In the first month of the season, the St. Louis Blues are proving to be a pretty darn good hockey team. They have only one regulation loss in their first 12 games, going a sensational 9-1-2. That figures to a league-leading .833 points percentage.
They ran their current winning streak to seven games with back-to-back weekend road wins over the Boston Bruins and New York Rangers.
With them playing so well, I thought I'd dedicate this edition of the Monday 10 to the Blues. Here are 10 things that I like about the skaters from St. Louis.
1. GM Doug Armstrong made one sweet deal getting last spring's playoff hero from Montreal during the offseason. Jaroslav Halak has picked up where he left off in his new crease. The Slovak stopper is a near perfect 8-1-1 with a 1.46 goals against average and a .944 save percentage. Those are sweet numbers. Halak is the biggest reason why the Blues are allowing a league-low 1.42 goals per game.
2. Little-known Davis Payne was promoted to St. Louis from the club's AHL affiliate last January after team management decided to dismiss veteran head coach Andy Murray. The team responded to the change with a 23-15-4 record. Where Murray seemed to stifle the team's many young talents, Payne was willing to give them more room to grow -- and skate. He likes an up-tempo approach. Payne looks like the right coach at the right time in St. Louis.
3. The Blues definitely have a committee approach. No player is averaging more than Erik Johnson's 22:25 minutes per game. And, the Blues have 14 skaters (playing at least seven games) averaging more than 16 minutes per tilt. This team comes at you in waves.
4. For the first two-thirds of the 2009-10 season, the Blues didn't do much for the loyal fans in St. Louis, going 11-18-5 at the Scottrade Center. They turned things around late in the year, though; winning their last six at home. They've carried that run into this season, winning their first six home games. After visiting Columbus on Wednesday, the Blues will look to run that home string to seven against the Predators on Thursday.
5. Real teams can play at even strength. The Blues are definitely playing well at even strength. They lead the league with a 2.00 5-on-5 goals for/goals against ratio. This category is usually indicative of team success. The first eight teams in this category have a winning record.
6. Good teams also have a healthy shot differential. The Blues have that going for them, too. In the first 12 games, they're averaging 33.1 shots per game, while allowing 26.5 shots against. That's nearly seven shots more than their opponents per game. That tells you that they're holding a territorial advantage.
7. Young Alex Pietrangelo, selected with the fourth overall pick in the 2008 draft, is making an impact in his first full season in St. Louis. The 20-year-old defender is playing to a plus-7 rating with six assists, averaging nearly 20 minutes (19:35) per game. At 6-foot-3 and 206 pounds, Pietrangelo has good size to go along with puck skills and hockey smarts. I figure Erik Johnson and Pietrangelo will be cornerstones on the Blues' blue line for many years to come.
8. The league's real time stats aren't perfect. They're measured a little bit differently in each building. So, I'm sometimes wary to site them. But, I think they are consistent enough to give us a general idea about a team's performance in several different statistical categories. With that disclaimer, I'm impressed that the Blues have been credited with just 62 giveaways. That's the second fewest in the league. When you aren't giving away the puck, you aren't giving opponents unnecessary scoring chances.
9. I like teams that can finish strong. The Blues are doing just that. They've outscored their opponents, 10-4, in the third period. That's the sign of a well-conditioned team.
10. Acquired from the Leafs in 2008, the 26-year-old Alex Steen has developed into an underappreciated performer. After netting both goals in a 2-0 win over the Rangers in New York on Sunday, Steen has nine points and a plus-7 rating. An important offensive cog, he has two game-winning goals, a short-handed goal and he leads the club with 46 shots. All that and you rarely hear anyone outside of St. Louis mention his name.
Can you provide a link to whatever this is from?
lukethedrifter wrote:Can anybody sum up what Hradek said in his ESPN insider column?
In the first month of the season, the St. Louis Blues are proving to be a pretty darn good hockey team. They have only one regulation loss in their first 12 games, going a sensational 9-1-2. That figures to a league-leading .833 points percentage.
They ran their current winning streak to seven games with back-to-back weekend road wins over the Boston Bruins and New York Rangers.
With them playing so well, I thought I'd dedicate this edition of the Monday 10 to the Blues. Here are 10 things that I like about the skaters from St. Louis.
1. GM Doug Armstrong made one sweet deal getting last spring's playoff hero from Montreal during the offseason. Jaroslav Halak has picked up where he left off in his new crease. The Slovak stopper is a near perfect 8-1-1 with a 1.46 goals against average and a .944 save percentage. Those are sweet numbers. Halak is the biggest reason why the Blues are allowing a league-low 1.42 goals per game.
2. Little-known Davis Payne was promoted to St. Louis from the club's AHL affiliate last January after team management decided to dismiss veteran head coach Andy Murray. The team responded to the change with a 23-15-4 record. Where Murray seemed to stifle the team's many young talents, Payne was willing to give them more room to grow -- and skate. He likes an up-tempo approach. Payne looks like the right coach at the right time in St. Louis.
3. The Blues definitely have a committee approach. No player is averaging more than Erik Johnson's 22:25 minutes per game. And, the Blues have 14 skaters (playing at least seven games) averaging more than 16 minutes per tilt. This team comes at you in waves.
4. For the first two-thirds of the 2009-10 season, the Blues didn't do much for the loyal fans in St. Louis, going 11-18-5 at the Scottrade Center. They turned things around late in the year, though; winning their last six at home. They've carried that run into this season, winning their first six home games. After visiting Columbus on Wednesday, the Blues will look to run that home string to seven against the Predators on Thursday.
5. Real teams can play at even strength. The Blues are definitely playing well at even strength. They lead the league with a 2.00 5-on-5 goals for/goals against ratio. This category is usually indicative of team success. The first eight teams in this category have a winning record.
6. Good teams also have a healthy shot differential. The Blues have that going for them, too. In the first 12 games, they're averaging 33.1 shots per game, while allowing 26.5 shots against. That's nearly seven shots more than their opponents per game. That tells you that they're holding a territorial advantage.
7. Young Alex Pietrangelo, selected with the fourth overall pick in the 2008 draft, is making an impact in his first full season in St. Louis. The 20-year-old defender is playing to a plus-7 rating with six assists, averaging nearly 20 minutes (19:35) per game. At 6-foot-3 and 206 pounds, Pietrangelo has good size to go along with puck skills and hockey smarts. I figure Erik Johnson and Pietrangelo will be cornerstones on the Blues' blue line for many years to come.
8. The league's real time stats aren't perfect. They're measured a little bit differently in each building. So, I'm sometimes wary to site them. But, I think they are consistent enough to give us a general idea about a team's performance in several different statistical categories. With that disclaimer, I'm impressed that the Blues have been credited with just 62 giveaways. That's the second fewest in the league. When you aren't giving away the puck, you aren't giving opponents unnecessary scoring chances.
9. I like teams that can finish strong. The Blues are doing just that. They've outscored their opponents, 10-4, in the third period. That's the sign of a well-conditioned team.
10. Acquired from the Leafs in 2008, the 26-year-old Alex Steen has developed into an underappreciated performer. After netting both goals in a 2-0 win over the Rangers in New York on Sunday, Steen has nine points and a plus-7 rating. An important offensive cog, he has two game-winning goals, a short-handed goal and he leads the club with 46 shots. All that and you rarely hear anyone outside of St. Louis mention his name.
Can you provide a link to whatever this is from?
lukethedrifter wrote:Can anybody sum up what Hradek said in his ESPN insider column?
You're not supposed to post content from another site without a way to navigate to the content's original page. It's stealing instead of sharing.
The thing I can't help but notice about this start is the Blues are playing a boat load of mamby pamby teams so far. Philly, Boston, Anaheim is moving up the rankings, Nashville is regressing a bit, Dallas looks decent...
I think every team they've played is at .500 or better so far. That might speak to why they aren't scoring as much as we would like. But it also adds some credibility to the record.
BigDCardlvr wrote:Strength of schedule? Anyone know?
The thing I can't help but notice about this start is the Blues are playing a boat load of mamby pamby teams so far. Philly, Boston, Anaheim is moving up the rankings, Nashville is regressing a bit, Dallas looks decent...
I think every team they've played is at .500 or better so far. That might speak to why they aren't scoring as much as we would like. But it also adds some credibility to the record.
BigDCardlvr wrote:Strength of schedule? Anyone know?
The thing I can't help but notice about this start is the Blues are playing a boat load of mamby pamby teams so far. Philly, Boston, Anaheim is moving up the rankings, Nashville is regressing a bit, Dallas looks decent...
I think every team they've played is at .500 or better so far. That might speak to why they aren't scoring as much as we would like. But it also adds some credibility to the record.
Pretty sure you mean " are not".
Yes, thank you. they are NOT playing mamby pamby teams...
ESPNs Relative Power Index uses the following:
Formula: 25% team winning percentage, 50% opponents' average winning percentage, and 25% opponents' opponents' average winning percentage. In figuring winning percentage, ties count as half a win and half a loss.
The sad thing is, they really don't have a huge lead in the standings to show for their incredible performance.
There's 7 teams within 4 points of the Blues with one more game played. So if the Blues lose a few games due to their lack of scoring, goal-tending coming back to earth, poor special teams play, etc. they're right back in the middle of the pack.
It's really a shame that such a phenomenal start to the season hasn't really given them more of a buffer than it has.
edit: though on the plus side, this team can go 35-35 for the rest of the season and still hit the same number of points they had last season.
Hockey-reference.com has the Blues' strength of schedule ranked 13th. Their methodology is based off of goals scored/allowed rather than winning percentage.
Blues need to take care of the awful PP%, and the goal scoring will take care of itself. The 5 on 5 play has been strong, but not so strong (offensively) that you would categorize as unsustainable.
Save% is probably the biggest stat category that is a fluke right now. Shots against is low, but sustainable. PK% is above average but very sustainable.
They have the Blues at 99.9% for playoffs and the Bruins at 100%. These numbers are silly (they only run the simulations 1,000 times), but its still shows how much this start will help them in regards to the playoffs. To hit 95 points the Blues have to play like an 88 point regular season team the rest of the way. That's well below their true talent level.
