The Blues Are Looking ALMOST Regular Season READY
the blues were practicing with some line combinations that I was a huge fan of today and I cannot wait to talk to you about it here on locked on Blues you’re locked on Blues your daily podcast on the St Louis Blues part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day and a happy Tuesday October 1st yes it is October 1st which means that it is the best sport month because we get regular season hockey back I am your host of lockdown Blues Haley Taylor Simon talking to you all things about our St Louis Blues here on the lockdown podcast Network your team every day today on lockon Blues I’m going to talk to you about some line combos that I’m a huge fan of another rant about dorski because I saw some comments and I just want to continue my conversation about him and one week from today the St Louis Blues play regular season hockey against is a day game but it is the first game of the NHL season amongst all the NHL so obviously I am very excited about that and I cannot wait for next Tuesday today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time download the game time app create an account and use code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase I hope everybody is having a great day today the St Louis Blues take on the Columbus Blue Jackets tonight um for one of their final preseason games but the the combinations that I saw um you know people on the beat reporting um today at practice were really exciting to me so Lou posted during morning skates today that in the first line Robert Thomas was centering to his left its neighbors and to his right it’s Kyu I am a huge fan of this one um this was probably one of my favorite line combos I we saw a little bit of last season I do think that cyou and Thomas really compliment each other and I think Jake neighbors does Excel on the first line with the second line we have centering bsh to his left Bal Duke and to his right Shen now this one took me by a little bit of surprise right because I know that not all the guys are going to play in tonight’s game like H away and I get that but that kind of works right Bal duuk bsh and Shen I like that then you have the third line Walker centering and I know that won’t be happening during you know the regular season it might but I just see Walker as a fourth line type of plier however that line combo is Walker centering then to the left texier and then to the right T penko then finally you have the fourth line with Zack Dean centering then you have Brandon sod to the left and casber cin and to the right now we did talk about Brad and sod yesterday and we talked about how his wife is going to be doing any moment so I think it’s one of those things where you know you kind of have to expect for him not to be on this road trip um not because of any other reason than the fact that he wants to be there for the birth of his child and I gave you the quote that he said yesterday about it and it sounded very professional very hockey like you know terms for the birth of his child however I just am going to assume that he won’t be there but I do like that line combo then let’s go talk about some defense so we have Philip Robert and Justin folk now obviously when it comes to the first pair you’re going to obviously have Colton Pera right but for you know all funds and games and whatever you know you’re going to have different combos right okay then you have sudor and Joseph I do like that one then you have a combo that I am used to seeing a lot um maybe in Springfield more than the blues but you have Tyler Tucker and Scott perunovic in net tonight bner gets a start in hoer but um these are combos that scream to me this is more NHL than AHL while you do have a couple players that might be sent down maybe a Tyler Tucker um you know even looking at this I mean I wouldn’t necessarily say set down but maybe you won’t be seeing a walker play or t Tor pachenko play Maybe doesn’t always play but I do think this is more of an NHL looking um roster for tonight you know it’s funny with preseason games we talk about this a lot how the games don’t necessarily matter the outcome of the games however now that the blues you know they have a couple more games left until regular season again it is in one week from today I think there is an aspect of we need to prepare we need to get ready for the regular season and you know coach banister talked about this and said hey yeah we’re going to be playing more NHL looking lines these next couple games you know the first few games of preseason well majority of the preseason games are just to see if any maybe of the AHL guys are standing out give the Juniors a chance to see what they can do but nail this is business nail this is hey we got some regular season hockey to play we need to be prepared and we need to go out against Seattle and set the tone early on so I think that this is a more competitive roster to make natika alexandrov actually did get sent down to the Thunderbirds and you know I’m happy that you know they ended up signing him and all that I just think that this roster this season is going to be more difficult to get on and I think that even seeing these lying combos I mean it’s so funny to me well not funny like haha funny but Doug Armstrong did say heading into training camp that he could see Zack baluk as a top six forward and then obviously tonight you have baluk then you have cap um I’m soed to saying Captain Bren Shen in that spot then you have bshch and then you have Captain Braden Shen so playing on that second line with those guys it makes me kind of Wonder you know is this the spot for him but then you have to remember that there’s a Dylan Holloway and there’s all these other factors that come into play isn’t that weird weird when you’re so used to a line combo being like kind of the same and then all of a sudden it switches up and you’re just like oh yeah no Captain Brad and Shen won’t be centering but yes I wasn’t crazy because for you know however long doing this podcast that’s always been his position second line Center but you know things change however I do like that first combo a lot again neighbors Thomas cyu I love that I could see that being probably what first line is going to be if I had a predict I wouldn’t really tweak that I really do like it I think Jake neighbors really solidified himself last season and I don’t necessarily see a reason for the blues to say hey we don’t want to do this now the power playay units were quite interesting so here’s the thing about the power play you have neighbors right then you have Kyu bsh and Thomas and then defensively you have Justin folk now when Tory crew got injured a big Conversation Piece that I brought on this podcast was well who’s gonna replace Tory Krug on the power play and I gave two names I said Scott perunovich or Justin folk so I do like this one a lot the second power play unit you have sod then you have Shen texier and Bal Duke then you have perunovich defensively so for me at least I really do enjoy it um I do think that it’s all right you know I know that there’s going to be some people questioning um you know what’s going on you know with the power play units and the thing too is and at least for tonight with shenny and and texier I mean Shen obviously has played center a lot he’s very good on the face off so if anything happens where you know Tex just isn’t at that level yet I’m sure C and BR and Shen can step in however I do like those units I think with natika though I kind of want to touch on this for another moment too about going to you know the Thunderbirds I think and this is what I’m going to segue into with um the divorce conversation again but I think it just shows that the blues have a plan and they kind of see where their you know roster where their lineup is going to be at so at least in my head I think that you know you have to factor you’re in a guy like Holloway where’s he going to be but I do think that majority of what we’re seeing tonight I would not be surprised if we see it again in the final preseason game and finally one week from today against the Seattle Kraken I am very confident saying that that first line is going to be the first line we see then that’s my bold prediction maybe not a bold prediction but definitely a prediction that I could see it coming true because they do play um two more preseason games I want to say yes so tonight is the Blue Jackets Thursday they’re at Dallas and then they’re home on Saturday against the Blackhawks so tonight is one and they have two others so three preseason games in a week before you know the regular season on Tuesday so I expect more cuts to happen tomorrow I just expect them to have an NHL ready roster probably by tomorrow or they wouldn’t do it the day of so probably tomorrow or Thursday but I could 100% see um the blues doing that so we have a lot to discuss because I still want to touch a little bit on dorski and some more thoughts and feelings about that one because I know how things got the last time we talked about it but I do want to talk to you about FanDuel hey NFL fans you can start the season with a big return on FanDuel America’s number one sports book so when you get a hunt in the middle of the game you can check out the latest stats VI live play byplay and so much more on the same page where you place your bets you’ll get started with $200 in bonus bets guaranteed when you place your first $5 bet that’s fanduel.com now one thing that I absolutely love about FanDuel is that feature where you can bet in the middle of the game and I always like to look ahead right so last week I’m going to admit kind of messed up not only did some of my bets not hit your girl forgot to switch her fantasy team because some players were out so I was kind of down bad but FanDuel allows me to kind of remind myself that hey even if the game began unlike fantasy you can still make some changes whatever right so Falcons bucks this Thursday kicking off week five I am going to take The Buckaneers in this one they’re at home they had a great game this past weekend which I saw a lot of if you know you know so yeah I would take the Bucks money line and you can always make that decision as the game is going on St Louis baby I had an episode yesterday um of locked on blues and I talked about dorski because if you didn’t know if you live under a rock dorski is being sent well he’s already down there with Springfield um and I got some comments on this that kind of need to touch on so Brian says divorce he needs to be in the top six if he can’t do that here it’s the right move let him dominate in the AHL come up late season I really hate to see a scoring Prospect whole away with scrubbers for 11 minutes a night so I really like what he had to say in a sense but here’s the thing while yes eventually we do want to see divorce he be at top six player and I’m not denying that I mean that’s what you know he was kind of projected to be I wouldn’t be upset maybe if he played on the third line too just for the sole purpose of he would be able to contribute positively to you know the third line maybe even fourth line right um however what I will say is this there’s really not any spots he could take I would say on the top six at the moment with his age um and I hate to say lack of experience but I mean he’s only played in juniors he hasn’t played you know in the NHL or even the AHL so while it is frustrating and I sense the frustration from the fan base I really do because I feel it too this is the right move for him this is the move that’s going to allow him to grow as a player develop as a player and then eventually come up here in St Louis now I did say in as’s episode hey I could totally see him coming up during like the middle end of the season I’m getting some games in so that’s definitely possible but at the same time um it it can be frustrating right so another comment says this is from spoon fudge interesting name uh for most of the preseason he looks like a kid playing with men he needs to strengthen his upper body he gets pushed off the puck too often and he himself said that he wasn’t ready yeah so what I was referring to was before Camp uh I don’t know I do that in an accent before comp before Camp he did say that it was his goal to make the team right um you can say a lot of things and you can really want something and just know that you’re not ready at the same time I think that the self-awareness that he has just exhibits that he is maturing and that he does know that this isn’t you know a Sprint it’s more like a marathon maybe a 5k even but you cannot expect him you know to be ready after one training camp not even a full training camp and the nice thing is with the Thunderbirds they play a game tomorrow um which will be Wednesday by the way October 2nd um he’s going to have that experience and he did look lost out there I did say this in numerous episodes that he just wasn’t standing out he was getting pushed around and when you’re trying to make the team especially at a camp you really need to be strong kind of like how bold Duke is playing you need to just stand out in a positive way so I don’t take this as a setback for him I don’t take this as you know this is awful I take this as hey I feel badly for the kid because obviously he wanted to make the team however I am excited about the opportunities that he will have in Springfield the opportunities for him to get more minutes on the ice for him to adjust for him to get used to this system and then eventually he will earn a spot playing up here in St Louis I do see him still as a huge factor in the blues’ future and that hasn’t changed because he’s getting sent down to the AHL affiliate team it actually is a positive because it means that this organization wants to develop him correctly I mean think about it like this imagine if they just kept him for the sake of keeping him he’s not getting a lot of minutes on the ice he’s struggling his game’s not growing that’s how players fail that’s how players fizzle out and I’ve seen that happen in the NHL before I’ve seen prospects that you know get on the NHL roster too soon they can’t handle it and you know it creates a lot of issues right mentally they have like these mental blocks where they think they are not a to accomplish what they want to it it becomes a whole issue so going back to what I was originally saying the blues did the right thing um and again he’s 19 he is 19 years old he’s so young and has plenty of time to really um continue to develop his game get stronger build that muscle I think for him adding more muscle too is important so that’s another thing Dan says divorce he should have made the team he needs to work on SCH scoring um if he scores goals he can also have his moments so here’s the thing and I said this was going to be a conversation prior um you know to divorce getting cut I said I’m sure that conversation will be brought up where people say he should have made the team and it’s going to be a whole debate here’s the thing I just told you Devil’s Advocate what if he made the team and he ended up not playing Well because most likely that would happen you’re not going to not shine in preseason and then all of a sudden shine in the regular season that’s not how it works um at all actually that’s really not how it works I think that with dvorski the key to having him grow the key to him developing is reputation getting comfortable getting more physical on the ice and I think that it’s going to take time to do that I understand though the other hand because when he does score it is great and you know we see some of his stick handling skills like we see the goods in him okay and there is no denying that there is a reason why he was dropped a 10th overall because of his talent on the ice even in juniors we saw what he could do however what I will say and I’m going to say this again I just needed to see more out of him and I’m sure that the coaches felt that way I mean I know when Dre banister talked about him he just said he wasn’t ready yet I’m sure Doug feels the same way he wasn’t ready yet and again I’m a huge fan of Tyler Tucker and I’ve talked about him prior yeah does it suck that he may not make the team this season absolutely there’s always that chance but he did get caught up last season a good amount I mean you’ve had players get caught up I mean look at Matthew kessle he got caught up last season just because you don’t make the roster an opening night doesn’t mean that you’re not going to wear the blue note it doesn’t mean that you’re not capable of wearing the blue note it just means that it takes time nobody is looking at divorce saying oh yeah this is an AHL only player no nobody is looking at him like that but I think this also just goes to show how the blues and how you know the staff and management truly does care about his growth because they’re putting him in a in a position to be successful letting him play with the Thunderbirds allows him to gain success it allows him to gain that confidence so there is no negatives to him playing with the Thunder I mean listen Maybe behind closed doors he’s like ah this sucks I wanted to be here and I get that that you know that’s an athletes mentality I’m around hockey enough to know that some of the guys do get a little bit frustrated right just in general however I think that this was the right move and you have to really applaud what the blues’ management with the blues staff has done because they were very vocal to Media you know in general saying hey we are not not going to fail him from day one before Camp began Doug Armstrong said we are not going to fail his development so I think taking that all into Factor you can kind of come up with the conclusion of oh okay there is a reason why and this is not a negative this is a positive I can guarantee you that so we talked about divorce again we talked about some of the line combinations but I think we’re not talking about something that is kind of important and you might be wondering hell what could that be game time so now I will be talking to you about you know NHL season and all that but game time has a new feature called Game Time picks that makes getting tickets for your favorite Live Events even easier game time picks filters at the fluff to show you only incredible deals on great seats so you don’t have to waste time searching through thousands of tickets one thing that I love about game time picks is this Super Deal and how good it really is it literally just shows you the best deal it shows you the best seat the best price everything kind of curated right to you which I’m a huge fan of because your girl hates searching on things and I just click one button and I’m like oh that was easy so I’m a huge fan you can also see your seat view before you buy your tickets like always and of course game time has the lowest price guarantee event can event cancellation protection and job loss protection protection as well so this is what I need you to do take the guest work out of buying tickets with Game Time download the game time app create an account and use code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase terms apply again create an account and redeem code l c k d o n NHL for $20 off download game time today what time is it game time so one week from today this St Louis Blues play regular season hockey and I’m not nervous how however it’s not the blues that make me nervous okay and it’s not Seattle by the way like I just wanted to put that out there it’s definitely not Seattle I mean Seattle they look good cool but that’s not what I’m nervous about it is the Central Division I hate it um not because I I love you know the division it’s fun competitive woohoo but it is because of one team and one team only that makes me hate this division the Nashville Predators the Nashville Predators that of course they had to get Stam Co and all these talented players so now when you look at you know the pre-season you know projections predictions all that stuff you’re all ahead of the Blues but I’m going to give you my Central Division outcome because I love doing this stuff and I just want to give like a prediction because I want to look back this is something I didn’t do last season and I kind of regretted it because I wish I had an episode where I gave a little bit of a prediction for funsies at the end of an episode and I was able to then talk about if I was right or not right at the end of the season so let’s go do my predictions so obviously in the central with the Blackhawks the Abes the Stars wild PRS Blues Utah and jets who do I think is going to be the top four I’m going to actually rank all the Central Division so number one this season I actually have Dallas followed by Dallas I have the Avalanche followed by the Avalanche I do have the Nashville Predators then I have the blues then the Jets then Utah then the Wild and then the blackhaw so that is my prediction I think Utah is going to be playing a lot better than maybe we expect them to I mean they have Logan Coley and he is a fabulous player but besides you know Utah the wild they’re just in a really weird situation I mean their whole goalie situation all of it and I I can’t say they wild are G to do amazing right the Jets it’s not that I don’t think the Jets are a good team I think they are a good team but what I saw in the Sena playoffs the past season just kind of maybe not so sure about them again this is why there’s so many other GD host that cover these teams with the locked on podcast Network I’m just G to be out my little predictions I think Dallas is hands down the best team in the central uh division which I hate but again I know Joey does a great job and we’ve talked about it and they just have tremendous Talent even though they can’t seem to be winning the cup um let’s go Blues then the Avalanche same thing good team you know so that’s what I think I do think too that the blues are going to get into the playoffs this season with the second wild card spot if okay I know what you’re say oh well wouldn’t they make it in if they finish third okay that’s just me being optimistic but realistically if I had a guess it’d be second wild card spot or first wild card spot out of the West I guess we we shall see I’m I’m kind of like I’m being like a hypocrite kind of right I don’t know all I know is blues are going to be in the playoffs Blues are going to finish a lot better than we think in the Central and I think that the national predators are going to be really good and I’m absolutely hating that because Captain Bren Shen’s brother Luke Shen is on the Predators so yeah Shen’s on top all right I will talk to you tomorrow and like always let’s go Blues
The St. Louis Blues are getting ready for the NHL season with line combos that are looking more ready. Haley talks about Dvorsky and gives more insight as to why it’s good that he plays more minutes. Finally, Haley gives some central division predictions.
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1 comment
So pumped for hockey! One week from today!