GDT #32: 12/18/14 | 9:30PM CST | @ Kings | FSMW/KMOX

[ViPeRx007]

Good to see y'all trying to still justify Brodeur even though he's been well below average. Anything to keep Dougie's job, huh?

Yea, we're justifying Brodeur because what else were they supposed to do? Binnington? Maybe he'd be doing better, or maybe he'd have a bad game and it would mess him up. Granted, a few bad games shouldn't totally destroy a prospect, and, if it does, he doesn't belong in the NHL anyway, but it's just better to keep him the AHL getting regular starts.

Nobody is claiming that Brodeur is going to lead us to the Stanley Cup. That's not happening. We just needed a stopgap to give Allen some breaks. That's all it is.

I fully expect us to let him go once Elliott is ready.

[glen a richter]

Question, Nyghtewynd... What will you have left to bitch about if the Blues win the Cup this year? That they didn't do it in 16 straight games?

[Nyghtewynd]

Oooh, so is that how you justify every move this franchise makes? "THIS IS THE YEAR WE'RE WINNING THE CUP ZOMG"

I understand that "fan" is short for "fanatic" and thus it's difficult to introduce some of you with reality. What is perfectly clear, however, is that this club is fundamentally flawed for Cup success. They cannot consistently score enough goals to beat the best teams, and instead of fixing this problem, Armstrong continues a series of pointless acquisitions in order to fool the fanatics and sell tickets. But get mad at me for pessimism. Maybe one of these days pessimism will be wrong. But in the history of this organization, it hasn't been yet.

[Oaklandblue]

Good to see y'all trying to still justify Brodeur even though he's been well below average. Anything to keep Dougie's job, huh?

I'd rather burn out Marty as a backup and develop Bings rather than burning Binnington out. Marty is a decent leased backup and that's all we need him to be.

[cardsfan04]

Oooh, so is that how you justify every move this franchise makes? "THIS IS THE YEAR WE'RE WINNING THE CUP ZOMG"

I understand that "fan" is short for "fanatic" and thus it's difficult to introduce some of you with reality. What is perfectly clear, however, is that this club is fundamentally flawed for Cup success. They cannot consistently score enough goals to beat the best teams, and instead of fixing this problem, Armstrong continues a series of pointless acquisitions in order to fool the fanatics and sell tickets. But get mad at me for pessimism. Maybe one of these days pessimism will be wrong. But in the history of this organization, it hasn't been yet.

You're the most pessimistic fan I have ever encountered on any sports board. Pretty much by definition, you're not speaking from reality. Nobody on either extreme is.

[ComradeT]

Oooh, so is that how you justify every move this franchise makes? "THIS IS THE YEAR WE'RE WINNING THE CUP ZOMG"

I understand that "fan" is short for "fanatic" and thus it's difficult to introduce some of you with reality. What is perfectly clear, however, is that this club is fundamentally flawed for Cup success. They cannot consistently score enough goals to beat the best teams, and instead of fixing this problem, Armstrong continues a series of pointless acquisitions in order to fool the fanatics and sell tickets. But get mad at me for pessimism. Maybe one of these days pessimism will be wrong. But in the history of this organization, it hasn't been yet.

That's neither here nor there dude. Is it also possible that they cannot consistently prevent enough goals against to beat the best teams? That's really your problem, right, since you're attacking the Brodeur signing?

[not_a_wings_fan]

Oooh, so is that how you justify every move this franchise makes? "THIS IS THE YEAR WE'RE WINNING THE CUP ZOMG"

I understand that "fan" is short for "fanatic" and thus it's difficult to introduce some of you with reality. What is perfectly clear, however, is that this club is fundamentally flawed for Cup success. They cannot consistently score enough goals to beat the best teams, and instead of fixing this problem, Armstrong continues a series of pointless acquisitions in order to fool the fanatics and sell tickets. But get mad at me for pessimism. Maybe one of these days pessimism will be wrong. But in the history of this organization, it hasn't been yet.

As far as "pointless acquisitions" go, I think you are about the only person who doesn't get why Marty was brought in.

This is a move that would have NEVER been made if Elliot was healthy. Never. Not even a thought. This is NEVER done if we have more cap space. Never.

Are you saying you would have brought in another, better player that would have fit under our cap constraints? I'm just not sure who that guy is but I am all ears if you know what we should have done. I mean, you know better than our GM and personal department all the back office dealing, who would play for what money, and why all the available players aren't signed - enlighten us.

I don't like the guy on the team either, but it's not as bad of a move as you make it out to be. You can argue that we should have had different depth from the start of the season and that would be a valid point, but right now I just don't follow your argument.

This is a team pushing towards a 110 pt + season for the second year in a row, the offense is better than years past and it's not like 50 goal players grow on trees. To be honest Tank and Schwartz are bonafide top forwards, and the Lehtera signing is working out to be one of the best deals of the offseason by any NHL team.

What else is it that you want?

[cprice12]

Good to see y'all trying to still justify Brodeur even though he's been well below average. Anything to keep Dougie's job, huh?

We're on pace for 112.75 points. I don't think his job needs to be justified.

Agreed.
If Elliott was out for the season and Brodeur was here to be the permanent backup, then I'd have issues with the move. But Brodeur is only here for a little while longer until Elliott comes back. He is a bridge to when our goaltending due is healthy again. Nothing more. Under that situation, the Brodeur pickup was most certainly a decent one.

To insinuate that Armstrong's job is somehow in jeopardy is insane.

[glen a richter]

Nyghtewynd makes me look like Mr. Sunshine. When will you folks realize this guy gets his jollies by being the most pessimistic human being on the face of the planet? If the Blues won the Cup in 16 games after winning 82 regular season games and every pre-season game preceding it, he'd still complain because there was one point during the finals where the team was trailing for a couple minutes. Notice who makes the majority of his appearances on this board ONLY when the team has lost a couple games in a row? Rest assured, a 6 or 7 game win streak and he won't be anywhere to be found.

[dmiles2186]

Oooh, so is that how you justify every move this franchise makes? "THIS IS THE YEAR WE'RE WINNING THE CUP ZOMG"

I understand that "fan" is short for "fanatic" and thus it's difficult to introduce some of you with reality. What is perfectly clear, however, is that this club is fundamentally flawed for Cup success. They cannot consistently score enough goals to beat the best teams, and instead of fixing this problem, Armstrong continues a series of pointless acquisitions in order to fool the fanatics and sell tickets. But get mad at me for pessimism. Maybe one of these days pessimism will be wrong. But in the history of this organization, it hasn't been yet.

The Blues are currently 7th in the NHL in goals per game. What moves is he supposed to make to improve scoring? You can complain all you want (and you do a ton of that), but you never say exactly WHAT moves Armstrong would/should make. Stastny and Lehtera: were they pointless acquisitions? Shattenkirk and Bouwmeester, were they pointless? Brian Elliot, was he pointless?

This is a good hockey team. Top 10 in scoring, but you want more of it? Okay who are you giving up to get it?

You also realize we're 7th in scoring with Backes, Oshie, Stastny, Schwartz, Lehtera, Bouwmeester, and Gunnarsson all missing time. But yeah, we suck balls.

[ecbm]

Brodeur has become a lightning-rod for a certain type of Blues fan (those emotionally traumatized, reasonably, by their lack of success) as have a whole string of goalies. It is what it is. I'm not convinced Allen would have outplayed him in any of the games he's performed poorly in-and those are the games Allen likely would have gotten were Elliott healthy. So what gives? The alternatives were:

-Binnington: literally no NHL experience; would have had his development stopped cold to sit the bench while Allen would be forced into a very heavy workload.

-Trade: no cap space and given the Blues' personnel situation going forward it would be foolish to make moves to clear cap space for and acquire a goalie who may be surplus a month later.

-Vokoun: retired. So, never an option.

-Bryzgalov: has performed worse (8GA in 2 starts...against TOR and OTT) than Brodeur, is being paid $2M more in base salary and is a head case who may mess up their locker room. Oh, and he needed time in the minors for conditioning.

Then again, they could have had me for $50K and a good health plan...

[cprice12]

Brodeur has become a lightning-rod for a certain type of Blues fan (those emotionally traumatized, reasonably, by their lack of success) as have a whole string of goalies. It is what it is. I'm not convinced Allen would have outplayed him in any of the games he's performed poorly in-and those are the games Allen likely would have gotten were Elliott healthy. So what gives? The alternatives were:

-Binnington: literally no NHL experience; would have had his development stopped cold to sit the bench while Allen would be forced into a very heavy workload.

-Trade: no cap space and given the Blues' personnel situation going forward it would be foolish to make moves to clear cap space for and acquire a goalie who may be surplus a month later.

-Vokoun: retired. So, never an option.

-Bryzgalov: has performed worse (8GA in 2 starts...against TOR and OTT) than Brodeur, is being paid $2M more in base salary and is a head case who may mess up their locker room. Oh, and he needed time in the minors for conditioning.

Then again, they could have had me for $50K and a good health plan...

I wouldn't play for $50k.
The league minimum for 2014 is $550k. And yes...I would play for that...even though I'd get destroyed and also probably very seriously hurt.

[ecbm]

I wouldn't play for $50k.
The league minimum for 2014 is $550k. And yes...I would play for that...even though I'd get destroyed and also probably very seriously hurt.

I did emphasize the health plan!

And I'd only go to the Blues for $50K-anyone else and my agent plays hardball...

[glen a richter]

The more I read about him and see how he's doing in Chicago, I'm not entirely convinced that Binnington isn't the Blues #1 plan for the future. Allen is a stopgap between now and when Binn is ready, and could be traded sometime down the line. To mess with young Jordan now would be foolish.

[ecbm]

The more I read about him and see how he's doing in Chicago, I'm not entirely convinced that Binnington isn't the Blues #1 plan for the future. Allen is a stopgap between now and when Binn is ready, and could be traded sometime down the line. To mess with young Jordan now would be foolish.

He's certainly part of the long term plan and his development is key to that. He may be the future, or it may be Allen or it may even be that Elliott continues his strong play and reamains the starter for some time-he's still only 29. Among goalies, that's a baby. Whoever doesn't have a seat when the music stops gets moved for prospects or picks as young goalies who have made it pretty far in their development and still perform don't exactly grow on trees.