St. Louis Blues: The Eighth Day Of Bluesmas
By Todd Panula
The St. Louis Blues have a history of guys who did well in their rookie years. Those same players tend to have sophomore slumps, but we may have avoided it with our most recent one.
On the eighth day of Bluesmas, the blue note gave to me, eight goals for Fabbri. Yes, Robby Fabbri has come back to life and upped his scoring and seems poised to bring us more for the St. Louis Blues.
Robby Fabbri was a rather big surprise in his first NHL season. He came in as part of a trio of surprises in the 2015-16 season.
Fabbri, Colton Parayko and Joel Edmundson all earned spots in the team directly out of training camp. They then never gave the coaching staff any reason to take them out of the lineup.
Fabbri went ahead and scored 18 goals in his rookie campaign. He would also chip in with 19 helpers, giving him 37 points on his very first try.
The kid had just about everything you’d want. He’s got speed, slick hands and a tenacious attitude.
The only thing he’s got going against him was his height. At 5’10, he’s a little undersized for today’s NHL, but at 195 lbs he is pretty solid and doesn’t get knocked off the puck very often.
Things didn’t start quite as well for Fabbri this year. It took him 13 games to score his first goal during the 2016-17 season.
Many feared he was going through the dreaded sophomore slump. Whether there is such a thing is up to your own beliefs, but often guys do struggle the second year.
It’s not just on their own efforts. It’s human nature to think you can put in the same effort and get the same results.
The difference becomes a scouting issue. Teams are taken by surprise in your first year. They don’t have the luxury of having faced you before and don’t know how to defend you.
In the second year, they’ve seen what you can do and what alterations you make a second time around as well, in the case of divisional teams. This time, they know your tricks and how to shut them down. It is up to the individual to keep evolving.
Fabbri appeared as though he was stuck. He was even put on the healthy scratch list at one point during this season. Each time he has faced adversity, he has managed to thrive though.
After going goalless for a prolonged period, he scored four goals in four games. Fabbri faced another drought and then chipped in four goals in six games.
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Thus far this season, he has eight goals and 17 points. We aren’t yet halfway through the season and he is just about halfway to his point total from last year.
In terms of goal scoring, he seems poised to make a jump. All he needs is 10 more goals to equal his rookie total and it seems unfathomable, barring injury of course, he won’t score at least that many in the time left in the season.
As with the entire Blues squad, it all boils down to consistency. Fabbri has proven he can get hot and score in bunches.
The Blues need him to do it with regularity. It’s great to score in groups as he has, but I’d rather see a goal every other game or every third game than having as many as five games between scores.
Still, the kid is a fantastic compliment to the more established scorers. Vladimir Tarasenko is the team’s superstar and Jaden Schwartz is a solid second guy in the scoring column.
Fabbri is putting his name up there rather quickly. What is more is he has shown an ability to play with anyone.
Fabbri, for all his talents, has not settled with a center or a line for that matter. Even so, especially after his benching, he goes out there and does his job and tries his best to help the team win.
It hasn’t mattered who he’s been with. Put him with Tarasenko, Stastny, Schwartz, Berglund, Lehtera, Yakupov or anyone. You generally get the same Robby Fabbri each time.
Next: The Seventh Day of Bluesmas
He’s not beyond reproach. Everyone makes mistakes, like a foolish attempt at a reverse hit that gave up possession and led to an overtime winner for Edmonton. Still, I’ll take a player of Fabbri’s quality any day.
He’ll never be the leader of the team. He’s not going to be a league superstar and who knows if he’ll ever make an All-Star team with the current set up. He fits the Blues right now and what they hope to be and if he has a good, long career in the note, we’ll all be the better for it.