I was right. Fun fact: the Kings have only won their division *once* in their entire history (‘90-‘91).

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Re: St Louis Blues Greatest Offseason Thread Ever

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Yeah, I would think their “heavy” approach would be tough to do all season long; they’d just get worn out.

But in the playoffs/in 7 games series against the same team, that style can really wear down your opponent as we saw.

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Re: St Louis Blues Greatest Offseason Thread Ever

Post by Secret Weapon »

The Blues did have the second best record after the new year, it wasn't just a flukey playoff run

its crazy they start preseason games in 2 weeks

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Re: St Louis Blues Greatest Offseason Thread Ever

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Not saying they were flukey. Just saying that its one thing to maintain that play for part of a season or a playoff series (I think we saw the fatigue a bit in the Boston series in the two blowout losses), and another to maintain it enough to win the President's Trophy.

I think they should contend for the division title (so, top3 in the conference) and, like Popeye said, be a tough out in the playoffs. Look at all the good teams who went out in the first round this year. The Stanley Cup is just a different beast.

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sighyoung
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Re: St Louis Blues Greatest Offseason Thread Ever

Post by sighyoung »

JCShutout wrote:Not saying they were flukey. Just saying that its one thing to maintain that play for part of a season or a playoff series (I think we saw the fatigue a bit in the Boston series in the two blowout losses), and another to maintain it enough to win the President's Trophy.

I think they should contend for the division title (so, top3 in the conference) and, like Popeye said, be a tough out in the playoffs. Look at all the good teams who went out in the first round this year. The Stanley Cup is just a different beast.
All these points are quite valid. I will say, though, that the Blues mitigated some of that wear and tear through their depth. The fourth line was not only a terrific agitating/checking line, but a productive scoring threat. In fact, in past years, the Blues typically only had two productive lines, and two lines comprised of goons, concrete pillars on skates, psychological mysteries, a skater who had begun his career when the NHL consisted of four teams, and sunk costs. That depth allowed the team to play that exhausting style of hockey, but also to weather injuries and slumps.

And, of course, actually having a technically sound and consistent goalie helped the system in a number of ways.

Mind you, I'm preaching to the choir here, so sorry about going on.

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