Only that he continues to be described as day-to-day. He wasn't on the ice for practice today. The Blues haven't put him on IR yet, or made a move to call anyone up, at least that I've seen. (The chat can be a bit of a tunnel, I must admit.)
I would like to think not. The whole idea behind making him captain was that he was a natural leader anyway, so it would be a seamless move. O'Reilly is quick to blame himself, so a struggling team can be hard on him. He said it again after Game 7 on Monday, that he needs to make elite plays. Now, he's more likely to make an elite play than MacEachern, but when you go out on the ice saying that you've got to make an elite play, that's quite a burden you've put on yourself. But there are ups and downs to seasons, and in the Stanley Cup season, he was the one guy who was up at the start while almost everyone else was down.
Darren Pang, meet David Perron.
Keller, Garland and Schmaltz looked like world beaters. Good speed and they were able to quickly turn the tables on the Blues when they got the puck. Garland should have had two more goals in Game 7.
I guess that would depend on what goalies are out there. Would seem to be there will be better players available from the Blues. On the other hand, if you don't have a goalie, a lot of pucks go in the net.
Well, I'd say Vancouver, but I haven't been there in a while, so this is no different from every other year. New York is always a nice trip. And for maybe the first time ever, I'm not getting a Southern California trip this season. Miss that too.
The Blues will be over the cap when Tarasenko returns from long term injured reserve. The exact number isn't sure yet. The Blues are trying to save money by sending MacEachern and others to the taxi squad whenever they can, because that takes them off the payroll for a day or two, and every dollar is going to count. They will likely be over the cap by $1.5 million or so when Tarasenko returns. They could maybe stall the decision if someone else could go on LTIR, but unless that happens they will have to make a move, and it would involve getting a draft pick rather than a person back because they can't take on any more salary.
As it stands now, Sanford, Sundqvist, Barbashev, Blais, Scandella and Dunn all figure to be unprotected. And several others.
Slow is relative in this sense with O'Reilly, because he does so much, but he's got five goals and five primary assists in 16 games and his power play has had trouble getting up to speed. Again, he does a lot, and a quick look at his stats you're more right than I am on offense, where he's 7.3 percent above the league average on offense (compared to 4.5 last season) and I'm right on defense, where opponents are 10.6% below league average with him on the ice this season compared to 13.2 last season. I think he's got another level to go to.
When a player clears waivers, he doesn't have to go through again until he's spent 30 days on the NHL roster or appeared in 10 games. So at some point, the Blues will probably have to put MacEachern and de la Rose on waivers again; they're still riding the waivers they went through at the start of the season. But by sending them to the taxi squad whenever possible, they stretch that clock out.
Most of the St. Louis players in the league are probably out of the Blues price range right now. Though there's always the Dakota Mermis type.
The Blues won't trade any more players than they have to. And also, it depends on who you can trade. Can't trade someone nobody wants, or who they won't give you much back for.
One from each team, except Vegas, which won't have to lose anyone.
That's very possible. The Blues know what they have, and potential only takes you so far. They can't keep betting on his upside. But they are encouraged by him being able to score goals when he's on his game. That's buying him some time. Also, the lack of viable options works in his favor.
Blues had a run of times earlier this season that when they tried to do that, they were putting the puck in the stands. They've gotten better at that. I think the bigger problem is just skating it out or passing it out. All of a sudden, they're not strong on the puck, it doesn't clear, someone grabs it and it's right back at you.
Not since training camp, I don't think. Though I did say hello to a bunch of them because they had to walk past where I was seated in Arizona to go back to the hotel. But it was only an exchange of pleasantries from a long distance.
I think they had a hard time catching him. But the Blues need to up their heavy game. Hits numbers vary greatly from city to city and stat crew to stat crew, but they didn't have much to show for their time in Arizona.
It's probably a tough year for the refs too -- they don't have a charter to take them from city to city -- and they didn't have a preseason either to get them ready. But NHL officiating is always exciting.
OK, I'm going to wind it up here before the boss gets mad. One of us will be back next week, and hopefully I'll have escaped Arizona. Thanks for the questions and the suggestions and we'll see what the Blues look like playing someone else for a change. Talk to you soon!
