Greetings and welcome to the final regular season Blues chat. One more game in the regular season, the Blues still have a shot at second (actually a better shot than they did at this time yesterday), and then, starting next week, on Monday or Tuesday, a series with the Wild. Generally, when things are going well, there are fewer questions. We'll see if that's the case. The early look at the queue says maybe not.
Binnington only starts in the playoffs if something goes terribly amiss. Husso is the goalie. Husso will be getting his first taste of the Stanley Cup playoffs, so who knows what to expect there. The first round series will be tough. The second rough series, barring an upset, will be tougher. Husso can play great and the Blues might not get through. But Husso clearly is the goalie of choice for the Blues and gives them the best chance of winning.
He could, but he's not going to have a whole lot of time to do that. Next season, I would think, is make or break for Brown with the Blues. The potential is there, and has been since he was drafted, but he's going to have to show it next season because if not, the Blues will likely move on. He will have to make a Tage Thompson-like jump in his play. I'm sure the Blues would love it if he could, but that would be a pretty big jump. Right now, if he could be a reliable third-line center, that would probably be enough.
Brown's play has picked up, and while Berube expressed initial concerns about Brown not being a fourth-line type guy and more of a third-line type guy, he's had to play him by necessity and he's looked good doing it. There are plenty of options on the fourth line and much of it will depend on the health elsewhere in the lineup. If Schenn and Perron are back, then there's a choice of Brown or Bozak for the fourth line. I would think, at least at the start, they would go with Bozak, giving the nod to his experience (Brown, who spent his career in Ottawa, has never been in an NHL playoff game), and if that didn't look great in Games 1 and 2, maybe Brown steps in. But Brown has made much more of a case for being in there than existed a month or so ago.
Probably, well, definitely, a step back after his previous games, at least in terms of how he looked in the net. When goalies start losing their stick repeatedly, it's seldom a good sign. But Colorado is a tough team to play against -- considering they're one of the two best teams in the league, the Avs are best team he's faced all season -- so it wasn't going to be easy regardless. In the old days, like two or three years ago, you'd say it was one of those games and shrug it off. Now, at a point where every move he makes is scrutinized, shrugging isn't as easy.
They started Binnington because this was the last chance. Husso will be the playoff goalie, and will be playing every game for the rest of this season, so it was the last chance to give him a night off since they want him to play against Vegas in the finale to stay ready for the playoffs. And if they need Binnington for the playoffs, it was a chance to get him ready as well. The chance of a trade exists, but I don't know that they need to showcase him. I'm not sure that one game vs. Colorado would be the tipping point for a team considering acquiring him. They needed to keep him ready and give Husso a break.
On the road, yes, because they're on the ice before the Blues, though in some places, like Boston, you can't because the Bruins skate at their practice facility on game day and not at the arena. It's tougher to watch the opponent's morning skate at Enterprise because we're usually doing interviews at that time.
During the regular season, the ads at the blueline at each game are done digitally. So we're out there at times, and other sponsors are there at other times with a push of the button. I wish they could make the logo a little bigger because it seems hard to read.
They have not, at least not that I've seen. NBC had just about every game televised on some network the last few years (except for a few that showed up on NHL Network). I would think after having every game televised, the NHL would want to keep that going, though with an increased use of ESPN+, maybe it's not as big of a deal to them. My big concern is whether the dreaded 8:45 (or later) start still exists. We'll find out Friday night, I would think.
The Blues didn't have a whole lot of experience in 2019, especially compared to Boston, and that seemed to work out OK for them. Maybe it helps at the margins, but Minnesota has some pretty good players who I would think won't be diminished by not having extensive Stanley Cup playoff experience.
Sure, that makes them more beatable. But they've got a lot of other pretty good players, and there will be a big gap between them and Dallas or Nashville in the first round, and the difference there is going to be more than one player. And who knows how Landeskog feels by the second round.
On defense, it will depend on Scandella's status. If he's out, somebody's got to go in, most likely Rosen based on recent experience. If Scandella is good to go, I think the usual six will get the games and Mikkola and Rosen will watch. I think Toropchenko will be in the lineup for the playoffs. How much ice time he and the fourth line get will depend on how the game plays out. Right now, I'm thinking a Walker-Bozak-Toropchenko line for Game 1 of the playoffs, with Brown on standby.
I would think we would see it Friday night when games are done, though I suppose if all the series are locked in after Thursday's games, it could come earlier. (Have to confess, I haven't checked to see if that's mathematically possible.) Unless there are private events that don't show up on the building calendars, there don't seem to be any building conflicts in the first round in St. Paul or St. Louis until the very end of the first round. (New Kids on the Block are at Enterprise on May 14.)
If it was a health or injury issue, Berube didn't seem to be cutting him much slack after some of his in-game adventures. There clearly could be a mental toll; this is more hockey than Kyrou has ever played. I said this on the podcast we recorded this morning: Kyrou's not going to have some huge overnight change with regards to defense this season. That will happen in the offseason, when he gets stronger. He can learn some turnover responsibility, but as I've said before, Kyrou is going to be a high-event guy. Things will happen with him on the ice, good and bad. You hope the good outweighs the bad. The challenge for the Blues and Kyrou, and again, it's not likely to happen in the next few days, is for him to have a better feel for when he can take risks and when he can't. He is a player who takes risks; it's part of his game, and you don't want to take that away from him. But he can learn to manage those risks better. Improved play on his part is essential because it's a big part of making the Blues a three-line team.
I expect that when Perron is back, he will return to his normal spot. The O'Reilly line plays an important defensive role, and having Kyrou there isn't going to cut it.
It's going to be a tough climb. In 2019, the top three teams in the Central were separated by one point. The Blues and Jets were even on points; There was not much daylight between them. San Jose finished with two more points than the Blues. The Blues are going to have to beat a bunch of really, really good teams right from the start with Minnesota. They will have their work cut out for them.
It's certainly a been a weird year -- though not as weird as some others we've seen lately -- with how the East's eight teams were pretty much settled by Jan. 1. That no doubt inflated some point totals, though at the same time, Buffalo right now is a team you wouldn't to face. They would have beaten the Blues in Buffalo if they had any level of finishing ability. Whether this helps or hurts is something that will be decided after the fact. If a West team wins, it will be because East teams weren't tested throughout the season and West team's benefitted from their conference's parity. If an East team wins, it will be a sure sign of that conference's overall supremacy. And I don't care that there's a disparity between the top and bottom teams in the East. Florida, Toronto, Tampa Bay and Carolina are all extremely good teams.
Hitchcock is living in Palm Springs and drops in on the team when they're in the neighborhood, in Southern California or Arizona, and he's always available by phone. I asked Berube when they had Hitchcock rejoin the team what would it mean to him to be able to call Hitchcock and talk about stuff and he said it wouldn't make a difference because he called him and talked to him already.
With two networks doing games, I don't know how they're going to divide things up, whether it will be a grab bag or whether certain networks will follow certain divisions or conferences.
Don't know if they'll want a third goalie around working with the team just in case or if they'll be content with Lindgren and Hofer staying sharp in Springfield, but if Charlie Lindgren gets in a playoff game, it would mean that something serious has happened to both Husso and Binnington. What I'm surprised is that the Blues haven't extended Lindgren to have him under contract for next season, but it's also possible that his camp may be expecting an NHL deal to come along rather than the two-way deal the Blues would offer.
Happy hump day to you Tom, thank you for the chats.