I view him as a reserve center. If the worst happens, and Eichel and Mittelstadt are both hurt, you could still go

Reinhart
Erod
Berglund

Down the middle. It's kind of interesting to me that Botterill always mentions Reinhart's ability to play center, but when ROR had his appendix out, it was Erod who moved to 2C, not Reinhart, iirc. I wonder if Housley has a different take than Botterill.

The biggest thing to me is that Mittelstadt looked fine at C last year, and Berglund is a really nice 3C. It sort of feels like reinventing the wheel to put sam at C
- jcragcrumple

I’m not saying to put Sam at Center
Just that the chance he got at Center last season was clearly not set up for him to have a good chance at success

So while most seem to have closed the door on Sam at Center,
I’m not writing him off just yet
He might still be able to do it

That's on the networks. They pay the production fees. It's why the NHL went to NBC over ESPN in the first place. ESPN wanted the league to pay its production fees, which was unprecedented for a major sport.
- buffalofan19

I get that, but having a national broadcast with an unabashedly biased crew calling the game looks bush-league. It's like if the Bruins were in the Cup Final and you have Jack Edwards doing the national games saying how clean the Bruins are and all the opposing players are pussies.

I get that, but having a national broadcast with an unabashedly biased crew calling the game looks bush-league. It's like if the Bruins were in the Cup Final and you have Jack Edwards doing the national games saying how clean the Bruins are and all the opposing players are pussies.
- Wetbandit1

The thing about Edwards is that he has done national games for Versus/NBC/NBCSN and he changes he tone when he does. Guys Jack Edwards know his audience and they play to it.

NBC also never does that for the playoffs.

The thing about Edwards is that he has done national games for Versus/NBC/NBCSN and he changes he tone when he does. Guys Jack Edwards know his audience and they play to it.

NBC also never does that for the playoffs.
- buffalofan19

But that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying the simulcast is bush league for a national broadcast. The NHL absolutely could stipulate that NBC can't simulcast games, but they have no leverage and are too cheap to do it.

Okmoulson?

Okpoulson?

I can't decide
- LandlordTom

Funny thing is he still has the best numbers of anyone who got big money in that 2016 Free Agent Class. Although that isn’t saying much.

But that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying the simulcast is bush league for a national broadcast. The NHL absolutely could stipulate that NBC can't simulcast games, but they have no leverage and are too cheap to do it.
- Wetbandit1

It has never had leverage. The sport just simply isn't that popular and never will be. It's either simulcast the games, or just show fewer national games. If I am the league, I couldn't care less how they do it. I am getting guaranteed money from the network no matter what.

Now, you could make the argument that this could lessen the value but I doubt it. The NHL has its niche followers. They're going to female dog and complain but keep watching, and advertisers know that. The NHL gets its viewership from the big markets, which other than NY and Boston also happen to have their TV deals with Comcast.

It has never had leverage. The sport just simply isn't that popular and never will be. It's either simulcast the games, or just show fewer national games. If I am the league, I couldn't care less how they do it. I am getting guaranteed money from the network no matter what.

Now, you could make the argument that this could lessen the value but I doubt it. The NHL has its niche followers. They're going to female dog and complain but keep watching, and advertisers know that. The NHL gets its viewership from the big markets, which other than NY and Boston also happen to have their TV deals with Comcast.
- buffalofan19

The argument is they don't even try and expand. I never see ads on a channel that's not owned by NBC Universal. No games on NBC except weekend afternoons when no one watches TV except the NFL and college football, playoff games on the (frank)ing golf channel...

It's like a business in the middle of nowhere not advertising and wondering why no one is coming through the doors.

They need to be aggressive, put games on social media like the NFL has in the past few years. Buy some (frank)ing ads. Put stipulations in the TV contracts, spend some of that HRR to grow the game.

https://www.smallteaser.c...3-v-3-tournament-who-wo-1


I would go with sheary over okposo or berglund

https://www.smallteaser.com/@gk18/if-the-nhl-did-a-3-v-3-tournament-who-wo-1


I would go with sheary over okposo or berglund
- homiedclown

They left off Leddy for the Islanders....one of the best skating D men.

Weird omission considering who’s picked ahead of him

https://www.smallteaser.com/@gk18/if-the-nhl-did-a-3-v-3-tournament-who-wo-1


I would go with sheary over okposo or berglund
- homiedclown

Eichel, Reinhart, Dahlin
Mittelstadt, Skinner, Ristolainen
Berglund, Sheary, Guhle
Rodrigues, Okposo, Scandella

https://www.smallteaser.com/@gk18/if-the-nhl-did-a-3-v-3-tournament-who-wo-1


I would go with sheary over okposo or berglund
- homiedclown

Berglund would be a sweet choice if they were trying to tank.

Berglund would be a sweet choice if they were trying to tank.
- Hatboro_Swords

Berglund isn’t a bad skater

Berglund isn’t a bad skater
- sbroads24

That’s a far cry from when u said he was fast
Which he’s not

https://www.google.com/am...ard-vladimir-sobotka/amp/


St. Louis Blues 2017-18 Final Report Card: Vladimir Sobotka

by Todd Panula13w ago

The St. Louis Blues were hoping for a carbon copy of the player they lost to the KHL back in the summer of 2014. The player they got instead brings a different skill set, but is still missing something.

When the St. Louis Blues lost Vladimir Sobotka to the KHL in the summer of 2014, it was a disappointment, but understood. The Blues were smart not to put up the kind of money the Russian league was willing to pay for a guy that was a third line player in the NHL.

Nevertheless, the Blues were happy to have him back when he returned. They desperately needed someone who was feisty, threw their body around and won faceoffs.

Unfortunately, not all those skills came back to North America with Sobotka. Playing in Russia, and getting slightly older, took some of the sting out of Sobotka’s game.

He has transformed himself into something different. Sadly, the Blues could use the old Sobotka as much, if not more, than the current one.

Final Grade: C+

If you look at Sobotka’s stats and base his grade on nothing but that, he should get a B or higher. He set several career highs.

Sobotka’s 11 goals were the most he ever scored in the NHL. His 31 points were the second most of his career, missing a new record by three points.

Sobotka also set other career bests. He averaged 17:07 on the ice per game, had a career best for blocked shots with 45, the most games played (81) and took the most shots he ever has.

Despite his high of 11 goals, his shooting percentage was the lowest it has been since 2010-11. He tied a career high for turnovers.

The offense was an added bonus for Sobotka, but he was mainly brought in to help a young team learn defensive skills. He fell short in that category.

His minus-6 plus/minus rating was the worst he has ever had with the Blues. The only worse seasons were when he was coming up with the Boston Bruins.

Sobotka’s overall point share numbers were on par with what he’s done with the Blues. There is a slight downward trend in his defensive point shares though, even including his years before leaving North America.

Despite all that, the high numbers on offense should have been enough to vault him into a higher grade. It was his inconsistency that kept him lower though.

As Jeff Gordon points out, Sobotka had two different 17-game stretches where his offense dried up. He scored no goals and one goal during those separate funks.

His offense came in bunches too. He did turn it on, scoring seven points in nine games in March. However, he went cold when the team needed every point, scoring no points at all in the Blues final six games.

Sobotka also won the fewest faceoffs of his Blues career. Now, it must be noted that some of that was not his fault as he was moved to a wing position. Even so, he left the Blues as one of their best faceoff takers and returned to be taken out of that role. His percentage was not bad, but given the extra playing time, you would expect more.

That’s the other thing that puts his career numbers in perspective. He had more ice time and more games than ever and only managed two more goals than his previous best.

He was given solid time on the power play units. Despite this, he only had no goals and three assists on the man advantage.

Lastly, there was simply not the physicality we grew accustomed to from Sobotka. His hit totals were not incredibly far from his best seasons. However, there we did not see the little guy with gumption as Darren Pang calls him.

He was not as aggressive on the forecheck and, thus, did not force as many turnovers per game as he had in the past. Sobotka is getting older and became accustomed to being more of an offensive player in Russia. Despite this, the Blues needed the old Sobotka more than they needed the couple extra goals.

Going forward, if Sobotka keeps up those same numbers and returns to a third or fourth line role, the Blues will be set. If he keeps his points per game pace and as diminished game totals or ice time, the numbers are likely to go down.

Unless he is included in a deal, Sobotka will be on the team next season as he has two ears left on his contract. He doesn’t have to play with reckless abandon, but he needs to be more forceful like he used to. That was the biggest reason his grade got lowered for 2017-18.

https://www.google.com/am...card-patrik-berglund/amp/


St. Louis Blues 2017-18 Final Report Card: Patrik Berglund

by Todd Panula14w ago

For the second season in three years, Patrik Berglund was burdened by shoulder injuries. Despite this, he had a decent season, which makes you wonder what he is capable of.

The fact that St. Louis Blues fans are still wondering what the real Patrik Berglund is and can accomplish is quite astounding. He is 29 and just played his 10th NHL season.

You would figure you would have a pinpoint on what to expect. Not so in the case of Berglund.

He gives you just enough to think there is more in there. He disappoints you just enough to figure there is no way he will reach his full potential. Then the juicy middle ground is normally where he falls.

Final Grade: C

If you look at Berglund’s stats as cold, hard numbers, Berglund was disappointing. He had 17 goals and 26 points, which means his assist numbers have continued to go down over the last few years.

However, he gets a pass on cold, hard stats because he played in 57 games due to the aforementioned injury. In actuality, his stats are quite good when considering the limited amount of games.

With 26 points in 57 games, Berglund managed to score a point just about every other game – every 2.19 games to be exact. If you expand that out, he would have been on pace for around 24 goals, which would have been a career high, and 37 points.

Those numbers wouldn’t be jaw dropping, but they would be decent for a full season.

On the plus side, it is good to see Berglund establish himself as more of a scorer. That is one of the big parts of his game that he has struggled with over the years.

The downfall of all this is his assist numbers continue to go down. While Berglund is no longer playing center, you still like your players to have more assists than goals unless you’re just a pure goal scorer like Alex Ovechkin, which Berglund is not.

Berglund has had more goals than assists the last three seasons and four of the last six. Some of this could be due to injury, but it seems to just be part of Berglund’s game.

Nevertheless, when he is on his game, he remains a potent threat for the Blues and would be a fabulous third line scorer if the team had the right amount of depth. The problem is they don’t always have that depth and Berglund has had to go up and down the lineup, like many players. Thus, consistency is hard to come by.

The disappointing part of his game, for a large player, is his lack of physicality. Berglund was credited with 111 hits this season, but he’s not really punishing anyone.

Nobody expects him to be a bruiser, but he should be more menacing. In a league that is getting smaller with the speedsters, he should be able to bully more players, both defensively and in posession of the puck. That just does not seem to happen.

Additionally, Berglund continues to be a minus-player. I fully recognize that you can only judge so much from a stat that takes into accound four or five players at once. However, the fact that Berglund has only been a plus-player four seasons and only solidly on the plus side in two shows that he is not the most dependable defensive player.

Although we praised Berglund’s offense above, you have to take it with a grain of salt. Like so many other Blues, he fails to find any consistency. As pointed out in a column by Jeff Gordon of the Post-Dispatch, Berglund only scored once during a 26 game span and was benched due to lackluster play.

Berglund is not alone in this, but he’s been around long enough to know how to achieve better.

Like much of the team, Berglund falls right in the middle. There is a decent amount of good, but still too much bad and not enough of either to tip the scales either way.

At this point, we have to assume that a C-player is what he is. You’ll get glimpses, but never get the full picture – at least not the one we hoped for. At least he’s popular with the ladies anyway.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/bleedinblue.com/2018/05/02/st-louis-blues-2017-18-final-report-card-patrik-berglund/amp/


St. Louis Blues 2017-18 Final Report Card: Patrik Berglund

by Todd Panula14w ago

For the second season in three years, Patrik Berglund was burdened by shoulder injuries. Despite this, he had a decent season, which makes you wonder what he is capable of.

The fact that St. Louis Blues fans are still wondering what the real Patrik Berglund is and can accomplish is quite astounding. He is 29 and just played his 10th NHL season.

You would figure you would have a pinpoint on what to expect. Not so in the case of Berglund.

He gives you just enough to think there is more in there. He disappoints you just enough to figure there is no way he will reach his full potential. Then the juicy middle ground is normally where he falls.

Final Grade: C

If you look at Berglund’s stats as cold, hard numbers, Berglund was disappointing. He had 17 goals and 26 points, which means his assist numbers have continued to go down over the last few years.

However, he gets a pass on cold, hard stats because he played in 57 games due to the aforementioned injury. In actuality, his stats are quite good when considering the limited amount of games.

With 26 points in 57 games, Berglund managed to score a point just about every other game – every 2.19 games to be exact. If you expand that out, he would have been on pace for around 24 goals, which would have been a career high, and 37 points.

Those numbers wouldn’t be jaw dropping, but they would be decent for a full season.

On the plus side, it is good to see Berglund establish himself as more of a scorer. That is one of the big parts of his game that he has struggled with over the years.

The downfall of all this is his assist numbers continue to go down. While Berglund is no longer playing center, you still like your players to have more assists than goals unless you’re just a pure goal scorer like Alex Ovechkin, which Berglund is not.

Berglund has had more goals than assists the last three seasons and four of the last six. Some of this could be due to injury, but it seems to just be part of Berglund’s game.

Nevertheless, when he is on his game, he remains a potent threat for the Blues and would be a fabulous third line scorer if the team had the right amount of depth. The problem is they don’t always have that depth and Berglund has had to go up and down the lineup, like many players. Thus, consistency is hard to come by.

The disappointing part of his game, for a large player, is his lack of physicality. Berglund was credited with 111 hits this season, but he’s not really punishing anyone.

Nobody expects him to be a bruiser, but he should be more menacing. In a league that is getting smaller with the speedsters, he should be able to bully more players, both defensively and in posession of the puck. That just does not seem to happen.

Additionally, Berglund continues to be a minus-player. I fully recognize that you can only judge so much from a stat that takes into accound four or five players at once. However, the fact that Berglund has only been a plus-player four seasons and only solidly on the plus side in two shows that he is not the most dependable defensive player.

Although we praised Berglund’s offense above, you have to take it with a grain of salt. Like so many other Blues, he fails to find any consistency. As pointed out in a column by Jeff Gordon of the Post-Dispatch, Berglund only scored once during a 26 game span and was benched due to lackluster play.

Berglund is not alone in this, but he’s been around long enough to know how to achieve better.

Like much of the team, Berglund falls right in the middle. There is a decent amount of good, but still too much bad and not enough of either to tip the scales either way.

At this point, we have to assume that a C-player is what he is. You’ll get glimpses, but never get the full picture – at least not the one we hoped for. At least he’s popular with the ladies anyway.
- jdfitz77

Last sentence comes out of nowhere.

Okmoulson?

Okpoulson?

I can't decide
- LandlordTom

Okmoulso

That’s a far cry from when u said he was fast
Which he’s not
- jdfitz77

My god you are so weird.

Do you have daddy issues?

https://www.smallteaser.com/@gk18/if-the-nhl-did-a-3-v-3-tournament-who-wo-1


I would go with sheary over okposo or berglund
- homiedclown

Is it bad that I forgot Scandella is on this team?

Last sentence comes out of nowhere.
- Der Kaiser

https://www.google.com/amp/s/bleedinblue.com/2018/05/02/st-louis-blues-2017-18-final-report-card-patrik-berglund/amp/


St. Louis Blues 2017-18 Final Report Card: Patrik Berglund

by Todd Panula14w ago

For the second season in three years, Patrik Berglund was burdened by shoulder injuries. Despite this, he had a decent season, which makes you wonder what he is capable of.

The fact that St. Louis Blues fans are still wondering what the real Patrik Berglund is and can accomplish is quite astounding. He is 29 and just played his 10th NHL season.

You would figure you would have a pinpoint on what to expect. Not so in the case of Berglund.

He gives you just enough to think there is more in there. He disappoints you just enough to figure there is no way he will reach his full potential. Then the juicy middle ground is normally where he falls.

Final Grade: C

If you look at Berglund’s stats as cold, hard numbers, Berglund was disappointing. He had 17 goals and 26 points, which means his assist numbers have continued to go down over the last few years.

However, he gets a pass on cold, hard stats because he played in 57 games due to the aforementioned injury. In actuality, his stats are quite good when considering the limited amount of games.

With 26 points in 57 games, Berglund managed to score a point just about every other game – every 2.19 games to be exact. If you expand that out, he would have been on pace for around 24 goals, which would have been a career high, and 37 points.

Those numbers wouldn’t be jaw dropping, but they would be decent for a full season.

On the plus side, it is good to see Berglund establish himself as more of a scorer. That is one of the big parts of his game that he has struggled with over the years.

The downfall of all this is his assist numbers continue to go down. While Berglund is no longer playing center, you still like your players to have more assists than goals unless you’re just a pure goal scorer like Alex Ovechkin, which Berglund is not.

Berglund has had more goals than assists the last three seasons and four of the last six. Some of this could be due to injury, but it seems to just be part of Berglund’s game.

Nevertheless, when he is on his game, he remains a potent threat for the Blues and would be a fabulous third line scorer if the team had the right amount of depth. The problem is they don’t always have that depth and Berglund has had to go up and down the lineup, like many players. Thus, consistency is hard to come by.

The disappointing part of his game, for a large player, is his lack of physicality. Berglund was credited with 111 hits this season, but he’s not really punishing anyone.

Nobody expects him to be a bruiser, but he should be more menacing. In a league that is getting smaller with the speedsters, he should be able to bully more players, both defensively and in posession of the puck. That just does not seem to happen.

Additionally, Berglund continues to be a minus-player. I fully recognize that you can only judge so much from a stat that takes into accound four or five players at once. However, the fact that Berglund has only been a plus-player four seasons and only solidly on the plus side in two shows that he is not the most dependable defensive player.

Although we praised Berglund’s offense above, you have to take it with a grain of salt. Like so many other Blues, he fails to find any consistency. As pointed out in a column by Jeff Gordon of the Post-Dispatch, Berglund only scored once during a 26 game span and was benched due to lackluster play.

Berglund is not alone in this, but he’s been around long enough to know how to achieve better.

Like much of the team, Berglund falls right in the middle. There is a decent amount of good, but still too much bad and not enough of either to tip the scales either way.

At this point, we have to assume that a C-player is what he is. You’ll get glimpses, but never get the full picture – at least not the one we hoped for. At least he’s popular with the ladies anyway.
- jdfitz77

Not sure what this is suppose to prove, but for three straight years I watched Captain Canada go anywhere from 10-20 game stretches with 1-2 goals.

Seems like there won't be a big drop off then

https://www.google.com/amp/s/bleedinblue.com/2018/05/02/st-louis-blues-2017-18-final-report-card-patrik-berglund/amp/


St. Louis Blues 2017-18 Final Report Card: Patrik Berglund

by Todd Panula14w ago


Final Grade: C

- jdfitz77

All of this reminds me of Jochen Hecht...except maybe the "popular with the ladies" part, but maybe they share that as well.

Okmoulson?

Okpoulson?

I can't decide
- LandlordTom

I usually just call it "The Murray Mistake".

I usually just call it "The Murray Mistake".
- buffalofan19

He didn't make mistakes, he got a raw deal, and I'll fight you if you don't agree.

Is it bad that I forgot Scandella is on this team?
- buffalofan19

pilet, guhle, and what side dahlin plays makes this interesting