Join Blues beat writer Tom Timmermann for his live chat at 2 p.m. Wednesday
Get your questions ready and join in at 2 p.m. Wednesday for our weekly Blues chat.
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Moving on from Scandella will be the tricky part. I remain unsure what the demand will be for him, though maybe there's a team somewhere willing to take Arizona's traditional role of taking on contracts teams want to get rid of.Armstrong showed last offseason that if he doesn't like the return on a Tarasenko trade, he won't make the move. The dynamics are a little different this summer, and you have to wonder if some teams regret not being able to get Tarasenko at a reduced price? (Though I think everyone rightly had concerns about his play coming off all those shoulder surgeries.) I don't see Edmundson coming back. Zadorov is certainly an option, but he made $3.75 million this season and that number is going to go up. -
Hey Tom, understanding that some things are simply in the realm of fantasy (e.g. acquiring Matthew Tkachuk, bringing back Pietrangelo, getting Kadri suspended for all future postseasons), have you thought yet about what your ideal-but-realistic offseason looks like for the Blues? -
I'm hesitant to name names because look at last offseason, where Armstrong was able to grab Buchnevich when the Rangers were giving him away at a discount for cap reasons and that turned out to be a great deal So there could be another of those guys out there.I don't think we're looking at a tear-it-apart offseason for the Blues because they were pretty good under some pretty tough circumstances at times. And the cap space is going to make it hard to do much anyway. They have to get better on defense, so that has to be addressed. Offensively they're in good shape; defensively they need work.To make almost any move, they have to open up some cap space; moving Tarasenko is the easiest way to do that, but I thought he was going to be gone last summer and he's still here, so what do I know?
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I know I am a bit disappointed with the last 2 games but all in all I think the Blues went about as far as most people expected. I think Tarasenko stays. To get his goal production will cost as much if not more than his salary. I think it drops for next year. Neighbor needs a roster spot and so does Perunovich.
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Acquiring goals on the free agent market is never easy and never cheap. So getting rid of one 30-goal scorer and hoping to pick up another would be difficult. That is one reason to keep Tarasenko, but if Armstrong thinks he can't re-sign him, and I think that's going to be hard, Armstrong may want to move him to get something back, unless the season looks promising and they keep Tarasenko as their own rental.
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Tom, each playoff game this season I pick three players and focus on their play during the game.
Monday night I watched Kyrou, Parayko & Toropchenko.
If Kyrou is going to be successful at this level, he is going to need to add about 10-12 lbs of muscle. He gets knocked off the puck way too easily and seems to be tentative in the corners. He needs to be more direct with the puck instead of trying to be too fancy with it.
Parayko makes too many bad decisions with the puck and is not physical enough for a player his size. Nobody in the league fears him, not like they did Chris Pronger. You can have a long reach and play a lot of minutes, but it doesn’t make you an elite player. For the kind of coin he’s making, we should be getting more from him.
We have a diamond in the rough with Toropchenko. He’s gritty, not afraid to throw his body around and plays a physical game. I love how he goes hard to the net. He’s probably not going to be a 30+ goal scorer but I can easily see him getting 15-20 goals a year the way he drives to the net. -
I've said more than a few times in this chat that Kyrou needs to get stronger, which is not something that's going to happen in season. That will be an offseason project for him and if he can do that, he'll be a much better player. I'd be careful about discouraging him from being too fancy. That's one of the things he can do better than others, and it's an asset you want to put to work. But he needs to learn more about when and when not to do it.Parayko has been discussed in other answers. He's still the best defender the Blues have got. Jim Thomas said it again in our podcast this week: accept the fact that Parayko isn't going to be a great defenseman, but he's going to be a really good one. There's a lot to be said for being a really good defenseman.I'm still not sure what Toropchenko's offensive production is going to look like, if he's going to be a fourth liner or if he can be a power forward logging top six minutes, in a role people thought Kostin might fill. It's very early, but so far he hasn't shown himself to be a great finisher.
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How is it possible that only 2 of 11 forwards have shown up this series? It's one thing to be shut down by a good defensive team, it's still another to simply not compete? This is getting to Orville Tessier "heart transplant" territory and underscores the need for players who care as much as they can skate. After that rant, my question is, does Armstrong reconsider investing in a Thomas or Kyrou after neither show a lick of passion against Colorado?
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The Blues depth at forward was supposed to insulate them from this kind of situation, where everyone goes cold at once. But it happens, and Colorado is a good defensive team with a good goalie, which is one of the things that makes that happen. The Blues have also played into Colorado's hands in this one. In Game 1, they were so focused on not getting beat going back on defense that they never went forward on offense. In Game 4, they never found their game for a lot of reasons, between frustration and disappointment and revenge.Does Thomas reconsider investing in Thomas or Kyrou? No. Both have shown enough in the regular season for him to consider foundational pieces for this team going forward. Especially Thomas. Developing an asset like that is a big deal.
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Chatting with various posters who seem to think the Blues should have somehow beat Kadri up! They think we need Reeves back. Where is the NHL headed? To me it's Toronto, Tampa, Carolina, speed and skill. I think it's far better hockey then the stupid brawls we used to see. There's really not any fighting in the playoffs. Very little. NHL is getting faster still. More like the KHL before Ukraine. How do you like the trend?
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I'm 6-4 and I always used to have people ask me if I played basketball. I didn't -- I played tennis in high school -- but I guess I looked like I should be a basketball player. Parayko looks like he should be slamming opponents into oblivion. He doesn't. I've also said many a time that when Parayko scored a bunch of goals in his first few weeks in the NHL, everyone thought he was going to be a high-scoring defenseman. He's not. Same for Dmitrij Jaskin, who scored a bunch of goals as a rookie and people thought that's who he was, rather than a solid defensive player with limited offensive upside and the rest of his time in St. Louis played out as a disappointment because of that.
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With so much focus (rightly) placed on the disappearance of the Blues' offense this series, it seems to me that the biggest difference right now is the gap between the Aves' and Blues' defensive units. Sure, the offense isn't putting up much in the way of chances created, let alone goals, but it sure looks like Colorado's defense is shutting things down and creating clearances and transitions in a way St. Louis just hasn't been able to. Tarasenko, Thomas, Schenn, and Kyrou all need to produce more, but wouldn't that be far easier if they were supported by a defense better able to sustain blue-line pressure and keep the puck in the zone?
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The Blues task would be simpler if they could get the puck out of their end, bring it into Colorado's, and keep it there for a while. The Blues were bad with the puck in Game 4, and it let Colorado control play. The Blues couldn't score goals because they seldom had the puck in the offensive zone. If they can't change that, the offseason will start very soon.But yes, keeping the puck in the Colorado zone would be an asset.
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Good day to you Tom, thanks for the forum, we enjoy it. My question is this, years ago they painted the crease of the goal blue, I thought this was give the refs a clear view of when an opposing player is in the goal crease interfering with the goalie, and if they were interfering with the goalie a penalty should be called.
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You need 2 goalies in the NHL! The season is way too long. Do you see Markstrom on Calgary? He's worn out making uncharacteristic mistakes. Dinosaur Coach Darryl Sutter over played him all season long. Blues need Husso back! He's going to be great tonight! People forget we would not even have made the playoffs without him! Do you believe in the 2 goalie system?
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You need two good goalies, but I think you need one really good goalie and another guy you're not hesitant to play. You dont need two Martin Brodeurs, but the second guy needs to be reliable, more Carter Hutton than Chad Johnson to look at two recent Blues backups.
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I once had a boss tell me after I had written a largely inconsequential story, "If we had a 99-page sports section, this would be on Page 99." If I were to list 10,000 things that were either going to happen or were in the Blues' best interests, this might be No. 10,000.
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Were you surprised by the energy level of this team in the last game? I would have thought that if there was a game where the Blues players, especially with a veteran group would be invested in, it would have been that game.
And what are your thoughts on Tarasenko this offseason? For me trading him makes the most sense. We have enough offensively without him and his value is high. He disappears too much in the postseason. -
I was surprised. There were reasons to play like that in Game 1, but not in Game 4. It wasn't a must-win game, but we've seen the big hole the Blues are in because of the loss.I've said that trading Tarasenko this offseason makes a lot of sense. The Blues need the cap space and they're probably not going to re-sign him after next season. I was wrong about this last offseason.
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I do not. He turns 34 in a few days, and that's just not an age where teams are going to lavish big deals on him. I've said I think he gets a deal about like the one he has now, for $4 million a year. I don't see how his AAV goes up. Question will be does he get one or two years. At times this season, I thought it would be one. Now, two seems do-able.
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O'Reilly's play had raised some question marks during the season, but he's come on really strong at the finish. Next season will be the final season of his current contract, so big decisions loom for him and the Blues about what's next. Even if his numbers go down, O'Reilly is a guy who makes the Blues better.
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OK, it's almost 5 p.m., so this seems like a good time for everyone to start getting their game faces on for tonight. We'll be back next Wednesday, but will there be games still to come or the locker clean out? We may know tonight.Thanks to one and all for the time and participation. See you next week.