Heroes & Zeros

Colton Parayko didn't step foot on the ice in this matchup, and I think most fans expected the defense to be negatively impacted by this, especially against a team with the offensive capability of Colorado. However, what we saw should prove to everyone watching that Parayko is the backbown of this defense and team. Without Colt, the Blues allowed 21 shots and 4 goals in the first period alone. Parayko is single handedly keeping this team afloat right now and this game was unequivocal proof of that.

There's not much that I can say here that I haven't said multiple times before about Justin Faulk. His play has just completely fallen off a cliff - he consistently looks lost on the ice on defense and especially on the PK. He single handedly cause multiple goals tonight, and when you look at how much we are paying him it should make you sick. I'm just going to keep praying that he will start playing at least medicore hockey at some point before the end of this year.

Buchnevich continues to severely underachieve; not only is he not scoring, but he is missing most of his passes, turning the puck over, and constantly giving the opposition good looks at our net. Buch has it in him to be a top player- we've seen that the last few seasons. However, with his 6 year $8 million AAV extention going into effect next year, his struggles are definitely concerning looking beyond this year.

I hate putting Nathan walker in the Zeros category because he is the one guy we can trust to bring 110% on the rink every night. However, he was promoted to 3C last night and it was really tough to watch. With his smaller size, he was unable to get anything going on offense and any time he did manage to get into the zone, he would get smothered and lose the puck almost immediately. This wasn't Walker's fault entirely given how much they put on him, but I would be remiss if I ignored his performance. Hopefully Monty learns from this and keeps this line experiment from happening again.