Non-Blues related 21-22 Regular Season thread

[glen a richter]

Unless Ottawa relocated somewhere in the west. Just for crissake not to some desert city. I’d rather see an NHL club move to Alaska than anywhere in the southwest.

[theohall]

Just wanted to point out Chicago is 5-1 since firing Colliton. Looks to me like his system was part of the problem. Just because it works in the SHL, doesn't mean it will work in the NHL. Ask Ralph Krueger, former Edmonton and Buffalo HC about it.

[glen a richter]

Habs fired Bergevin. That’s a net win for the organization, dude sucked as a GM.

[theohall]

Scott Mellanby was supposedly promised the next GM position when he re-signed as Assistant GM. Habs said no, so he resigned yesterday after 9 years with the organization.. Rumor is the Habs are talking to Jeff Gorton for a Hockey Ops position. No idea who they are actually considering as the next GM, though, other than the usual French Canadian thing the Habs always do limiting their pool of potential GMs.

[glen a richter]

The Flyers dumped Vigneault and replaced him on an interim basis with..... Mike Yeo.

Thoughts and prayers for the Flyers organization.

[theohall]

Talked to a Flyers fan - they think Rick Tocchet is going to be the longer term replacement.

Here's my question - Chuck Fletcher is the one whose saddled them with their current roster, current coaching staff, and current cap situation. He's basically re-created the Minnesota Wild (just different players), including the head coach he picked. How much rope does he get? Right now they have 3 players up on "Emergency Loan" basis and it's not because of Covid. I can't figure out why they haven't put Farabee on LTIR if he's out "week-to-week", with a shoulder injury and we know how what a PITA those are to recover from, when it would alleviate the need for all players being on "Emergency Loan". Whatever Fletcher doing reeks of circumventing waiver issues.

[theohall]

Boudreau is undefeated (6-0-0) as the Canucks head coach. Of course, we all know Boudreau is a great regular season coach. It's the playoffs which have always been his undoing.

Paul Maurice resigned as HC of the Jets. Dave Lowry named interim head coach.

Yeo is 3-2-1 with the Flyers. They had a momentary bump in scoring, but I suspect that team is going to fall back into doing what it was doing under Vigneault and continue to be massively inconsistent. It's a Chuck Fletcher built over-paid team, again.

[glen a richter]

Boudreau is undefeated (6-0-0) as the Canucks head coach. Of course, we all know Boudreau is a great regular season coach. It's the playoffs which have always been his undoing.

Paul Maurice resigned as HC of the Jets. Dave Lowry named interim head coach.

Yeo is 3-2-1 with the Flyers. They had a momentary bump in scoring, but I suspect that team is going to fall back into doing what it was doing under Vigneault and continue to be massively inconsistent. It's a Chuck Fletcher built over-paid team, again.

I've been waiting for Lowry to get a HC position. Let's see what he can do with it.

[theohall]

This could impact the Blues - well, it 100% will with any Canadian opponents on the near schedule - which pop up at the end of January... anyway...

I don’t think we can fully compensate for the problem. If in fact these attendance restrictions carry on for multiple weeks, there’s no way we can make up all those games or move or shift all those games. Like everything else, it’ll be a balancing act. As I said, the league and the other league partners are willing to be as cooperative as we can possibly be.

https://theathletic.com/3043502/2021/12 ... the-storm/

So my question - if the Canadian teams could not make up any more games on Dec 30th, WTF is going to happen now since MORE games are being postponed solely based on being in Canadian cities?? This makes NO damn sense when games are 100% happening in the US, but they magically cross a border and can't play in Canada due to "not enough fans" based on Canadian government restrictions????

Stanley Cup long term implications: Only Toronto matters as any kind of serious playoff team, so who gives a crap other than denying opponents the opportunity to earn points to improve their playoff position. We'll see what happens, but with an NHLPA rep and former NHL exec saying they can't make any more up back on Dec 30th, the NHL has an issue specifically related to Canadian teams. It's even more emphasized because it's solely Canadian home teams which impacts every non-Canadian teams travel issues, plus Canadian team road games. No idea how the NHL is going to "resolve" this, but my bet is an "adjusted" regular season record or the Cup won't end until mid-July.

[theohall]

Watching Nashville-Boston this afternoon. What is painfully evident, Nashville over forechecks. Boston's 2nd goal, the defenseman, who was the 3rd man up ice, has a TON of time to get Saros out of position. With any kind of reasonable back-check, a defenseman would not have the kind of time Mike Reilly did on the Bs 2nd goal.

A crazy aside - Yahoo Fantasy hockey - Saros is a top 10 point producer. Yes, a friggin' goalie is in the top 10 in fantasy points. Saros, IMO, is the most under-rated goalie in the NHL. Put him behind the Blues D, he'd be a shutout machine. Take any of the other top 10 goalies not named Saros and the Predators have at least 5 more regulation losses. Considering how the Predators top 2 lines don't back-check that well, it's even more impressive.(Yes, I said something positive about a Predators player)

[theohall]

And one more post...

Can someone explain why games are postponed in Canada?

If it were Canada making the rules, the OHL wouldn't be playing. If it were provinces making the rules, both Calgary and Edmonton should have home games postponed with both being in Alberta. Yet, Calgary is playing home games (including their opponents crossing the border), while Edmonton isn't playing home games, yet.

And Tanner Jeannot is the kind of player Blues fans would love, were he on the Blues.

[glen a richter]

The Canadiens hired an agent to be their new GM. If that works out as well for them as hiring an agent did for the Mets then I feel deep empathy for the Habs fans.

[theohall]

Chuck Fletcher given 'blank check' to fix Flyers

Seeing as Chuck Fletcher never mismanaged the Minnesota Wild by massively over-spending and creating a cap issue which resulted in him being fired, what could possibly go wrong? Or should I say what more could possibly go wrong for the Flyers?

To quote the Guinness dudes: BRILLIANT!!!

[theohall]

Does this sound familiar?

Calgary @ Columbus tonight: Calgary had 23 shots on goal in then 2nd period to Columbus 8. Shots 39 to 17 after 2... Columbus isn't playing as bad, but Calgary is flat out capitalizing whenever Columbus does anything wrong and the Bluejackets, like the Blues, simply aren't maintaining any consistent offensive zone time. The fact this is Calgary doing this in consecutive games, Sutter has the Flames doing something right defensively in the neutral zone that other teams need to counter. Not sure what, yet, but it's gotta be something.

At least the Blues get to be the rested team with the Flames on the back end of a road back-to-back this time.

[theohall]

Kinda silly stat from CGY @ CBJ: Merzlikins gave up 6 goals, but still had a .903 SV%. 56/62. Yes, 62 shots on goal.

[theohall]

This whole whatever happened to blatant interference being enforced? Just saw another really clear example of how it's being ignored. Marchment for Florida is skating behind the net with McNabb of Vegas in front of him. The puck is on the stick of another Vegas player where Marchment is trying to go. McNabb straight up reverse hits Marchment - puck nowhere near either of them directly in front of the ref - who ignores it. It was at the 10:30 mark of the 1st period of tonight's game if anyone cares to see it on ESPN+. (Don't feel like taking the time to make a video).

[theohall]

Florida Panthers really don't like their 3rd goalie options considering they just signed former Blues prospect Evan Fitzpatrick, who had been playing in the ECHL for the Greenville Swamp Rabbits, to a 1-year 2-way contract and immediately assigned him to their taxi squad, instead of calling up their current AHL goalie, Christopher Gibson, and waived the Jonas Johansson whom they had claimed off of waivers from the Avs in December.

[theohall]

Be grateful for the Blues broadcast crews on radio and television. I had the pleasure of listening to the Buffalo Sabres Radio Network today. During the 3rd. Toronto took a penalty. No idea who took it since apparently that is completely irrelevant to the radio crew if a Sabres player didn't take the penalty. And then, while play is live, they are busy doing ads over the sounds of sticks hitting pucks as the game is still being played. This was followed by dead air in a 3-2 hockey game, multiple times. It was awful. Heck, the Sabres 4th goal announcement might as well have been another ad with the massive lack of excitement from the radio crew. So be thankful for the quality of Blues broadcasts on both tv and radio.

[theohall]

Seemed like the best place for this. What happens to the Avs if Kuemper is out long term?

[glen a richter]

Seemed like the best place for this. What happens to the Avs if Kuemper is out long term?

They continue to kick ass and take names. That's one solid team, built to dominate in the playoffs and I'm still picking them to come out of the west.

If we're learning anything from the Rags/Pens series, it's that a nobody goalie can come out of god knows where and be decent enough behind an offensively talented team that they'll be just fine.

That said, if the Blues do advance I prefer them playing against an Avs team hurting in net instead of an Avs team that's 100%.