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Robert Thomas

WATCH LIVE: Blues raise Stanley Cup banner before meeting Capitals

By Sean LeahyOct 2, 2019, 6:15 PM EDT

NBCSN’s coverage of the 2019-20 NHL season begins with Wednesday’s matchup between the St. Louis Blues and Washington Capitals when the Blues raise their 2019 Stanley Cup banner. Coverage begins at 6:30p.m. ET on NBCSN. You can watch the game online and on the NBC Sports app by clicking here.

The Blues will raise their first-ever Stanley Cup banner 364 days after the Capitals did the same thing following their 2018 championship season. The only repeat champion over the past 2 decades is the Penguins, who won in 2016 and ‘17 before losing to Washington in their quest to three-peat.

“They’ve turned the page and moved forward,” said Blues GM Doug Armstrong. “There are still remnants of last year’s success — the ring ceremony opening night, maybe a visit to the White House or the Hall of Fame presentation — there are still moments that are connected to last year’s team. But once the guys walked into the room this training camp, they don’t talk about it.”

Washington enters this season with teo of its key players, Braden Holtby and Nicklas Backstrom, entering the final year of their current contracts. With Alex Ovechkin two years away from free agency himself, and the Capitals tight against the salary cap already, it will be difficult for the team to retain every core piece from its championship group.

“I didn’t think we would be able to get enough money to sign Carlson, and we made it happen,” said Capitals GM Brian McLellan. “I am not ruling anything out. I mean, obviously it will be tough to do, especially if they both have good years. It is going to be hard to do, but I wouldn’t rule it out.”

Alex Ovechkin enters this season 13th on the all-time goals list with 658. He is 10 away from tying Luc Robitaille for 12th place, but it will take a while to move up beyond that. 30 goals would move him to 11th, 40 goals would move him to eighth, and if he can match his total from last season (51), he would take sole possession of seventh.

[WATCH LIVE – COVERAGE BEGINS AT 6:30 P.M. ET – NBCSN]

WHAT: Washington Capitals at St. Louis Blues
WHERE: Enterprise Center
WHEN: Wednesday, Oct. 2, 6:30 p.m. ET
TV: NBCSN
LIVE STREAM: You can watch the Capitals-Blues stream on NBC Sports’ live stream page and the NBC Sports app.

PROJECTED LINEUPS

CAPITALS
Alex Ovechkin – Nicklas Backstrom – Tom Wilson
Jakub Vrana – Lars Eller – T.J. Oshie
Carl Hagelin – Chandler Stephenson – Richard Panik
Brendan Leipsic – Nic Dowd – Garnet Hathaway

Jonas Siegenthaler – John Carlson
Dmitry Orlov – Nick Jensen
Martin Fehervary – Radko Gudas

Starting goalie: Braden Holtby

BLUES
Jaden Schwartz – Brayden Schenn – Vladimir Tarasenko
Sammy Blais – Ryan O'Reilly – David Perron
Robby Fabbri – Tyler Bozak – Robert Thomas
Ivan Barbashev – Oskar Sundqvist – Alex Steen

Alex Pietrangelo – Justin Faulk
Jay Bouwmeester – Colton Parayko
Vince Dunn – Robert Bortuzzo

Starting goalie: Jordan Binnington

Coverage begins at 6:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN with a special 90-minute edition of NHL Live, as host Kathryn Tappen, analysts Keith Jones and Patrick Sharp, and NHL insider Bob McKenzie preview the evening’s doubleheader and the upcoming 2019-20 season. Analyst Jeremy Roenick will be on-site in St. Louis to capture the scene outside Enterprise Center prior to the raising of the Blues’ first-ever Stanley Cup championship banner.

Mike Emrick, who returns for his 15th season as NBC Sports’ lead NHL play-by-play commentator, Eddie Olczyk and Brian Boucher will call Capitals-Blues from Enterprise Center in St. Louis, Mo.

Previewing the 2019-20 St. Louis Blues

By Adam GretzSep 17, 2019, 11:33 AM EDT
1 Comment

(The 2019-20 NHL season is almost here so it’s time to look at all 31 teams. We’ll be breaking down strengths and weaknesses, looking at whether teams are better or worse this season and more!)

For more 2019-20 PHT season previews, click here.

Better or worse: The Blues are bringing back mostly the same team that won the Stanley Cup just a few months ago and that is generally a pretty good sign for a team’s chances. Whether or not they are any better or worse depends on your perspective and what your expectations are. There is a very good chance they finish as a better regular season team, but end up doing worse in the playoffs for no other reason than winning the Stanley Cup two years in a row is a brutally difficult task. If they finish with, let’s say, 105 or 106 points but get eliminated in Round 2 or 3 a year after winning the Stanley Cup are Blues fans going to be disappointed with that result? Going to guess they will not be.

Strengths: Their defensive play. They are a lockdown team that is one of the best in the league at limiting shot attempts against and as long as they get competent goaltending are one of the toughest teams in the league to score against. They have two great blue liners in Alex Pietrangelo and Colton Parayko, do not really have a true weakness anywhere on their defense, and have one of the best shutdown centers in the league in Ryan O'Reilly. Their other strength: Having one of the league’s elite goal-scorers in Vladimir Tarasenko. Since the start of the 2014-15 season only Alex Ovechkin (236) and John Tavares (183) have more goals than Tarasenko’s 182. Tarasenko has also played in fewer games than both during that stretch.

Weaknesses: It is probably more of a question mark than a “weakness,” but what will Jordan Binnington be able to do over a full season? His call-up was a turning point in the season and he fixed the team’s biggest early season flaw. But can he play at that level from the start of the year and maintain through the playoffs? That is the big unanswered question for the Blues entering the season and it will go a long way toward determining what they are capable of.

[MORE: Three questions | Under Pressure | X-Factor]

Coach Hot Seat Rating (1-10, 10 being red hot): Craig Berube has been behind the team’s bench for less than a year and in that time the Blues went 38-19-6 during the regular season (that is a 106 point pace over 82 games) and then won the first Stanley Cup in franchise history. His coaching hot seat rating is a 1 out of 10. It is probably even lower than that.

Three Most Fascinating Players: Robert Thomas, Jaden Schwartz, and Robby Fabbri are three players to watch.

The final numbers for Thomas’ rookie season do not really jump off the page, but keep in mind that he was 19 years old and playing meaningful minutes for a championship team. That is impressive, and even though it did not always result in goals or points you could see the potential he has and why the Blues are so excited about what he is capable of in the NHL. Does he take a big step in year two?

Schwartz had what was probably the worst regular season of his career offensively, scoring just 11 goals in 69 games, a massive drop from what he normally produces. It was almost entirely the result of a 6 percent shooting percentage that was entirely driven by a lot of bad luck. Every other aspect of his performance was right in line with what the Blues expect and it was only a matter of time until he bounced back. He did just that in the playoffs with 12 goals in 26 games, exceeding his regular season total. There is no reason to believe he will not be a 25-30 goal scorer again this season.

Fabbri is going to be fascinating just to see if he can get his career back on track. He is talented and had such a promising start four years ago only to be robbed of three years due to injuries. Can he get some better injury luck and still become the player the Blues hoped he would be?

Playoffs or lottery: As long as Binnington does not have a massive regression there is no reason this is not a playoff team again. They were built to win a year ago and the slow start in the first half was simply the result of not having any goaltending. Once they fixed that, combined with the improvement they saw under Berube, this team was a machine. They are not going away.

More
• Blues turn back the clock with alternate jersey
• ProHockeyTalk’s 2019 NHL free agency tracker
• Your 2019-20 NHL on NBC TV schedule

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Adam Gretz is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @AGretz.

PHT Stanley Cup Tracker: When Rob Thomas met Robert Thomas

St. Louis Blues
By Scott BilleckSep 6, 2019, 11:07 AM EDT
2 Comments

The PHT Stanley Cup tracker will keep tabs on how the St. Louis Blues spend their summer celebrating.

Sometimes, all the stars align.

Take for instance this past Sunday when Robert Thomas, the St. Louis Blues forward, walked on stage at a Rob Thomas concert at the Stifel Theatre in St. Louis with the Stanley Cup in his hands.

You’ll know the latter from his time as the frontman for Matchbox 20, or that one song he did with Carlos Santana at the turn of the century that as a massive hit.

The Blues’ Thomas had an eventful day with the Cup last week, including a surprise visit to the home of a family who lost all of their hockey gear in a house fire back in June, just days after the Blues hoisted Lord Stanley.

Thomas showed up to the door of the family’s temporary rental home on Wednesday.

“I can’t even imagine what they went through with the fire,” Thomas told stlouisblues.com. “To be able to help out in the little way that I can, bring them some happiness, it really makes you feel good inside.”

The family, with nine kids and a 10th on the way, was taken aback.

“This is incredible,” mother Collen Hanlon said. “For somebody who is famous and does this stuff to want to come here and hang out with our kids… it means so much. It makes the kids so happy. This is a dream come true and this is their wildest dream.

The PHT Stanley Cup tracker

• Week 1: Cup heads to the Canadian prairies
• Week 2: Stanley Cup heads east to Ontario
• Week 3: Pat Maroon takes Cup back to St. Louis for some toasted ravioli
• Week 4: Ryan O’Reilly celebrates with grandma
• Week 5: Perron and poutine; Allen gives back
• Week 6: Sanford takes Cup to school; Berube takes it to second home
• Week 7: From Russia to Indy Car

Scott Billeck is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @scottbilleck

Torey Krug says contract talks with Bruins ‘nonexistent’

Getty Images
Associated PressSep 5, 2019, 2:32 PM EDT

CHICAGO — Torey Krug says there have been no talks with the Boston Bruins on a new contract with one season left to unrestricted free agency.

Despite a breakout playoff performance that helped the Bruins get to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, Krug is stuck in neutral while the front office focuses on signing restricted free agents Brandon Carlo and Charlie McAvoy. Neither of those players has a deal with training camp set to start next week.

”Maybe a little surprise nothing has been talked about, but I realize that our team is in a different situation,” Krug said Thursday at the annual NHL/NHLPA preseason media tour.

”I understand that we have two guys that need to be signed and that can have big effects on our cap situation moving forward and our boss has to deal with that. Of course I wish there was dialogue and I wish there was some sort of call or something like that, but it’s just nonexistent.”

Krug’s 16 assists in the playoffs tied for the most among all players. Only 11 defensemen in the NHL had more points during the regular season.

The 28-year-old was quick to say he doesn’t feel disrespected by the lack of contract talks, but he doesn’t lack confidence in what he has shown on the ice.

”I put together a resume that I’m very, very comfortable with and happy about,” Krug said. ”You’ve just got to be patient and try to do your part, be a solider. You don’t get these opportunities too often. You just try to take advantage of it.”

With the Bruins in a salary-cap crunch, Krug could be headed toward a significant payday if he hits the free agent market. Since he became a full-time NHL player in 2013-14, his 286 points are just eight shy of P.K. Subban‘s total over that time, and Subban is entering the sixth season of a $72 million, eight-year contract.

Krug doesn’t have the Norris Trophy on his resume like Subban, though his postseason raised the bar on how he’s seen by teammates and around the league.

”He brings it all,” Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask said. ”He skates, he battles hard, hits, shoots. He can play power play, penalty kill. Not a whole lot more you can ask for.”

Krug’s signature moment of the playoffs came during Game 1 of the Cup Final when he got up from a tussle helmetless and raced down the ice to hit St. Louis forward Robert Thomas with a crushing open-ice blow.

”He’s a very big competitor,” Rask said. ”He doesn’t shy away from that.”

Don’t expect Krug to shy away from physicality in a contract year, which he believes won’t be any kind of distraction.

”It’s nothing that will affect me personally in how I play,” Krug said. ”If anything, it’s just added fuel to the fire.”

PHT Stanley Cup Tracker: Perron and poutine; Allen gives back

St. Louis Blues
By Scott BilleckAug 4, 2019, 2:29 PM EDT
1 Comment

The PHT Stanley Cup tracker will keep tabs on how the St. Louis Blues spend their summer celebrating.

The Stanley Cup got a little French-Canadian treatment this past week as it wound its way through Quebec.

David Perron got his day with hockey’s holy grail and didn’t disappoint, making sure a little French-Canadiana made its way into the Mug.

Poutine, which is a mix of fries, cheese curds and gravy, was put into the cup and then spooned onto plates at Louis Restaurant, one of Perron’s favorite hometown spots in Sherbrooke, Que.

The day began with the Cup being flown into an awaiting Perron, who placed it in the front seat of his car and drove it home.

There, his family sat around hockey’s best cereal bowl and feasted on Lucky Charms,

The day continued, including a street hockey game where the winner’s got to drink out of Cup.

Blues backup Jake Allen took his turn on Thursday in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

Allen took the Cup to Camp Wonder, a day camp during the summer months of July and August that provides inclusive activities for children and youth with intellectual and physical disabilities.

The visit was made possible through Allen’s Program 34 foundation, which aims to reduce and eliminate barriers in participation caused by poverty, distance, disability and culture.

Other highlights from the week

Friday was Robert Thomas‘ day.

He received a key to his hometown of Aurora, Ont. and had a parade.

Ah, ice cream. A Stanley Cup staple.

Sammy Blais also go his day.

“It’s really incredible the number of people that are here right now,” Blais told CIMT in French (via NHL.com) “They supported me all throughout the playoffs, and ever since I was a kid, they’ve supported me and have been proud. To see them here today, and to bring them the Stanley Cup, it was really important for me to give back to my city.”

And so, too, did Al Macinnis.

As the Blues have been doing all summer, they’ve complied another short video on players’ days with the Cup.

Here’s Tyler Bozak‘s:

And here’s another from its time in Saskatchewan:

The PHT Stanley Cup tracker

• Week 1: Cup heads to the Canadian prairies
• Week 2: Stanley Cup heads east to Ontario
• Week 3: Pat Maroon takes Cup back to St. Louis for some toasted ravioli
• Week 4: Ryan O’Reilly celebrates with grandma

Scott Billeck is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @scottbilleck