St. Louis Blues 2010 Regular Season Thread

[lukethedrifter]

Theo, that makes no sense to look at it that way.

[longhornbaseball]

That's 244 goals from our top 9 forwards. If we can get even 190 from them this team will be rocking next year.

I think you should use the whole year for Stewart and Shattenkirk and you shouldn't prorate guys with less than ~40 games (like Perron). I think we can safely expect 20-30 goals from Backes, Berglund, Steen, Oshie, and Mcdonald; 30+ from Stewart; and 10+ from Petro and S'kirk. Only Philadephia and San Jose had six guys score more than 20 goals this year (SJ had 7). I think we have one of the deepest offensive cores in the game, we just lack the superstar. Maybe Stewart can be that guy.

In the 26 games Stewart and Shattenkirk were here the Blues scored 3.38 goals per game (as opposed to 2.76 without them). I don't know what other teams did during that time, but I'm sure that was among the best in the league.

Another little nugget, the Blues only allowed 2.53 goals per game when Oshie was in the lineup (3.15 without him). I think the defensive value of guys who are able to maintain puck possession in the offensive zone is often overlooked. Getting Perron back should help our defense as much as our offense.

In looking at the effectiveness of our defensive defenseman, here are the goals against numbers for Jackman and Polak:

Code: Select all

Player    Gms_In    Gms_Out   In_GA     Out_GA    GA/G_in   GA/G_out
Jackman   60        22        159       69        2.65      3.14
Polak     55        27        144       84        2.62      3.11
Both      42        40        108       120       2.57      3.00

Having Jackman or Polak (or both) in the lineup cut our goals allowed by almost half a goal per game. If those guys played the whole, year we could have saved an additional 17 goals. Injuries really ravaged this team.

[Lesson]

Marc Crawford was fired by the Stars today.

[Popeye_Card]

Sorta dumb firing. That isn't a very good team overall, and he had them in playoff contention nearly all year.

Not that an NHL coach matters much anyway.

[JackofDiamonds]

Sorta dumb firing. That isn't a very good team overall, and he had them in playoff contention nearly all year.

Not that an NHL coach matters much anyway.

How does an NHL coach not matter more than any other coach? Setting lines before the game and rotating them for the right matchups, developing systems for every zone and situation... I am confused.

[Popeye_Card]

Is setting lines/matchups/plays really that difficult that there is that much difference between coach A and coach B? You and I probably could not do it, but is there much difference between guys that have done it at the NHL level?

[MrCrowesGarden]

The Devils win the draft lottery and move up from 8 to 4. That means the Oilers retain the #1 overall pick, and the Blues pick at #11 will go to Colorado. We will get their 2nd rounder at pick #32 in 2011.

[JackofDiamonds]

Is setting lines/matchups/plays really that difficult that there is that much difference between coach A and coach B? You and I probably could not do it, but is there much difference between guys that have done it at the NHL level?

Yeah, great coaches implement completely different systems for every puck possession/zone. Not to get into a detailed list of the systems I was taught, but there was a huge difference just between my club team and my HS team, who lead the offensive zone forecheck, where the puck went after receiving the breakout pass on the half boards, where the weak side forward should be when the strong side point has the puck... etc. etc. . There's a reason Barry Trotz gets his team into the playoffs and Jacques Lemaire almost single handedly dragged the Devils out of the basement; one of the most interesting parts of HBOs 24/7 this season was seeing the difference between Bylsma and Boudreau.

[TheoSqua]

Theo, that makes no sense to look at it that way.

I was wasting time by looking at irrelevant statistics for entertainment purposes. I wouldn't read too much into it

[Leroy]

As I listen to whomever the nasally twit is on NBC announcing the Capitals and Rangers, I have come to realize how much I like Gary Thorne as a hockey announcer.