Welcome to the second installment of me talking about hockey things, both Blues-related and otherwise. It’s been a relatively active week around the league, so we have some good things in store. Thanks to all 4 of you who have been reading what we’ve put out so far. Thomas and I deeply appreciate it, and we hope you’re enjoying it too. Now let’s get into the action…
The Blues—Another Tumultuous Week
This week, much like Week 1, showed us some serious strengths and some serious weaknesses in St. Louis. The Blues ended up going 2-1-1 on the week, picking up a regulation win each against the Sharks and the Kings to go with a shootout loss to the Sharks and an abysmal regulation loss to the Kings last night, in which the Blues lacked urgency for ~50 of 60 minutes. Here are some developments that are worth discussing:
Special teams leveling out, but still bad. Both the penalty kill and power play are in the bottom quadrant of the league, ranking 4th and 3rd worst in the league, respectively. Surprisingly, both of these numbers improved over the course of the week. At a certain point though—and I’m not a coach, so bear with me here—why not change up the personnel? Maybe sending out the same guys that can’t do the job effectively isn’t the best strategy.
Jordan Kyrou. The brightest of the week’s bright spots is without a doubt Jordan Kyrou, the young gun that finally seems to have bridged the gap between having potential and reaching that potential. He has 6 points in 6 games. He has a team-best penalty differential, having drawn 2 penalties and taken none. Of players that have played all 6 games, he leads the team in xGF% and FF%, proof that while he’s on the ice the Blues dominate play. Beyond the numbers, it’s clear that Kyrou has developed a lot as a player off the puck, both in terms of his effort level and his awareness. He’s the fastest skater on the team, and he’s gotten stronger. This team would be in a much worse position this season without Kyrou having taken these big steps forward.
Fourth line needs to change. Before Sunday’s game, the Clifford-Barbashev-Sundqvist line had played 17.78 even strength minutes together over the course of 4 games. Over that time, they have not scored a goal, controlled only 21.43% of unblocked shot attempts, and had a 7.5 xGF% (!!!), a number so bad that I didn’t believe it at first. That means that the Blues are expected to be outscored at a pace higher than 9-1 when this line plays together. None of these guys are playing that badly individually, but for whatever reason they just forget how to play hockey when all three are on the ice together. The fourth line needs to change.
Goaltending updates. Jordan Binnington continues to prove me wrong, putting up a .938 even strength save percentage through 5 games, good for 8th out of all goalies that have played more than 1 game. That’s hard to complain about. Binnington has also saved 2.06 goals above average at even strength, which is the 4th-best mark in the entire league. I’m still skeptical, but that’s due to my own stubbornness and not Jordan’s play this season thus far. Ville Husso made his first start last night, and I think this one should also be collectively forgotten. He looked shaky at first but settled in, and I think some nerves can be forgiven to anyone making their first NHL start. His team also did him no favors. We’ll see how Husso plays moving forward, but so far he hasn’t given the indication that he can be a reliable backup, as much as it pains me to admit. Fortunately, the Blues have a habit of turning backup goaltenders into starters, so I’m holding out hope for my boy Ville.
Around the League
The Blue Jackets and Jets made a pretty big trade. The Blue Jackets sent disgruntled top line center Pierre-Luc Dubois and a third round pick to Winnipeg, getting back goal scoring machine Patrik Laine and Columbus native Jack Roslovic. I think this is a trade that has the potential to work out well for both sides, but to me the Blue Jackets come out on top here. I’m a big Patrik Laine fan, and while he might not be the “next Alex Ovechkin” that he was thought to be, he’s still been one of the league’s best goal scorers since being drafted. There is one potential red flag in my eyes: a common concern with Laine was that he was struggling to reach his full potential due to the players he had been playing with in Winnipeg; I don’t see that issue being resolved in Columbus, in fact it might even be a step down. Finally, it’s hilarious to me that all of these players that didn’t want to be where they were switch places, all getting fresh starts but all still playing in places that players have a history of not wanting to be. Grass is always greener, I guess.
Vancouver is shockingly bad. It’s not really a surprise that the Canucks look worse than they did last season, but they are sitting only above the Senators in the North—a much worse start than anticipated. With a 2-5-0 record, the league’s worst goal differential (-13), and its stars nowhere to be found, things are starting to enter crisis mode in Vancouver. It’s probably safe to assume that Elias Petterson will start playing like the superstar he is, Quinn Hughes will elevate back up to Norris-conversation level, and the goaltending tandem of Holtby and Demko will stabilize the team. But until the top players step up, the rest of the roster doesn’t have the power to lift this team into contention. Luckily, there are still plenty of games left to play.
Mike Babcock. The former head coach re-entered the public eye for the first time in over a year, since being fired by the Maple Leafs and promptly accused of verbally abusing and emotionally manipulating some players, dating all the way back to his Red Wings days. All these accusations were corroborated and the stories confirmed by other players that were in those locker rooms. This week, The Athletic’s Pierre Lebrun, a typically respected reporter and one of the league’s most plugged-in insiders, dropped a puff-piece “interview” with Babcock, essentially with the sole purpose of clearing his name before his debut on NBC later in the week. The interview was nothing more than pathetic, with Babcock brushing off or even flat-out denying the accusations, even stooping as low as to say that he felt terrible himself about being accused. Lebrun had no meaningful follow-up questions and did not hold Babcock accountable in the least. Flash forward to Sunday, when Babcock makes his broadcasting debut in the studio on NBC—on national television—at noon. Not surprisingly, the brief conversation had about the Babcock accusations was more of the same. Despite what the mainstream hockey media is trying to force-feed us, we cannot let Babcock’s blatant mistreatment of his players go forgotten, especially not without a single shred of remorse. NBC: get this freak off my TV.
All stats from Evolving-Hockey unless otherwise noted.
Brendan Komp (@brendanperson)
Neutral Zone Trap 