Avalanche are still better

kinda concerned about the BUG but its probs ok

Hoping so. But while I was making this I realized Hoffman is a replacement for a potentially injured Tarasenko. But when Tarasenko eventually comes back they will be very good

No need to play the games then.

As long as binnington Keeps proving his cup run was a one off display, the Avs have nothing to worry about.

So grubauer and Francouz give you zero pause, but Binner is washed? Last szn binner had 4.5 goals saved above expected vs grubauer's -1.71. He was still above average last year. A few bad games in the bubble arent a big concern imo.

Goaltending isn’t all of it, it would help the blues if Binnigton plays better, but at the end of the day it is who has the better forwards and d

I get that a few bad games may be an anomaly, but look at it this way now: binnington was slightly above average last year and then sucked in the playoffs with THAT defense. Now that Pietro is gone, is he still gonna hold up? Krug doesn’t make you better defensively, he makes your defense more offensively mobile.

As for the Avs, their goaltending doesn’t bother me because of who’s playing in front of them and the possession style of play they use to keep shots as to a minimum as possible. The blues are all about boring, grind it out, weather the storm hockey that does depend on the goalie coming up big. Playoffs proved that no?

Yep. goaltending is way too random to be a serious concern but I still like Binner. West division should be a great battle at the top. Praying tarasenko can come back and be effective.

Ha! Says the guy counting on Grubaer ... by the way, are we still pretending that Binnington (who bested both COL goalies in quality start % last season) was terrible in 19/20? Even with his comedown, he was still clearly above average. And now, he's pissed, too.

Agree, I see 3 teams battling for the top spot, it will be fun to watch

I’ll direct you to the comment I just made above as a response to your comment.

Yes, Binny allowed a couple poorly-timed softies in the playoffs. Allen allowed on, too. It wasn't ideal. However, THAT defense was also half-ravaged by COVID at the time, and as such, unsurprisingly did quite a lot of sucking themselves.

The whole team sucked in the playoffs so you can't blame it all on the goalie. Parayko was one of our worst skaters and is usually the most reliable. I think Binner will be just fine. Backup G is a concern tho. Just gotta see how it plays out. Personally I'm seeing every single prediction put the Blues behind the Knights and Avs and I don't think there is a gap. Should be fun.

Believe me, I get that. COVID ****ed up a lot of players. You and me eye to eye on that. But now that Pietro is gone, and krug is in, the defense isn’t any better than it was then. Krug is good, but not as a defensively inclined dman. Parayko is the good standard on the blues blue line right now. Dunn is hopefully going to be very good, while scandella and Faulk are just big question marks.

At the end of the day, plenty of factors went into those playoffs, no doubt. The west is be “wild” (hehe) and fun to watch. I easily have the blues in the playoffs, but admittedly, I think it’ll them and the wild battling for 3/4 and the Avs and knights battling for 1/2.

Scandella was not a question mark last season, and he might be playing with Parayko again. Faulk had his struggles last season, no doubt, but he was excellent the last 20 games or so and in the bubble. Hopefully, he's sorted himself out.

Either way, it’s gonna be fun watching it fall into place eh?

You and everyone haha. I like the position the Blues are in. Getting a little slept on. I think they added enough offensive firepower (dont sleep on Thomas, he should be a top fwd this yr) to counter the loss of Pietrangelo, especially if Tarasenko can come back and contribute. Just gonna come down to whether Faulk and Scandella can hold water in their zone.