The St. Louis Blues have a lot of options at their disposal as they prepare for the 2018-19 season. Their practices have given us some hints as to what the team is thinking.
One of the now famous things said by Allen Iverson was “we talkin’ ’bout practice.” However, when there are no games to speak of for the St. Louis Blues, practice is all you can discuss.
Even so, practice can give you some good indications of how the season will start and what the Blues are thinking right now. After only three scrimmages, we have a good idea of what the Blues are thinking for line combinations.
We have spent several moments pondering what the lineups could be. However, those were all guesses. Now, we have some proof as to what the Blues are thinking.
Contrary to popular belief, and meshing with what I have always thought since the moves were made, the Blues started training camp with Vladimir Tarasenko and Ryan O’Reilly on the same line. Everyone else figured it was going to be 17, 10 and 91. It makes more sense to give Tarasenko a fresh start after some harsh, but fair comments were made by Brayden Schenn toward the end of 2017-18.
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If those two aren’t meshing, there is no need to force it.
Another interesting possibility for that particular line is the inclusion of Pat Maroon. We wondered where they would place Maroon, since it could have been anywhere from the top line to the fourth. Yet, his inclusion on Tarasenko’s line makes complete sense, at least to start with.
Maroon provides net-front presence that will require a defender to focus on clearing him out of space. That will allow the skill of Tarasenko and O’Reilly to have more space. Maroon’s physicality and feistiness will also protect Tarasenko. Maroon may not be your old-school enforcer, but he does enough to make opponents think twice about messing with his linemates.
After a slower start than Mike Yeo hoped with his initial pairings, Yeo switched Jordan Kyrou onto a line with Robert Thomas and Robby Fabbri. If healthy, that could be one of the most dynamic lines the Blues have had in years with all that speed and talent. The only issue with putting too much stock in that line is that Kyrou has to earn a spot. He is more likely to start the year in the minors as compared to Thomas.
On what will likely be the team’s third line, Tyler Bozak and Alexander Steen seemed to have a lot of good chemistry early on in the scrimmages. I fully grant you that you can only glean so much from inter-squad games, but they seem to compliment the other very well. If the team is placing less on Steen’s shoulders than years past, he could be in for a good rebound season.
Last, but not least was the intriguing decision to have David Perron on what most of us consider the top line. This one could be the most fluid of situations, but the Blues seem confident that Perron’s season with Vegas was no fluke and he can compliment Schenn and Jaden Schwartz.
Of course, none of these things are set in stone. We might get one or two games into the preseason and Yeo shuffles the deck. However, starting the year with these lines gives a good indication that the team thinks those lines are their best bet for success.