Thank you for these videos, I was out last night and couldn't really watch but I saw this develop from afar and of course knew you would have it up on YouTube for my watching pleasure
May I make a request? Can you screen cap Johansen picking his nose? You have a lot of options as the camera catches him picking it, playing with it and then dispensing it.
Man, that Andy McDonald sure is something isn't he? He just makes our team -so- much more dangerous.
Interesting tidbit. I was watching the Blues-Hawks game the other day and the announcer said something I didn't even realize. Other then Roman Polak, every defenseman we've iced for this homestand is a first round pick. I bring this up because it speaks directly to an article someone from the Post Dispatch wrote about, comparing the Oilers and the Blues rebuilds, and how the Oilers are exciting since they have all this offensive talent, but kinda suck. Yet the Blues don't really have an amazing offense, but they are playoff bound and possibly Cup potentials.
We built from the goalie out, they are building on the front end while leaving their D and goalie alone.
Man, that Andy McDonald sure is something isn't he? He just makes our team -so- much more dangerous.
Interesting tidbit. I was watching the Blues-Hawks game the other day and the announcer said something I didn't even realize. Other then Roman Polak, every defenseman we've iced for this homestand is a first round pick. I bring this up because it speaks directly to an article someone from the Post Dispatch wrote about, comparing the Oilers and the Blues rebuilds, and how the Oilers are exciting since they have all this offensive talent, but kinda suck. Yet the Blues don't really have an amazing offense, but they are playoff bound and possibly Cup potentials.
We built from the goalie out, they are building on the front end while leaving their D and goalie alone.
Some of that, I suspect, is circumstance though too.
For example, had the Blues had the first pick in 2008 do you believe they would have picked either Pie or Doughty ahead of him? I doubt it.
Similarly, would the Blues have picked Johnson had there not been so many character issues (real or imagined) with Kessel or if Toews had show a bit more?
While I have no doubt the Blues have made it their goal to build from the goaltender out, things may have been quite different had the draft circumstances been different.
Some of that, I suspect, is circumstance though too.
For example, had the Blues had the first pick in 2008 do you believe they would have picked either Pie or Doughty ahead of him? I doubt it.
Similarly, would the Blues have picked Johnson had there not been so many character issues (real or imagined) with Kessel or if Toews had show a bit more?
While I have no doubt the Blues have made it their goal to build from the goaltender out, things may have been quite different had the draft circumstances been different.
Yeah, I agree. I do think Pleau (who was still GM through the end of 2010) has always been a defense-out guy, and Kekalainen was a tie-goes-to-the-defenseman drafter, but as far as those very top-end picks, it was circumstance re: EJ and Pietrangelo.
Interestingly, had the Blues not needed offense so much in the first round of 2007, I'm convined they'd have taken Shattenkirk instead of Eller. They probably still take a chance on Perron but I don't know if they take both Shattenkirk and Cole. Shattenkirk was one of the guys they were VERY interested in at the time. But they needed an infusion of offense and went four forwards, one defender in the first 44 picks.
Seems like we won ugly, but considering we lost more than a few this year when completely outplaying opponents, I'll take it happily.
Anyone else notice that we've moved to 3rd in goal differential. Bos still leads at +58, Det is +55 and we are 3rd at +48. That's huge IMO.
Yes, I've been eyeing it. As bragging rights, it's cool. As a potential 3d tiebreaker, it really only comes into play with Detroit, since the Blues have already won the head to head with Vancouver and lost with Nashville. So first you have to assume if it's been reached then the Blues beat Detroit in regulation in their final meeting and the spread is no worse than 54-49. However, that just means IF there's a tiebreaker, then Detroit has caught up to the Blues, which implies they're winning and the Blues are losing some other games, which probably pushes the margin out a bit. Obviously a few nice routs would change the equation but I have a feeling as a tiebreaker it won't help us at the end of the day with Detroit. Hell of a lot closer than it was, though, that's for sure. I've definitely been watching it close up.
As for goal differential, isn't a stat typically indicative of the quality of a team? When Boston was cruising at the beginning of the year, many still had them as a better team than NYR because of the goal differential.
Our rise in the category, I think, shows that not only are the Blues winning but they're starting to really separate themselves from the middle of the pack of playoff teams.
As for goal differential, isn't a stat typically indicative of the quality of a team? When Boston was cruising at the beginning of the year, many still had them as a better team than NYR because of the goal differential.
Our rise in the category, I think, shows that not only are the Blues winning but they're starting to really separate themselves from the middle of the pack of playoff teams.
As a general rule of thumb, yes.
The point of the game is to score more goals than you give up, and (generally speaking) the best teams are going gradually accrue the better goal differentials as the season progresses. It's not a coincidence that almost all the playoff teams will have a positive goal differential, and almost all the non-playoff teams won't (with the best differentials clustered at the top of the standings and the worst ones at the bottom).
With that said, things change over the course of a season (via trades, injuries, etc.), statistical outliers do happen, etc. so their usefulness as a predictive tool for projecting specific results (say, for a playoff series matchup) is relatively limited.
