Binnington is an unrestricted free agent after this season, so if he goes to free agency, there will likely be some bidding for him. The Blues would probably like to avoid that, since if they don't re-sign him, they'll be in that market too. Assuming he has a season where he earns it, he'll get a raise and the Blues should be able to handle him at $6 million, especially since Husso has another season coming at under $1 million. Right now, I would think re-signing Binnington would be their plan if he continues to play the way he has so far.
There's a vote for Binnington. On Monday, the Blues showed that maybe you can get Kuemper drawn out of his net a bit.
I think Hoffman deserves a look on a higher line, with Perron and O'Reilly. I'm confident that will come around again.
We've got about 30 minutes to go, so if you've got questions, now's the time
One of the things the Blues have said routinely after losing the second game is, "Maybe after winning the first we thought it would be easy in the second." By now, I don't know how they can think that. You expect a team to come out harder in the second game, and the Blues haven't matched that. They also haven't done it in the third or fourth game. But you could also ask why the other team hasn't come out stronger in the first game. The Blues have been better than them then. Especially right now, the Blues need Binnington at the top of his game.
He's skating, but not skating with the team. Armstrong said last week that his return was still weeks away. I would think we don't see him in February. It will be five months since his surgery next week.
Because it costs an awful lot to do and the league doesn't have enough equipment to do in a lot of places at once. Also, weather becomes a factor and would create even more doubt about the schedule. If it starts raining, they can't play.
Any one on the team is welcome to do that at any time. It's not like someone is sitting in the locker room waiting to be called on or has to ask permission. Players do it all the time.
They started last weekend. Utica, the Blues affiliate (with Vancouver) went 1-1 I think.
Zach Sanford knows how to do that.
The puck has to always be moving toward the goal in a shootout, so once you got past the goal line, you'd have an issue.
The North and Central have some bad teams. The East, other than Boston will be very competitive. The West shouldn't be as competitive, though the Blues are putting the Coyotes back in the race and turning it into a five-team division. Right now, it looks like the Central could be toughest. But it's not very clear cut at this point.
For $500 million, this is what you should get. Previous expansion teams have probably been given overly unfavorable terms. The league no doubt feels that it's better to have these teams be better quicker than to limp along at a miserable level for a while. I'm fine with it.
OK, I'm going to end it here. Thanks everyone for stopping by. Jeff Gordon has a chat on Friday if you have other hockey questions you're dying to ask. Or even remotely interested in asking. We'll be back next week, by which point the Blues and Coyotes will have stopped playing each other. I think. Take care.
Mr. Timmermann,
Binnington is an unrestricted free agent after this season, so if he goes to free agency, there will likely be some bidding for him. The Blues would probably like to avoid that, since if they don't re-sign him, they'll be in that market too. Assuming he has a season where he earns it, he'll get a raise and the Blues should be able to handle him at $6 million, especially since Husso has another season coming at under $1 million. Right now, I would think re-signing Binnington would be their plan if he continues to play the way he has so far.