--The Blues had thought their power-play unit would be much improved in 2007-08 after finishing 29th in the league in '06-07. But this past year, the Blues dropped to 30th in the league with the man-advantage, converting just 14.1 percent of their opportunities with a lineup that included LW Paul Kariya, C Keith Tkachuk and RW Brad Boyes. "I think that we definitely didn't shoot the puck enough and we didn't establish our shot," Kariya said. "If you look at the top power plays in the league, they are all shot-based power plays. Then the plays, whatever you want to call them, the fancy plays, flow from there. But we just didn't seem to get it clicking. Then at some point, I definitely think the confidence of the guys on the power play to get the job done was lacking."
--The Blues have noted that they would like to add a puck-moving defensemen next season. There will be a few offensive defensemen available when free agency begins on July 1, but will the Blues be able to afford them? San Jose's Brian Campbell, Ottawa's Wade Redden and Montreal's Mark Streit are the names to watch; however, those players will certainly command top dollar when the marketplace opens. Currently, the Blues have about $43 million committed to next season without re-signing (unrestricted free agents) C Ryan Johnson, D Matt Walker or (restricted free agents) RW David Backes, C Jay McClement, D Jeff Woywitka and G Hannu Toivonen.
QUOTE TO NOTE "The games that I played better were on left wing. I like playing center, I do. I said this year that I was a center-man. Now, I'm leaning the other way. I don't know what they're going to do, so... wherever they tell me to play, I'll play." -- Keith Tkachuk, on returning to his regular position at left wing next season. (Tkachuk has been used primarily at center the past two seasons).
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If you look under the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL headings above there is a group box. Inside the group page are groups for basically every sports team. Right now I have requested and recieved co-ownership of the St. Louis Blues group. The problem I / we have is that there have been an extremely limited number of posts by Blues fans. Long story
The Blues were great at the start of last year but blew up near the end. Theyre draft in my thinking was pretty good. What we need to do in THIS offseason is improve our front line.
Thank God we picked up Chris Mason in a trade for a 4th round draft pick. That is huge for a playoff run when you have 2 very good goalies instead of 1 very good and a terrible back-up like Tovinun.
being a niagara boy i got to see petro play and he is a very offensively gifted defenseman. His defence needs a lot of work but he will be a big boost to the power play once he is nhl ready. I would compare him to Erik Johnson, just more offensive.
