2016-2017 Blues (Hockey) Season

[GeddyWrox]

I enjoyed the hell out of that game last night.

[cardinalkarp]

I was really surprised at how fast the team was tonight. Their philosophical change was really apparent.

The other big difference is how far up the ice the defensemen would bring the puck up the ice. In prior years the blues defensemen would "collapse" in on defense that led to a lot of pucks in the corners and the blues were built to win the battles in the corners.

Tonight the blues were collapsing up a bit more causing turnovers just into the defensive zone, then the forwards were rushing into the neutral zone with the blues defenseman bringing the puck much closer to the blue line before passing to a forward who is breaking into the offensive zone.

It takes a lot more speed and skill to push the puck up the zone like that, since you're much more prone to turnovers and odd-man breaks the other way. So I was impressed to see the Blues pull it off so well against a team like Chicago. If they can do that all year with the fiesty backchecking they had tonight they might surprise some people.

It makes a lot of sense why they signed David Perron with that style of play. He's a really good fit for it. And if you look at our forward core it aligns really well with the playstyle of players like Steen, Schwartz, Tarasenko, and Fabbri.

That's definitely more the the Yo style of play and the exact style that the Minnesota Wild played under his watch (my wife cheers for the Wild and watched them quite a bit w/ the Center Ice pkg). They seem to have already transitioned to the personnel that will to cater to his style of play. I was definitely impressed by how quickly they've transitioned to a different style of play. It's only 1 game, but you have to like they way they took out Chicago in their barn.

[MrCrowesGarden]

Yak attack gets his first goal as a Blue.

[AJ]

Bought the NHL TV package for the first time this year, baseball team not in playoffs and my NFL team has blown for years, why not.

[TheoSqua]

I know it's only been five periods but these last two games have been really impressive.

[JCShutout]

Nice to see Yak get his first at the Home Opener. Keep it up boys!!!

[MrCrowesGarden]

Yak makes Paajarvi looks good. 3-1.

[GeddyWrox]

I don't know if we'll wind up with more wins than last year, but I have the feeling the team is going to be more fun to watch this year. I am stoked.

[tlombard]

I'm already excited for tomorrow night. Very happy with the 2-0 start especially going into Chicago on opening night and taking the win. That was not set up to be an easy game opening the season on the road against a team that they knocked out of the playoffs in a tough series a few months ago but they took care of business. I was happy enough with that so the win last night was just extra nice for me.

[MrCrowesGarden]

Rewatched the Yakupov goal, and it's a save that should've been made by Dubnyk, but Yak's speed still set it up very nicely. It's nice to have someone who can at least create some pressure.

His setup on the Paajarvi goal was beautiful.