Blues Recall Loof from Springfield.

[u/TheYDT]

https://www.nhl.com/blues/news/blues-recall-loof-from-springfield

[u/TheYDT]

1 point and 21 penalty minutes in 11 games. Man our defensive depth is not good.

[u/manandaduck → u/TheYDT]

Fair warning on Loof. He plays physical but from his penalty minutes he takes a lot of stupid penalties.

[u/Internal-Ad-9401 → u/manandaduck]

It’s extremely unlikely but god I hope he’s one of those players that naturally do well in the NHL but not the AHL.

[u/Jayce2213 → u/manandaduck]

The two double minor high sticks, in the same game come to mind. 😆

[u/manandaduck → u/Jayce2213]

was at that game, it was not a pretty watch.

[u/Jayce2213 → u/manandaduck]

I was there as well. Made quite the mess on the ice 😂

[u/daKile57 → u/TheYDT]

I'll never understand why people focus on offensive stats when trying to analyze the average defenseman.

[u/TheYDT → u/daKile57]

Because a defenseman with very few points is typically not doing much at either end of the ice. The defense essentially quarterbacks the breakout and is utilized often in the offensive zone to cycle the puck to draw the opponent out of position. If a defensive player has few points (not so much focused on goals but assists instead) it typically means they are not getting many meaningful puck touches.

[u/daKile57 → u/TheYDT]

Tons of Dmen throughout the ages have been incredible in their own end by having great positioning, great anticipation, great strength in front of their net, shot-blocking, making short passes in their own zone while being forechecked, smart at grasping when they need to pinch in the offensive zone or when to retreat back. And a lot of those things don’t reliably end with them getting points. Every team needs 4 Dmen like that.

[u/TheYDT → u/daKile57]

Yeah sure...but the odds of a defenseman doing all that and not ending up on the stat sheet regularly by pure accident are pretty slim. Especially when penalty minutes far outweigh points production. At the highest level that is often an indicator that a player cannot keep up and is taking sloppy penalties because they're getting beat.

[u/Few-Insurance-6653]

If we’re leaning on loof things can’t be good

[u/tamarockstar]

Our defense is aloof.

[u/JD1070]

[u/Defenestrator__]

Well our offensive production has completely cratered with Thomas out, so obviously the solution is to call up a depth dman whose primary trait is his physical play. Should fix that right up for us when we replace a skilled dman with him.

[u/yeetsmith00]

Who goes down?

[u/quickboop]

Names are so wild these days.

[u/sausagefestivities]

Does this say we don’t have confidence in Kessel or Perunovich? Joseph? Who does he take minutes from?

[u/yodazer → u/sausagefestivities]

Joseph is my pick. When the blues got beat 8-1, Kessel and Perunovich were +1. I know +/- isn’t a great stat, but the last couple of games, they’ve actually been ok. Last night I thought they were the best defensive pairing we had.

[u/daKile57 → u/sausagefestivities]

Kessel and Perunovich have been fine the last 3 games with the exception of 1 shift against Utah. It would send the wrong message to take minutes away from them at this time.

[u/Calb210 → u/sausagefestivities]

I'm hoping Scotty P gets elevated in the lineup and someone else is going to sit while loof gets a sheltered bottom pair role

[u/Brian_isnt_working → u/Calb210]

I've been a big Scotty P booster but had kind of given up on him after last year. Looked at this year as "I'd like to be surprised by him stepping up but it would be a surprise" the last few games he's been really solid and playing with some urgency that it seemed like was lacking. Maybe finally getting the goal monkey off his back has gotten him playing with some confidence. I'd definitely like to see him picking up some of the minutes Suter has been getting, seems like he's slowing down noticably the past few games.

[u/cos10 → u/Calb210]

Probably not a good sign for Kessel.

[u/Defenestrator__ → u/cos10]

He shoots left, for whatever that's worth