Puck Watching
A hockey podcast centered around the St. Louis Blues. Two brothers host your premier talk show featuring prominent guests and thought-provoking discussion.
Puck Watching
Blues 4 Game Recap + Trade Rumors and Prospects!
The latest episode captures a rollercoaster week for the St. Louis Blues, filled with wins and gut-wrenching losses. We analyze critical performances, discuss team dynamics, and reflect on players' challenges while looking ahead to upcoming tournaments and the season's future.
• Overview of the week’s games and team performance
• In-depth look at individual player contributions
• Analysis of games against Utah, Edmonton, Florida, and Chicago
• Examination of social media interactions and referee discussions
• Preview of the Four Nations tournament and its implications for players
• Closing thoughts on team growth and key strategies moving forward
Well, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to episode two of Puck Watching STL. We hope that you had a wonderful week watching some four games of blues hockey. Right, four or five games, now Four, four, yeah, four games of some interesting Blues hockey. Not a lot of success, but some success, considering that we got the four-game losing streak out of the way, thank you. But that went to a two-game losing streak to Edmonton and the Panthers, and then last night with an interesting game against Chicago, to say the least.
Speaker 1:But we're happy to be with you today and we're not going to be necessarily recapping all of these extremely in-depth, but we are going to go through some of them and see kind of where we're at as a team in terms of playoffs maybe and all of those implications. So, right, when we left you on Sunday, we got the chance to see the Utah Hockey Club and we weren't entirely certain, I think, going into that one, what was going to happen. We weren't entirely certain, I think, going into that one, what was going to happen. We, you know we had not had some success against Utah and we weren't sure what was going to go on. But honestly, it was a really tight game from the Blues and they ended up, I think, hanging in there with them, and Utah hung them, hung in with them as well. But and we talked about it Texier was going to get some more playing time after the Brandon sod thing, and here he is with a goal, his first one of the uh, or I don't know.
Speaker 1:Well, his first one in a long time. Um, I know he hasn't had too many on the board.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're talking Texier, or yeah, texier? Yeah, yeah, texier, sorry, definitely. Also, happy Super Bowl Sunday. Yeah, it's a holiday as far as I'm concerned. We should have the day off tomorrow, but we don't. I think that's something. Maybe an administration should change, but that's okay. Utah, where dreams go to die for the blues, I don't. I don't remember if we had ever won, whether it's in Phoenix when they were playing as the coyotes, or now in Utah. Just not a lot of success. Uh, they played. I thought they played. I thought they played really well. Uh, this game, it was a sight for sore eyes from my perspective. I was a bit disheartened once they tied it up in the third. I didn't know if we were going to be able to actually pull it out after that, but really resilient and um, kairu ended up getting the go-ahead goal there and, and a bit sweaty of an ending to that game, to say the least, I think they had a post.
Speaker 2:Yes they did. Yeah, but Benner played really well. No problems with his performance there and I thought we were going to be able to ride some momentum out. But that leads us to our next game.
Speaker 1:Well, you know. What's interesting, though, is that we were criticizing the move from Bannister or, excuse me God, from Montgomery of. You have to keep track of having Matthew Joseph on that second line, and he actually had four shots in that game and he didn't score in the game, but it was the most. It was tied for most on the team shots in that game and he didn't score in the game, but it was tied for most on the team in that game. So he was getting some opportunities on that second line and I think he's like and obviously he scored last night for the first time since October, which is crazy, but I think he's been playing pretty well and he wasn't playing on the second line last night, but his play in that game and the way he's stepping up and getting at least a little bit of offense generated, I think has been impressive from him.
Speaker 2:I like his game. I think I said this on the last one. I do like the way he plays. I'm not sure he's the most skilled guy in the world, where he should be warranting a second line pairing but I like his bursts. Like he brings in a lot of effort and I think that can be a of an advantage for a team like the blues. That just needs a spark, I feel like all the time to really get them going, but I don't have I don't have a problem with the way they're using them right now, especially when he's being productive and that continued, obviously throughout the week for him, so it was good to see.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's fitting for him. He's a longtime NHL vet and he's had some good seasons in the past and he really just hasn't been able to get it going this year in terms of the offense consistently. But that's not necessarily totally his fault, considering he hasn't really played all that much. He's been healthy, scratched a lot. So, edmonton the thing that was really interesting about this game is that I had no idea that Nick Letty would make a return from the dead. I I cause we talked about the injury saga was incredible to watch because we had no idea what was happening. And lo and behold, nick Letty's back in the lineup. When I turned it on I'm like, oh, this should be real interesting and I thought he played pretty well and like, not that I was, he played pretty well and like not that I was expecting him to play, you know, really badly or really good, like I think he just kind of did his normal role that he had on that. He never really catches anybody off guard. He's not the flashiest guy in the world.
Speaker 2:You weren't expecting him to move into a role where he's going to be scoring, you know, a couple goals a game. He's just nick letty, you know just maybe, maybe sometimes reliable back there.
Speaker 1:But nothing, nothing flashy, nothing flashy.
Speaker 2:And you wouldn't notice if he came back in which I really honestly didn't yeah, well, yeah, I.
Speaker 1:So the the issue with me in this game was robert thomas we talked about in my last episode is that he had so many chances and I actually I've never seen a guy with so many chances and not capitalizing like that in a long time, like it's just back and forth back like every single time that he'd be in the office. Like credit him, he's generating chances with his line, but he just could not capitalize on them. And it's and the one when they went down. Third with the one time, with the one timer, or sorry, when they were up in the in the third and they and he misses the one timer that he could have gone up, could have gone up. Uh, two on oil, on the oilers. Like you gotta get that home and it's it's wide open net I'll tell you what, though.
Speaker 2:Well, I do want to acknowledge that his pass to pareko on the second goal was oh yeah, it was a great pass.
Speaker 2:That that's why we love Robert Thomas. But after that I think that play pretty much happened right after that goal was scored and Booch just puts it on a platter and Thomas winds up like he's about to hit this thing 90 miles an hour and he's literally right in front of the goal wide open, and I'm like like why are you, why are you wanting to hit such an aggressive slap shot like right there? But you know, that's just, I guess, a monday morning quarterback type of thing, and the body language on him and pooch after he missed that shot was honestly hilarious and mean. You got to acknowledge like so much frustration there for him and he's just like are you freaking, kidding me? And I mean I don't know what was going on in his brain or how he missed that shot, but you can tell it's plaguing both him and Booch so badly right now and it is a little bit funny just to see how things compile for them in the last few games it is.
Speaker 1:I I think I'm glad we're laughing about this because it's. I think we know that it's sort of uncare, like it's.
Speaker 1:I wouldn't say it's uncharacteristic of thomas, but no, it's just, it's just kind of the way things have been going and the, the offensive struggles are, are really, really tough to watch and I think the the Blackhawks game last night is another story when it comes to offense. But we saw this week just the struggle with that and the execution and finishing and unfortunately that's what you have to do, but I think, getting in more to the weeds with Edmonton. So I thought Bennington was sharp, uh, in that first period, um, and but again with uh, kairu and pareko having goals about in between, like three minutes with each with each other and then, but pareko is the only d man in the nhl with over 10 goals and over hundred blocks. That guy is, has been a sensational player and we talked about it the first episode. But I again emphasize, more against a connor mcdavid and leon dry saddle team that can just skate wherever it wants and around you or wherever, and you're not going to do much about it. But preco did a phenomenal job against those guys, these guys.
Speaker 2:I thought he's been great. I don't have any problems with preko's play besides that one pass last night, but we can talk about that later. Uh, I was a bit confused when I was watching the game in the first period. I know that they're very good and they're probably going to be able to do most things and what however they want, but the entries into the zone that the blues were allowing from them, I'm like that's got to be one a and trying to stop the Oilers is not allowing them just to, for McDavid especially, but dry sidled to just to skate right into the zone with like little to no resistance. And that first period was just pretty brutal. Uh, I know the blues had their fair share of chances there, but I'd say mostly lackluster. But that what was it? The? Was it the second period that they really turned the that game?
Speaker 2:despite being outshot just due to the things that we mentioned about Rob. I think Texier had another good chance and Bolduc also had another good chance, really in a sequence of like two or three minutes right after they scored the go-ahead goal. So really unfortunate. And then they end up giving up another goal. Dry sidle was it dry sidle? Just a pill from mcdavid? It was an absolute missile. Yeah, I mean tough, tough one to stop.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I I'm not gonna blame them, but again, it's just one of those things like they did it against vegas at vegas, where they gave up these empty net goals and you're like gosh, is this just a characteristic of the team where they're just going to give up a bunch of late goals while they pulled it? I can't remember the last time we scored an empty net goal, and that's also because we don't win anymore, but I don't really. I don't remember the last time we scored an empty netter. It was probably booch, because he can't score real goals at the moment, so I'm not sure. But then overtime comes. I did want to bring this up because I thought it was very fun. I haven't gotten in one in a long time, but I got in a little twitter spat because the obvious holding call on oh yeah, on rob from dryisaitl.
Speaker 2:It was extremely blatant and I didn't understand how it wasn't called. I know the Oilers fans were upset about a call that was called against them, I think in the second or third period Doesn't matter, penalties should be called regardless. I don't really care what happened earlier in the game, but he gets held at center ice and Rob goes down. It probably would have led to a pretty good scoring opportunity for the Blues. Doesn't mean they would have scored. But come on and there's a linesman that's looking right at the play and I see the picture of it after the game, when they had already lost, and I'm like God ref's looking right at it. They had already lost and I'm like God refs looking right at it. And these Oilers fans started spamming me in the responses saying that's a linesman, that's a linesman, that's a linesman, you can't call it. You can't call it and I'm like, hmm, let's investigate. So I plugged it into ChatGPT. I scoured the internet for how linesmen can influence or not influence calls and they cannot call it. So they're not wrong that he can't put his hand up and say, hey, that was an egregious holding call. I know I'm not supposed to do it, but I'm going to call it. He can't actually do that. However, he can literally, if there's a stoppage of play or communicate via a headset with his headset that that needs to be called and can exercise influence to the main referees to call a penalty.
Speaker 2:And these and I got into a really big argument with one guy who wasn't even an oilers fan, so I don't know why he cared that much, and he said that he was a referee and he was like in that moment of the game it would never have been called. And I'm like I don't really care about that context. Is it allowed? Like are they allowed to have any influence over that call or not? And he seemed to just insinuate, like well, it would never be called. I'm like I don't know. I don't know. That's not really my question. I'm saying like is it a possibility if there was a stoppage to play, which there was a stoppage of play like 30 seconds after that, if you'd be able to determine to call a holding penalty if it was that egregious, especially and I think I was vindicated, that's my long-winded answer of saying I think I was right, but a lot of Matt Oilers fans in the comments.
Speaker 1:I saw your little Twitter spat about that, and I I would say that I think, when it, when you talk about the characteristics of a holding penalty, it seemed like it would be, but I also, though, think that it may be one of those calls that just kind of goes forgotten a lot in a game and is not called. So I'm not going to be like obviously I was really frustrated when it wasn't called and a couple of seconds later, or maybe a minute later, you know, dry saddle gets the OT goal, like that was upsetting, but I think a lot of those calls go uncalled for a lot of the game, and I you know, and also holding is. So to me is is one of the more subjective calls in the nhl and it's tough to call um I I know that one of the calls that I'm criticized the most is definitely that, like because you know it's just you're either holding the stick or maybe holding on to his body, and sometimes it's like, ah, he was just holding on to him for like two seconds and it's just physicality.
Speaker 2:That one just seems so egregious, though, like he literally fell down because of the hold and it's three on three, so it's not like there's five bodies out there on each team like clouding the play. It's very clear. So you have a very good line of sight into the each player and what they're doing with their hands. So that's the only reason. I thought it was just very blatant, because there's just not a lot of bodies to block, so referees should have very good vision into what was going on during the play yeah, no, I, I understand, I I almost kind of want to see it again, just uh, because it was bad, especially if you slow it down.
Speaker 2:It was definitely bad, at least for my opinion yeah, because you posted it.
Speaker 2:Um, yeah, I forget that's not the reason the blues lost. Like I'm not gonna like hang my hat and say, oh, blues lost because he didn't call that. So I'm not gonna throw that up as an excuse because no, lost that game. I mean the way mc way McDavid burned the living crap out of Dylan Holloway when he was skating down the ice. I honestly he still might be biting on that one-two that McDavid threw at him during overtime on Tuesday. I don't think Holloway's recovered because he got burned the living crap out of and it was sweet, it was cool to watch but brutal to see as a blues fan.
Speaker 1:Okay, here we go, I'm gonna, I'm gonna present this real quick here's the call first, first presentation first presentation. Um, all right, here we're gonna, we're gonna do this. So this is the call blues muse you love. This is who I responded to yeah you see, right here I mean come on, I want to see that again clear. Yeah, I mean, he definitely is grabbing onto it. And if he's able to turn on that puck.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know, it is what it is. I'm not going to gripe about it anymore. I just like getting into it because everyone's like, oh no, you have to put your hands up as a linesman because you can't do anything about it. I'm like I just know that's not true. That was my point.
Speaker 1:No, I understand that. I think it's tough and you hate to see that happen, especially in overtime in a game where you need to win that game against a team that's definitely better than you, and you know you lose it and you would have loved to have the call. But you know, it's Connor McDavid, it's Leon Dreisadl, it's these guys who I mean. It's Conor McDavid, it's Leon Dreisadl, it's these guys who I mean. It's not even just those guys. You know Zach Hyman and Evan Bouchard. All these guys are really good players and they're just a better team than St Louis. That's, I think, fair and square to say. And unfortunately you can't do anything about that. Yeah, it's unfortunate, but, um, interesting way, yeah, the, the panthers. Uh, you pick up a point edmonton and then you're like, okay, you could have gotten two, but one's fine. And the panthers, you know, lost their last two to Florida, and so previous Stanley Cup champions and they're a very good team still. And you also match up against Spencer Knight, not Sergey Bobrovsky. So that's, you know.
Speaker 1:Things are putting in the right direction here, but kind of not how it went, in my opinion. You know Bolduc got on the board nicely. Love to see that. Young guys talked about it Texier and him both get on the board this week Fantastic. But what I saw in that game was a Florida team who just knew how to play the Blues tight and very well defensively, and the Blues didn't get much opportunity, especially in that third period. But I I just didn't think that you could see and, by the way, blues had a nice job of it too in the third period, they, they shut down Florida, and in some good ways, but also Florida shut us down more.
Speaker 2:Throughout that whole game I thought yeah, the first period wasn't as bad as the third in terms of shot generation and attempts. Panther we got on the board first, went up 1-0. I thought I was there, I was at the game, yeah, and you know great time. But it was really frustrating, especially in the third but the first, when they went up, I was like, okay, maybe this is a good sign. And then really, I mean, they lost all of the pressure that they had applied and earlier in the first and Panthers really brought it on Hofer, despite giving up those two goals in the first. And Panthers really brought it on Hofer despite giving up those two goals in the first. He played really really well. I mean, asking a goalie to make some of the saves that he did, it's just crazy and we haven't been able to say that a lot I feel like about Bennington and Hofer because they just haven't been as good this year. But he stood on his head the entire game and I thought he played fantastic.
Speaker 2:Now in the second, the blues I thought were a much better team.
Speaker 2:I know the shot attempts or shots on goal were like nine eight to the blues. I think the the chances the blues had were much better than the panthers in the second and they were ended up being able to tie the game on a sunny deflection goal from Rob, on a power play, which I had to chug a beer as a consequence, which was a promise I made to the people. So that was promising and they looked good the entire second and I thought it was going to be a good third. And the third period came around and I felt like I was going a bit crazy because they had three shots on goal. I don't remember any of those three shots because it just seemed like there was literally nothing going and I'm not going to say the Panthers had ample opportunities to score, because they didn't. Most of the game was played in the neutral zone, but the Panthers had a lot more than the blues and the blues had virtually nothing. Yeah, and I couldn't really believe that they were so flat and offensively disabled like they were.
Speaker 1:I thought it was crazy yeah, I mean again, you speak to the skill level of this team, like sam reinhardt, matthew kachuk, alexander barkoff, sam bennett, you know, for haig and chuck, like all those, all those guys, and even their aaron neckblad, like having those guys, as you know, your main core of guys, compared to our core of guys, it's just not the same and it's so, you're not. So you're obviously going to get, you know, better results with that squad more often than not and we just don't see and we don't see that type of core with the blues right now. It's just too young and that's a really, you know, uh, veteran core who's already won a cup and has been to two cup finals or two deep runs in the playoffs, um, and but I, I agree, I, I saw that some similar stuff to you, I think in the third period. It just was tight and then obviously you had the late goal and that was demoralizing.
Speaker 1:I felt for you. Oh, my god, I can imagine, you know. What I imagine is that you were standing in those seats and you know when, when, um, tom calhoun, the pa guy's time to get on your feet, blues fans, and you're on your feet, and then I could just see like, right, when was that Kachuk that scored that goal? Yeah, that last one. Yeah, when Kachuk scores that goal, it's just your head just droops down and I felt for you when I was watching that.
Speaker 2:It was a tough one to swallow. You're really just hoping that they park the bus and can force this into overtime, because they had no shot at winning in regulation given their third period performance offensively. So everyone was on pins and needles just hoping that they can do it, myself included and they did not. Kind of a fluky goal. I think hofer actually owned up to it in the presser after and said that he should have saved it. I don't really blame him for that one. He made a ton of saves that he probably had no business making and they avoided some goals that probably should have been in the back of the net. So hindsight, like you, wish they could have gotten a point. They did not deserve to win the game.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I think you pointed out something good, though. Hofer had a much better game. He hadn't been playing very well recently and he played very well. And you have to play well against Florida to even have a chance of winning, but that save in the first period was awesome. It was awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he made a few of those. I really believe. Yeah, he was awesome, and the blues have to have to thank their lucky stars that he was in that, because they had no shot at winning that game if it wasn't for him.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree with you. So then you have the black Hawks, and the old retro winter classic jerseys are out.
Speaker 2:I thought that was interesting that they threw those back on.
Speaker 1:I will say I love those jerseys. They're not as cool as the Bush Stadium, obviously alternate ones that we use now, basically but I like them. I don't really like how the Blackhawks had red on our turf. I didn't like that Um, but that's beside the point Um, again, um, Going down 2-0 in the first period. God help me, but again, would you really have expected something different? Obviously, Blackhawks are a bad team, but just in the way the Blues have been playing recently, I feel like that going down that way, it's like I could have expected this.
Speaker 2:I don't know. I feel like the only team that the blues actually do complete comebacks pretty regularly against are the chicago blackhawks. So I've always found it funny they they are historically so so, so, so bad after losing after the first period, but when it comes to playing the blackhawks, I don't think that rule applies to them. So I honestly was not thinking they were out of it at all when they went down 2-0 because the Blackhawks suck.
Speaker 2:So, I know that they had an opportunity to come back, which they did, but Pareko had a horrible turnover for that second Blackhawks goal. I think Neighbors had a turnover for the first one. Yes, I got to say and this is a side note, just watching so many of the games recently the Blues have to have the most giveaways in their own zone of any team in the NHL. I would love to see an advanced stat. I would love to see several stats that track stuff like that, whether it's giveaways, giveaways in their own zone, other teams takeaways.
Speaker 2:I would love to know because they do such a poor job of breaking out. Almost every game they go through lulls where they're not able to get the puck and break out, and when you're not able to do that, it's so hard to generate offense, and that's what the problem was in Florida when F or when Florida was here on Thursday. They cannot complete breakouts and get it out of their zone effectively and other teams can against us all the time. So I've noticed that's just become such a huge problem where they're giving it up in their own zone, they're not able to push the puck out and they're not able to get clean exits. And it's so frustrating to watch, because if they're able to put that together, I'm sure things would go a little bit better for them. But that also is the difference between a good, good and bad team, so I guess I can't be too upset at it yeah, so it says the edmonton oilers have the most giveaways by a team I tried to look it up.
Speaker 2:That was for last year.
Speaker 1:They don't have all of last year yeah, it last year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was last year. So it's not always the worst teams that turn the puck over. A lot, as I've learned Right, but they've got to be so bad at it I would imagine they have to be.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's pretty bad sometimes and I think it, but the problem is that it's hard to say that it's really coming from the defense all that much because I think a lot of the time. Well, okay, well, we talked. Yeah, falk is, I think, an exception, but the forward core, though, when they're breaking out, is, I think, a little unorganized with it.
Speaker 2:Oh, I think they're just as much to blame, probably not more. I just would love to know what they talk about in film, because it's got to be hit on all the time about exits and trying to get out of the zone cleanly. It just doesn't seem like they're ever able to, except on rare occasions.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I think when the occasional Falk or Pareko or Fowler will connect with Kairou skating up the wing. That's my favorite play that they have, but it works 5% of the time.
Speaker 2:Their best exit strategy, from what I've been able to gather the last few games, is Kairou pretty much standing at half ice and Suter just rifling a wrister trying to hit his blade. So there's no icing and they can get a change. And that's not a good strategy, like I know. It works well sometimes because you're able to get the puck deep and Kairou, if he's been on the ice, can get off the ice, suter can get off the ice. It's fine as a strategy where you need it deep, but in terms of any effectiveness in getting the puck deep and creating or checking opportunities, that's just not really it, but it's just frustrating. Yeah, but back to the Blackhawks.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, right, but interesting game we talked about it to. Oh you go down the first period. Nick says he wasn't worried. I was kind of worried, if I'm honest.
Speaker 2:I didn't say I wasn't worried. I just thought that they would probably score a goal or two, and it wasn't. They weren't going to lose like five. Oh, it was what I was thinking.
Speaker 1:And, lo and behold, philip Broberg gets the goal and then Nathan Walker, and within 10 seconds of each other, and I I love those two are some of my favorite players in the team, if if I had to say it, and I'm so happy that Nathan Walker got another goal, but the Walker goal was nasty. Yeah, that's like not a typical goal from him, like he does not go from the yeah he does not snipe.
Speaker 1:He's on a sniper that that comes from like beyond the dot and gets it top shelf. That's not what happens with him, but he did it and it was. It was fantastic to see that, but I think he was kind of surprised by that too. I never have a problem watching Nathan Walker play.
Speaker 2:I never have. I don't think I ever will. He's a huge effort guy. He'll scrum it up with people that are twice his size. He's not afraid to shoot the puck Almost exactly, has all of the intangibles that most people love, and I enjoy watching him play hockey.
Speaker 1:That whole second period. Right, there was one of the best periods I've seen the Blues play in a really long time. I thought that they just and obviously it was against Chicago. You should dominate them, at least at some points of the game. But they dominated that whole second period and the fact that they didn't have they probably had like 25 shots on goal that period. Oh, it was nuts, and like I had not, I mean, have you seen that sort of play from them in the last?
Speaker 2:couple games at all. They're playing the Blackhawks. So we got to, you know, taper out.
Speaker 1:No, you know yeah, adjust for that, but I have not seen that and it was really cool to see that. I think it was three, two with the Joseph goal and that was a great pass from Shen behind the net. I thought that was. But again, I don't know how that's not covered Like that's neither.
Speaker 2:He was wide open.
Speaker 1:He was right there.
Speaker 2:If that was Rob? No, he definitely would have missed.
Speaker 1:but whatever, well, if that was Rob, though he definitely would have missed, but whatever. Well, dude Rob got on the board, so hold on. This game was actually on crack.
Speaker 2:It was so nuts, oh my God. Blues take the lead. Going into the third. It's 3-2. And then third period, blackhawks scored and tie it. Fowler gets one. That was a weird soft goal. But I was at ob clarks watching the game, yep and uh, booch was right in front of it. So I was like, oh my god, did he tip that in?
Speaker 1:that's what I thought too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I thought he scored and I was yelling at ob cars my booch, yeah, and it was. It actually didn't hit anyone. But yeah, I thought he scored and I was yelling at OB Carson like Booch and it actually didn't hit anyone. But I thought he broke his dry spell and I was very excited for him. But he had two assists on the night. He didn't have the worst night in the world.
Speaker 1:No, he didn't. He didn't. I thought that he looked good and that Bucinavich-Kyru-Thomas line was together last night and they accounted for some points with each other. It was. It was nice to see that. Did they play with the most chemistry, that and no cohesion that I've ever seen those three play? I don't think so. I think the whole team itself is more of overshadows, their play of that line particularly. But I thought it was a good sign. Considering that your three best guys are together like that and they're connecting more than they have recently, Do you would you say that we should continue with that line? Because I I would say that, at least for now, you probably should I mean there, those are three best players, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I mean it would be ideal for three best players to be playing together. You would assume you'd be able to create the most offense when your three best players are together, yeah, but the problem with it is the distribution is a bit top heavy and I think that's where you run into problems, unless you expect Braden Shen and Dylan Holloway and Matthew Joseph to be able to have a competitive second line. That's the only problem with it, I think in my opinion. But I love it. I really like when they play together. They're all playmakers, they all have good shots and they're all pretty fast. So I enjoy watching them play. I hope they do stick together as long as things you know don't fall by the wayside with the other lines.
Speaker 1:I just like how Thomas has somebody other than Booch now that he knows is going to be trustworthy and be able to do something offensively with the puck, like I. I think Thomas just really struggled with I know he he was. I think obviously he struggles with distribution, sometimes with the passes, but I think having somebody like kairu to be able to finish his chances, um, at least on a more consistent basis, then I think you could get some better results. Like kairu is is, I think, miles above neighbors you know neighbors when it's all said and done, when it comes to just finishing ability and just doesn't have that speed and snipe of a shot that Kyrie would have compared to neighbors.
Speaker 2:So I do like that line yeah, no, I do too neighbors is just not there. I think he was on. He started on the first line last night, I believe, and uh, I think he got downgraded as the night we're on, but he's not there. I think he's dropped off a little bit. We talked about it last week. Hopefully he can make more strides, but not even close to the level of of kairu or thomas or booch right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's unfortunate, but it's interesting to note that while we did talking about this, while we're talking about this first line, a lot more happened in that game. We stopped at 3-2 before we got on the Thomas-Kairou-Boots talk. That ends up 3-2, then four is it, and then three, three and then and then four five yeah, and then four, three, four, four, five, four blackhawks right yeah, yeah, the game was crazy, oh my god, it was nuts and I.
Speaker 1:I want to get to binnington real quick because his play was interesting last night. Interesting because I can't decide if he played badly or if he just had just kind of. It was just one of those games that it's hard to really do anything against, because I don't know what do you think about that, because it was hard for me to evaluate him.
Speaker 2:Despite the shots on goal discrepancy, it was 40 to 20 by the end of the game in favor of the blues. So when you're letting up five goals on 20 shots, that's a 75% save percentage. That's horrible. Usually, when you're looking at it, the Blackhawks did have some high danger, like all those goals besides the one I don't know if it was terry vining or the one after for them to take the lead, but suitor is playing a pass block and sticks his stick out there and it goes, and it deflects off suitor stick and goes right in between bennington's legs and and it goes in the net. Yeah, so I I don't really know if I can really fault anyone there.
Speaker 2:That wasn't a good goal. The other four, though you would have liked to probably see a save or two there. I think Bennington would probably echo that sentiment, but the reason I'm not going to fault him for yesterday, though, is that he stood in his head during the shootout last night. So I have no problem, really, as long as you get the two points and save it for the team.
Speaker 1:I'm with you on that. I think the one that I would have liked to see him save I know it was one of the more higher quality chances that first one from Ryan Donato with the one-timer he almost had that. He got a glove on it, I know, I know. So if you can get a glove on it, then normally you should be able to, you know, save the whole thing. So I uh, that was maybe the one I think you'd have to have back. But when you, when you were talking about that, stat from like goals saved above expected last week, like those are the type of saves that would be in that category and we just didn't really have any of those last night and we haven't had a lot of those this season but credit him in the shootout with and we'll get to that in a second, but I think that it's a little concerning. But I think it's nice to see that.
Speaker 1:You know, maybe we saw a little bit of it in the shootout, but the OT, though, was really surprisingly not good entertaining over time. It was weird. Yeah, it was not Like Blues had a couple shots but really nothing going. Oh, and also, by the way, way before the ot, I wanted to say I don't think the the last two goals that the blues scored I actually think we're not really that good of goals. I think we got a little lucky, uh, especially with that tying goal that kind of just squeaked through there from the point, and the cam fowler goal as well, um, but so we got. I think we got a little bit lucky there. Would you say that that's good.
Speaker 2:I mean if robert thomas was going to score a goal, it was probably going to have to come in that fashion. So I admire the resiliency by him to just be looking for literally anything around the crease. If it's still bouncing, get on that thing, because I'm not scoring anything outside of that. So I I thought it was so funny because he's literally looking, because he has the vantage point where he's looking right across the goal and he can see if any puck squirted behind, uh, the goalie, and he sees it squirt out and it's just sitting there and he's like, oh god, it's up there and taps it in the net and you could see his celebration. He was like thank god, and on multiple fronts. One, you can't lose to the blackhawks. Two, I haven't scored a goal in like nine games and everyone's kind of pissed off. So this is a huge monkey off the back for him. So I'm very happy for Rob. I hope he is able to bring this forward a bit and score some more goals.
Speaker 1:I agree the apologize for the sidetrack there but with the so the OT wasn't very entertaining but a great save by Bennington, I think at the end there of that overtime huge say yeah, I forgot about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I forgot about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that would have sucked. Yeah, if they would have scored that goal. It was a huge save, great save but also a big fail.
Speaker 1:Was that Mikhaev? Was it Mikhaev on that opportunity at the end, like, if I'm you I would be really upset by not finishing that one because he had him on the backhand. For sure beat. He's like pittington was beat. Um, just, he just stuck his head out hit his stick or something I don't know.
Speaker 2:I forget, but it was a big save regardless. Let's move forward into the shootout. Shootout was hilarious. It just kind of spoke to how bad both teams are at scoring goals, but also I guess they scored five each um. But neighbors should not lead your shootout efforts. Am I going crazy for that?
Speaker 1:well, I well, you know what's interesting about that. I think that that is a literally a practice thing that they do like. I think I practice whoever's like winning those little shootout competitions that they have. I think they do that, that that that's the person who's going to be consistently a number one. I I don't think it's like a coordinated move. Who's been playing the best recently? I literally think it's whoever's the best at a shootout, because it's a very different game and very coordinated effort.
Speaker 2:I feel like neighbors never ever scores a goal on breakaways or shootouts.
Speaker 1:I've never seen him score a shootout.
Speaker 2:I'm not sure what's happening at practice, but he doesn't do anything. And then the thing that's funny, and this is my last point, and we can fly through this shootout Neighbors goes, and then they have Conor Bedard go and you're like that's a huge discrepancy in terms of talent and who you'd want to take a shootout attempt. So I'm like you know, whatever, it's not going to be my biggest gripe of the team. There's many. That's probably not one of them, but I just thought it was dumb yeah, I could see that.
Speaker 1:I think that's an interesting point. I think um so shen scores and and shen always scores in shootouts. He does score a lot of shootout goals, really good. Then everybody else misses Every single person, until Radek Faxa, I mean, and some bad attempts to like embarrassing ones.
Speaker 2:So I was watching it.
Speaker 1:I was watching it with this uh bruins fan and um, he played hockey for his whole life and he was like these aren't even good attempts at shootouts. And I'm like they're, they're not, um, like, because, like every time blues love going trying to go five hole on the on the shootout, every single time they they, they love it and that's what neighbors did on his first one. I'm like, oh, that probably is, is predictable. But besides that, like you didn't make many moves and a lot of shots, just you know, going from from center ice and then moving in and then just shooting, not really a lot of dangles until a Fox.
Speaker 2:I know and that that bewildered me. You could tell whenever someone tried to skate on. I forget what the goalie's name is on the on Chicago.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sutter bloom, you could tell that when people tried to skate in at him and throw a move he was a little bit wobbly. He was pretty unshaken when someone would just go in there and try to shoot a wrister and that's literally what everyone else seemed to want to do and I'm like it's clearly not working, fellas. And then foxa came up huge, did exactly what shen did uh, didn't pull it off I would say as smoothly, but was able to throw it in there and it was a good move and was able to score. Benner again did a good job stretching out that left pad and eliminate the opportunity for the Blackhawks on the opposite end. So good win, shaky, scary good win.
Speaker 1:I'm with you, I think. But yeah, bennington not the best shootout guy, I think in all history. I wouldn't really take him in my like top five if I really wanted a goalie to have me in a shootout, but he played really well. Give him credit, yeah. So let's move along here. Some other things. So we talked about the last couple games, funny rumors happening around the the, some blues news that Shen's been coming up and some trade talks and Toronto maybe being the best fit for him, since he'd be reuniting with Craig Berube and I think the blues would have to retain some cap to let this happen. But it's an interesting thing I think we talked about it a little bit that he's getting paid $6.5 million and it wasn't for 11 years. It was my bad, it was eight years and I don't know why I thought that but six and a half or eight years and they would probably have to retain a little bit. Let's just say they retained 25% or something like that.
Speaker 2:Then Shen becomes a really valuable player yeah, I I'm all for like I, like shen, I think he's had a better year. I think he's a good captain of a hockey team. He's a good leader spokesperson for the, the club, if you will. I I don't think he his play still warrants the amount of money that he makes and probably doesn't fit the Blues timeline. Like if we're thinking about the Blues being contenders again for a Stanley Cup, not just on the outside looking in of a playoff spot, which they have been the last three years.
Speaker 2:Shen probably doesn't fit the timeline. We're probably going to have to wait a couple years and at that point Shen's 33. It's going to be 35 years old by the time that would come around. I would assume he'll keep regressing just due to father time and I again, though he's played better this year. I would be sad to see him go, but at the blues were able to get a decent return and also trade shen to a contender like. I don't want him to go to a bad team. He's a full no trade class, so it's not like shen's going to be a content with going to chicago or any any team.
Speaker 1:That's bad, but in july but in july, yeah, it gets modified to a 15 team. So that's why the rumors are happening. Um, and honestly, that's kind of a cool thing for shan. I didn't know that that happened. Um, the whole like is it if, if your franchise and that you're on is really bad and um, you also don't want to go somewhere that just you know, like I don't know, like like anaheim right now? Um, then you have a chance to go somewhere good, which is really cool. I did not know the nhl did that, but some interesting things with that um, and then obviously with with falk and letty too. You just never know what's going to happen with them I also heard jordan kairu's name creep up there I, I would, I, I think that'd be horrible.
Speaker 2:I if the blues were able to, uh, not have to retain any of his salary and get back some big, big prospects or players or both. Whatever it may be, I'm more than open to it. Something probably needs to happen to the core in order for the team to probably get better. I I'm kind of the reality that I think I I'm living in I'm in disagreement with that.
Speaker 1:I I can't, I can't, get behind trading kairi right now and I don't see it happening. You sign the guy for an eight by eight and you're gonna lose faith in him two years in.
Speaker 2:I just he's been on the team for six years.
Speaker 1:I I, I'm aware, I'm aware contract, but he's been your best player for the last three and it's not I would not say that either.
Speaker 2:I would say rob's rob has been better. Okay, but he's been, he's, he's scored the most goals for those for those three years and goal scorers doesn't mean that you're the best player I mean well of course it doesn't mean that, but I'm saying that if you don't have a guy like that, you're not you.
Speaker 1:You wouldn't have had the same push to the playoffs that you did last year. You wouldn't have had. Uh, as you know, these teams could have been so much worse without Jordan Cairo. All like, I never thought I would be defending him, but I just think that he would. He has had a really good season this year and his one of the best I've seen him play in both sides of the ice defensively. Offensively, I think he's much better with his defense and backtrack right now.
Speaker 2:He's definitely having a better year this year, but, in response to the last three years, like kairos plus minus in 2022, 2023 was minus 38 minus 38, like, and he's scoring a lot of goals.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I, I like, I know the sentiment and I I don't like.
Speaker 2:In my perfect world, I would like for Kyrou to stay on the team, but Jordan Kyrou, unfortunately and I would say this about Rob probably as well, even though I think Rob's a better player are those two players, if we want to continue forward with this core, are they going to win you a Stanley Cup as them being your top two players?
Speaker 2:I would say probably not. You'd have to have a stellar, stellar second line that are just as good, if not maybe marginally worse, but like those guys are not, you know, top 10 players in the NHL. They're, you know, like bottom five of the top top players in the NHL. So, like that's the problem that I feel like we're facing as a franchise and we're probably going to make a decision and it just, you know, we'll have to find the proper suitor if we did want to shop them, but we're definitely running into something here and it's not going to be hey, let's just trade Shen and everything's going to work itself out I don't want to spend too much time on this, because this could be a debate that goes on for a long time and I don't want to go over an hour.
Speaker 1:So I agree, we'll.
Speaker 1:We'll stop that there although to be continued on that, because that's a really important topic. Maybe we'll do that for our two-weeks episode right before the Blues resume play again. And then I also wanted to briefly touch on Blues prospects. Dalbor Dvorsky was playing the AHL All-Star game this past week and he took home some hardware and scored two goals for the accuracy shooting competition. And then he scored two goals for the Atlantic and only teenager on the team, that's pretty impressive in the All-Star game, really impressive, and he's been great for the Thunderbirds.
Speaker 2:He's awesome and I've been very excited about his potential trajectory for the Blues. I'm very curious if they will call him up at any point this year. I would say probably not, but I think it depends how bad the Blues are in the next few weeks after Four Nations. But I'm curious about him. And then the other elephant in the room in the Blues prospect pool is Jimmy Snuggerud, Not in the AHL, still on Minnesota, but tearing it up in Minnesota right now On a complete heater, scoring goals, assists plus minuses through the roof. He's having such a great year and I'm so pumped about it. It seems like he's got so many different tools in the arsenal.
Speaker 1:I'm so pumped about it. It seems like he's got so many different tools in the arsenal. Yeah, I think it's right now. If Ryan Leonard wasn't on Boston College which thankfully is and if he wasn't playing, then Jimmy Snuggerud probably would be a Hobie Baker favorite right now. He's definitely up there in the Hobie Baker favorites but he's not going to get it. But yeah, he's been spectacular 20 goals, 21 assists for the kid in 30 games, really good and love to see that Minnesota's a pretty good team as well, but him contributing as I think number four in overall NCAA hockey in points pretty impressive. So good there for Blues prospects. Hopefully continue some development and if Jordan Kyrou gets traded, then maybe Jimmy Snuggerud or Dalbor Dvorsky will be up soon.
Speaker 1:That doesn't have to happen for them to be up. Well, I don't really see it happening the other way. I don't really see it happening, at least this season.
Speaker 2:Just send Bull Duke down or something you don't have to trade Kyrou.
Speaker 1:Actually it's an interesting thing, but they have or something you don't have to trade. Cairo Actually it's an interesting thing. The thing is Bull Duke, I don't know. We could spend more time on that as we go. And then, last thing four nations who want to do a brief preview.
Speaker 1:USA. Yeah, team USA best odds to win the four nations tourney Shocking, yeah, I was shocked by that. That too, plus 145, canada's plus 155, and that's gonna be interesting to see. I, uh, blue, or I think you have two blues guys in canada with pareko and bennington, and but I and also I didn't even know this, by the way they also have obviously Doug Armstrong as their GM, but then they have the video coach as the Blues video coach, the Canadian video coach and the goaltending coach for Bennington, dave Alexander. Yeah, nice, so five Blues players or Blues organizational figures on team Canada. So I think it's going to be interesting. I really am interested to see what Jordan Bennington can do in this. I think we have not seen this guy in the pressure moments, like playoffs, in a really long time, and now we get to see it. What do you think he's actually going to do?
Speaker 2:I don't know. I'm hoping he just can kind of fly under the radar, because people have very strong feelings about Jordan Bennington. Whether that's warranted or not, I would say no. I think people overreact to his antics all the time. I think it's unwarranted, but if he does not play well, the hockey universe is going to let St Louis know it, so I'm a little bit nervous about that. I also don't care, though, because I don't want Canada to succeed in any stretch. So I want to take a look real quickly.
Speaker 2:The American four nations hockey team is stacked with players. I rattled a few off on the notes, but Jack and Quinn Hughes, kyle Connor Brady and Matthew Kachuk, austin Matthews, jack Eichel, adam Fox Hellebuck that is such a great roster, and I know Canada's is also very good. But come on and I know Canada's is also very good, but come on like. I am so happy that American hockey is trending in such a positive direction where we're competing we saw it with Ryan Leonard on Team USA juniors like they were a better team and ended up winning gold, and it's just exciting to see how up and coming and already really good uh american hockey is right now yeah, I.
Speaker 1:And then what's interesting too is the ages of these americans pretty young team still like not that, jack eichel and, uh, you know, kachuk are young guys but they're like they're prime guys, they're in their primes and they're mid to late 20s, and Matt Boldy being one of the youngest on the team with Brock Faber, but like guys that are, you know, experienced but still are very young. And then when you look at Canada, you know obviously you got Crosby as the captain and then you got guys like Mark Stone and Mark Stone and then McKinnon and Marshawn Like those are all guys that again really good players. And Mark Stone and then McKinnon and Marshawn, those are all guys that again really good players, not going to discount that. But they're a little old, they're getting on the older side.
Speaker 2:But they're still good players. Obviously, that's always the elephant in the room when you have players like McKinnon and McDavid. Things could really flip on a dime when you're playing against them, because they're just that good and USA has such great depth and such great stars, but they're not McDavid or McKinnon. So that's going to be really interesting to see. They play Canada on February 15th, so I'm extremely excited. That's a Saturday, so I'm pumped up. And it's in Boston too, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm going to try and see if I can get tickets for that. Um, but yeah, I. And it just sucks though, because like, obviously I'll be team USA all the way, but in that game it's like god, I almost hope Bennington has a good game and it's like a 1-1 type thing why under that radar? Don't do anything brash. I don't want people hitting my line saying, oh by God, bennington is one of the worst goalies I've ever seen.
Speaker 2:I can already see that now it's going to happen. It's totally going to happen. It's going to suck too Darn it is.
Speaker 1:They always have Sam Montenbowl as one of their backups.
Speaker 2:Holy cow Hockey Canada on the goalie department is sad Sam.
Speaker 1:Montenbowl and Aiden Hill, who won a cup with Vegas.
Speaker 2:I know, but he's not. No, yeah.
Speaker 1:Jordan.
Speaker 2:Bennett said God, Come on, man we love.
Speaker 1:Benner. We want him to play well, but I just don't know.
Speaker 2:We'll see, maybe don't play him against USA. I don't know. I'm trying to think of ways around it.
Speaker 1:I hope they do it would be so fun, yeah, but we never know. Obviously, fiddle and Sweden will be interesting stories as well, with very good teams, but we want to wrap it up here. Well, appreciate you all for joining us live. Again, this will be out on our Apple podcast and Spotify links. Those are in our link tree on the Instagrams and Twitters. Check us out there if you were unable to watch.
Speaker 1:The whole thing Got into a lot of topics today. Blues hockey is an interesting track, but we will continue to fill you in on that as we go to a four nations break that is starting after today, on Monday. So Blues have some time to rest not for Pareko and Bennington and we have some time to rest. Next Saturday, though, we will be filming our first guest interview, and we will release that information later this week. On who that is, I will give you one hint that you will recognize his voice. That is all I will say. Thank you guys for tuning in. Hope you have a great week. We'll catch you on next Sunday for our guest interview. Well, we're going to release it Sunday, I think. Okay, we'll record on Saturday, all right, see you guys. Have a All right. See you guys, have a good week. See you guys.
