Join Blues beat writer Jim Thomas for his live chat at 1 p.m. Wednesday
Get your questions ready and join in at 1 p.m. Wednesday for our weekly Blues chat.
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Bobby Orr is the greatest to ever play the game. He would get the puck behind his own net. Start the breakout. The crowd would come to life. He stick handles through the entire team. The crowd is roaring. And either score or put it on the tape of a teammate for a goal. He was +124 in plus/minus in ONE YEAR!
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Jim, I did have a laugh at one NY reporters impression of Vladi. You once said that he showered and dressed and was out the door before the reporters were let in the dressing room. He was showered and dressed and was taking questions from reporters and one asked "if he had dinner reservations" that he was already dressing. I remembered what you had said and thought it was funny.
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Yes, but when you got Tarasenko to talk, he was always good. There were a few times over the year when I'd approach him on my own for something and he'd tap the bench next to his locker stall and tell me to sit down and that's how the interview started.One time - it was just after the Blues' post-Stanley Cup visit to the White House - I had a one-on-one with Vladi, finished the interview - it was some outstanding stuff - turned away and realized I had not turned on my digitial recorder. Gasp!I turned around, approached Tarasenko again, told him what had happened. He tapped the bench, said sit down, and we did the whole thing over again.Tarasenko was almost always very respectful with me. And trust me, there were times when he didn't like my question and was agitated. But he never carried it over to the next day.He was very complimentary when I told him I was retiring. This was, of course, before the trade.
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theathletic.com That's the article where he talks about it being very emotional.
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Jim, SO appreciative of all your hard work at the Post, especially the chats.. Hope you have loads of fun in retirement!!! Agree with Matt, we really need a shut down defenseman... We had one with AP, but let him walk... Defense has not been the same since. Just a fact.. We basically need a Justin Falk who's 6'4" and who has the necessary sandpaper we need on D. That's what the Blues need, because we are not only missing that player, but having that player then slots 'other guys' to where they need to be.. Parayko at #2 D, etc etc... Thoughts?
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The faceoff falloff is understandable. You lost two of your top three faceoff men in Ryan O'Reilly and Noel Acciari via trade. And you're currently using converted wingers at center in Pavel Buchnevich and Kasperi Kapanen, who have very little experience in the circle.As for the power play, that's more puzzling. I think it's become as much a lack of confidence as anything at this point. Sure the Blues miss Perron in the left circle, but they had seeminly learned how to be productive without him until recently.
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Jim, me again, what are the odds the Blues will pick up a top 4 defenseman by trade or FA--we don't have much cap space to really get a great one. Do you think they'll be any dream Ds available? Thanks again. Also, what really hurt us was losing Bouwmeester, maybe as much as AP.
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Based on what we've seen this season, it's hard for me to imagine the Blues standing pat on the blue line and thinking they can return to being a top 10 defense. So I think that will be a top priority for Armstrong in the offseason. If they can move one of their other top 4 guys, that would create some cap space.I don't know what the free agent list looks like at this point. So I don't know if it's even 50-50 that the Blues can get an upgrade in the offseason.And yeah, losing Bouwmeester was a huge blow, although he probably wouldn't be around anyway by now at age 39.
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What do you think of Ryan Graves? Obviously this assumes you could move a contract on the back end. But I don't think you can just subtract, you need to add. Graves is a LD who could conceivably play with Parayko. Big guy (6'5"). A little younger than our current group at 28. Should be affordable.
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We only know there was alcohol involved. The Blues moved on from Johnson after a couple of seasons and traded for Shattenkirk, who was a first round pick by Colorado the year after. Shatty has also had a solid career with a Cup and an All-Star game and is one of the game's most engaging characters.
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