Re: Offseason & Draft Priorities
Posted: Thu Sep 14, 2023 3:59 pm
Really don't understand the Ritchie PTO, either.
After the final preseason game (in which almost all of the guys playing for roster spots saw significant ice time), Matthew Kessel cemented himself into going to Springfield. He was awful. Bolduc is definitely getting sent down also. Dean probably will, but he didn't play himself out of it. There are just veterans who were playing just as well, and if it's putting a bottom six guy on waivers or sending Dean down, Dean will likely get sent down. MacEachern looked good in his last game. Alexandrov was okay, but Dean has a higher upside, IMO. I'd even waive Alexandrov to give Dean the opportunity. LaFerriere didn't stand out in any way.
The one thing that did stand out was how the Blues were playing. The style was very reminiscent of how they played on the Cup run in 2019, locking down the opposition and preventing them from even getting into the Blues zone for significant stretches of time, and if there was a zone entry, it was too the outside, or dumped in a corner. No, it wasn't the whole game and there were significant breakdowns on occasion, largely when Kessel was on the ice, but that's another story. Binnington made one really horrible decision on the 1st goal he allowed, the other 2 he gave up were off deflections from shots above the circles, so he didn't look bad other than the one bad goal. Hofer only faced 2 shots in the 3rd period, due to the entire team locking down the ice. Forwards were coming back, defenseman were jumping up when needed, and the forwards covered correctly, and... really big news... Robert Thomas is shooting the puck. Don't know who got into his head finally, but if the preseason carries over to the regular season for him, he could have a huge year. When is the last time you ever read Thomas led the Blues in shots in any game?
And so far, the PP looked really good througout the preseason as did the PK, regardless of which players were involved. Hopefully, the preseason PK thing carries over after the disaster Craig MacTavish implemented last season.