Join columnist Ben Frederickson for a live STL sports chat at 11 a.m. Tuesday
Ben Frederickson answers your Cardinals, Blues, St. Louis City, Mizzou and SLU questions in Tuesday's 11 a.m. live chat.
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"An attacking player initiates intentional or deliberate contact with a goalkeeper, inside or outside of his goal crease. Incidental contact with a goalkeeper will be permitted, and resulting goals allowed, when such contact is initiated outside of the goal crease, provided the attacking player has made a reasonable effort to avoid such contact.. If a defending player has been pushed, shoved, or fouled by an attacking player so as to cause the defending player to come into contact with his own goalkeeper, such contact shall be deemed contact initiated by the attacking player for purposes of this rule, and if necessary a penalty assessed to the attacking player and if a goal is scored it would be disallowed.
I disagree with the comment that the goaltender interference rule is murky. It is crystal clear. Kadri was behind the defenseman and the entirety of the contact was initiated by him. The rules in hockey are that the goaltender is not allowed to be hit. That is why they don't get flattened when they are behind the net. Further, the player is supposed to try to avoid contact. Kadri didn't try to avoid contact, he initiated it and went full force into the defenseman and Binnington. Within the rules cited above, that is goalie interference. The referees blew the call and somehow the media makes the Blues out to be the bad guys in this. Horrifically bad officiating and stupifying that the analyst for TNT thought it was a clean play. I turned the sound off after those comments. -
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Hey Ben, thanks as always for the chat! I'll slightly push back on Berube being ripped by "white media guys." From the hockey forums/subreddits I attend, the comment I'm seeing is that a coach with a history of making derogatory comments towards Black players has no business attacking another person's reputation.
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Berube is getting ripped for something that happened 25 years ago. His comment about Worrell back then was wrong. No debate. Does anyone bringing it up today care to mention what happened after he said it? No one has mentioned it in the coverage of the Kadri stuff. Why not? I'm guessing because the aftermath doesn't paint Berube the way some want him to be presented in this argument. Here's more context. I think it matters.
BenFred: If only on-ice accountability was a requirement for all
STLtoday.comThose who used a hockey debate to spew hate should be held accountable -
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I love the combination of the new arrivals producing at the plate and the willingness of Marmol to reward that production. I'm not saying O'Neill, Bader, and Carlson are in danger of losing their jobs but wouldn't you agree that playing time is very much up for grabs in that clubhouse now, especially if a bat goes cold? Very different from the last few years where a Bader might be allowed to go 3-for30.
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I'm with you. I dig it. Oli Marmol is walking the talk. It should be energizing to the young guys who now know they have a chance, and motivating to the more "proven" guys who see chances slipping away if they don't perform. Will there be moments where Marmol shows more patience in some compared to others? Yes. But he's setting a real tone of competition this season, and following through on his claims that this team can be greater as a sum of its parts than by doing the same thing every game.
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We answer this question every week.Yes, it's in the bank.The lawyers have been paid.What comes next is figuring out who gets what among the plaintiffs and how the plaintiffs decide to spend/invest that money.Those conversations have not been finalized to my knowledge.There will obviously be a lot of debate about that topic along the way.It will be more of a news side story as the money fans out from here.
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I think we may have seen the last of Paul Dejong, both his artistic and analytical sides have failed to hit this year and he's doing much of the same at AAA. The offense looks better with Brendan Donovan getting on base at nearly a .500 clip and Juan Yepez's .900 OPS can they keep it up? The Outfield looks great when guys are hitting and Bader can be Bader in CF.
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There's nothing to change if DeJong is not hitting in Memphis and the young guys are producing in the majors. Question would then become what do the Cardinals do with DeJong, and what can they net for him in a trade that could help them at some point? I think you answered your own question, if things stay on this current path.
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He's got a year left on his contract so the Blues don't have to do anything they don't want. There has been speculation that he has decided he wants to stay, but he has not voiced that himself publicly that I'm aware of. It will come up after the season I'm sure -- if he does an interview before he departs. He has not always been a big fan of those in the past.
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Is Brendan Donovan going to get the chance to be an everyday player? He has been described as a utility player by the scouting reports. He seems to have a high baseball IQ and is producing. The only drawback I see is that he does not appear to have the arm strength to play SS. While he may not be a HR slugger, gap line drives are unfortunately too underrated these days. He seems to have that ability, underrated or not.
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Kadri controversy aside, watching this series it is unbelievable how much faster Colorado appears to be than the Blues and how much stronger on the puck. The Blues players can't create space and I have never seen them get knocked down so often and easily. Am I missing something or is every Colorado player faster and stronger than the fastest and strongest Blues player? Other than game 2, which seems like a mirage now, what is required for the Blues to match up with this team other than a huge increase in talent?
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I don't think Game 2 was a mirage. I think it was what the Blues can do against this really good team when they're locked in and playing their best. We saw it, and it worked. Blues were up in Game 3 when Binnington got hurt. Haven't seen them locked in and at their best since then. More like Game 1.
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I guess the Cards don’t have a problem moving Edman to SS and perhaps losing some defensive ability at second. Do you think the Gorman-Edman combo is the future, or will the Cards go shopping for a SS upgrade at some point. Did you see how Trevor Story hit 3 HRs the other night?
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At the risk of self-horn tooting, I told you all that "concern" was going to fade pretty quickly once the team decided to promote Gorman. It was mostly a stall tactic. Too early to predict the future, as evidenced by how the Cardinals first bet (Paul DeJong) has not worked out, but Gorman seems to be a part of the long-term plans and he, Donovan and Edman are for now all effective and cost-controlled. There are worse situations to have while operating in a find-out-what-these-guys-can-and-can't-do mode. Cardinals will look for answers within before pursing outside ones, almost always.
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I think whats been missing from the Blues is the ability to overcome adversity. During the cup run, we had the infamous hand pass during the Sharks series. The Blues rallied around that and won the series. It seems the makeup is different. Binnington going down flipped this series. You could see and feel the air let out the team.
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The Blues brought up that hand-pass game as something they could revisit after the Binnington injury. But they have not handled this that way. The hand-pass game, they were all on the same page. It was a non-topic. They turned the page immediately after the game. And followed through on that. The topic wound up wearing down the Sharks more than the Blues, honestly. But this was not that unified front. We saw it after Game 3. Berube and Binnington were mad. O'Reilly and Parayko were trying to downplay the collision. The Blues talked about not letting Kadri affect them in Game 4, then tried to fight him seconds in later sent two of their guys into the box because of their reaction to his shove of Perron later. There's a difference, of course, between a call that doesn't go your way on a hand pass and a call that doesn't go your way on a collision that created an injury to the team's most important player. But the Blues have not handled this with the hand-pass resiliency, despite referencing it.
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His base salary this season was $750,00 on a one-year deal but it included bonuses that could boost the total to $2 million, and the bonuses count against net season's cap. Games played and how far the Blues advance in the playoffs were a couple of the bonuses. He earned an extra million I think based on games played this season, per an article Jim Thomas wrote in November. Not sure what the breakdown of the playoff money is.
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Ben, last night we saw the Blues play their most important game of the year. 3 shots in the first period, 5 shots in the third ! Kyrou 0 shots, Thomas 0 shots, and both 0 hits. The team looked really awful last night. David Perron mentioned in his comments “people need to finish their checks”. So why can’t they ? This is the playoffs. And Ben, why is this team so fragile ? Thanks for your time.
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As we sit here at the quarter mark, and knowing only one team will win the World Series, what would you consider to be a successful season? If 2019 is an indicator there will be back slaps and extensions if they made the NLDS this year because it will be an improvement. But in my mind they need to make and be competitive in the NLCS for this season to be a success..
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The Cardinals have not won a playoff series since 2019. That's about as low as the bar can be for calling this season a success, I think. Beyond that, it's about how they play. Getting mowed down in the NLCS sweep by the Nats like they did in 2019 was not much of a showing.
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Hey Ben, any explanation for how the could the Blues have come out so flat and undisciplined last night? Another no-show by most of the forwards, and Perron turned fool goon throwing elbows and cheap shots at Kadri. The Binnington injury is obviously factor, but the team sure didn't seem to follow their own words about moving forward from that and focusing on the game.
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Yes, Blues appear to have lost their focus. And yes, losing Binnington was probably the final blow. A lot had to go right to beat this very good opponent. About the worst thing possible -- losing the best player on the team in a controversial matter -- happened instead. It will take a miracle now. But, that's why they play the games! That'll do it for me today. Cheers, all. Same time and place next week.