The St. Louis Blues have one of the best talent pipelines in all of hockey. Despite this, it takes time to come together and game one did not go as expected.
The St. Louis Blues have a lot of talented prospects coming through their ranks. They’re minor league and junior prospects have been ranked anywhere from seventh to third best and a couple individuals have been ranked in the top 30 of all prospects.
Despite this, you cannot depend on talent alone as evidenced by the Blues first game at the 2018 Traverse City Prospects Tournament. The Blues dropped a disappointing result, bowing to the Carolina Hurricanes by a score of 4-1.
The one bright spot was Jake Walman scoring the Blues lone goal. His goal was set up by heavily touted Robert Thomas about halfway through the third period.
More from Analysis
- St. Louis Blues and Cardinals Similar In All The Wrong Ways
- St. Louis Blues Pros/Cons From 2022-23 Game 82 At Dallas
- St. Louis Blues Pros/Cons From 2022-23 Game 81 Vs Dallas
- St. Louis Blues Pros/Cons From 2022-23 Game 80 At Minnesota
- St. Louis Blues Pros/Cons From 2022-23 Game 79 Vs NY Rangers
Unfortunately for St. Louis, they were already trailing 3-0 at that point. In fact, according to the game recap on the team website, the Blues were down 2-0 after the first period. That’s not exactly the start the team was looking for. In fact, Jordan Kyrou was looking forward to this tournament prior to the start and hoping his team would win it. One loss does not preclude that from happening, but it’s not the start you were looking for.
Despite the lack of result, Mike Yeo was pleased with some of what he saw, including the playmaking ability of Thomas and the finish by Walman.
"“Robby, as far as the way he picks up the puck and moves his feet to create the 2-on-1, and then that’s what the skating ability of a guy like Walman can do. When you get your defenseman involved in the rush and the attack, and obviously with his shot and the ability to finish… it was a great play by both guys.” – Mike Yeo via stlblues.com"
First off, no offense, but we can’t be calling Robert Thomas Robby. Robby Fabbri is Robby to most of us, so they need to come up with a better nickname or hockey name or what have you.
In all seriousness, though, it is good to see both of those guys involved. Even with all we have heard, sometimes you wonder if Thomas will live up to the hype.
You cannot judge him off one game, but getting an early point is a good beginning. Walman, on the other hand, needed a good start.
Like plenty of his prospect cohorts, he came into last season with plenty of promise. There was even a hint of Walman being able to play with the Blues in 2017-18.
His offensive game is solid, but his defense and decision making were that of someone clearly not ready for the NHL yet last season. Perhaps he has learned from a year in the AHL and can progress toward the next level this year. While the Blues are pretty set on defense for now, we have seen injury wreak havoc on the Blues before and having a player truly ready with Walman’s potential would be beneficial.
The final score of 4-1 is troubling. You would like to see the defense not surrender two goals in the first 20 minutes and not give up four overall. It does not speak too highly to their readiness for this game.
That said, we cannot judge it all too harshly. Carolina has good prospects of their own, the Blues were shut down by a hot goalie and St. Louis does not have any of their important goaltenders on this team. Yes, Evan Fitzpatrick gained a lot of traction with his CHL season, but he’s still years away from the NHL and has plenty of time to grow.
Ultimately, all you have to know is that the guys hit the ice and got their legs under them. Getting a win would have been fantastic, but this tournament is as much about becoming teammates as it is about winning. Nevertheless, it would have been nice not to get spanked as the Note hit the ice for the first time.