Half-Assed GDT: Blues Rangers: I was told to bring back the trains. So. Choo Choo

[542365]

kessel has been really unnoticeable almost this entire time he has been in there. which for guy like him is great.

Yep, has all the makings of a safe bottom pairing Dman. Largely unspectacular, but doesn’t hurt the team when he’s out there and chews up some minutes. Valuable player, especially since guys are paid by points for the most part and he likely won’t put up many so he should remain relatively inexpensive. Glad he’s gotten a look this year. Wouldn’t be shocked if they sent him back while working on a trade once Faulk returns, but he’ll be back soon if he is.

 

[Ted Hoffman]

This team confuses me.

The PGT is even crazier; it's like they haven't won a game yet this season. I'm not sure if I would ever come back to this little slice of the forums if it had as many Negative Nancys as big-market teams do on here.

To be fair, since the Rangers got off to a great start they're 10-8-1. Which, that doesn't look bad, but they've got an SO loss to Montreal, an ugly loss to Carolina (at home), a semi-ugly loss to Vancouver (at home), an ugly loss to Toronto (at home), an ugly loss to Buffalo (at home), and ugly losses on the road to Ottawa, Washington and now us.

Shesterkin in his last 4 games is 1-3-0, 4.06, .828; over his last 12 games, it's 6-6-0, 3.26, .883. And some of that is the Rangers playing like dogshit, but some of that is him playing like dogshit. Where you look at Binnington's 3.05, .907 this season and say "yeah, but that's not been indicative of his play, he's really been a lot better than that" you look at Shesterkin's 2.90, .901 and say "yeah, that's been him." And as long as he keeps that up, Rangers fans are going to get increasingly antsy about their team - and their GDTs and PGTs will probably get increasingly crazy.

 

[finnishflash13]

Just let Peru play wing.

that might actually require him to shoot the puck at the goal which he seems allergic to. but he is also not an NHL defenseman.

 

[Cotton McKnight]

when do we talk about how faulk and krug are mismatched pair? krug and kessel seem much better fit, as faulk and krug both would benefit from partner who plays simpler game.

I agree, Keep Kessel on pair two and move Krug down with Scandella.

 

[PerryTurnbullfan]

that might actually require him to shoot the puck at the goal which he seems allergic to. but he is also not an NHL defenseman.

Just tell him to work on his saucer passes over the goalies pads

 

[Ted Hoffman]

This team confuses me. And the longer it keeps playing like this, the longer Armstrong is going to think everything is fine and the higher the chances Bannister gets the 'interim' tag taken off.

Which, I don't care about the last part, but the first part screams "inaction, tweaking on the edges trying to increase playoff success, longer stay in mediocrity without addressing the real longer-term needs of the team."

 

[bleedblue1223]

I don't think this team is fooling Army. When this team wins, it's the goalie and the top line doing some heavy lifting. Parayko has been very good this season too. While we have some very good pieces, we lack a quality 2nd line, a true top guy on the defensive side, and a ton of good enough depth required to win.

 

[Blueston]

I agree, Keep Kessel on pair two and move Krug down with Scandella.

i would like to try krug with parayko, leddy with faulk, and peru with kessel. marco can get dealt for whatever he fetches. we don't have enough of the right pieces to have a great d, but that would balance each of the pairs and allow for a bit more even distribution among top 4.

 

[joe galiba]

i would like to try krug with parayko, leddy with faulk, and peru with kessel. marco can get dealt for whatever he fetches. we don't have enough of the right pieces to have a great d, but that would balance each of the pairs and allow for a bit more even distribution among top 4.

if we are putting Leddy with Faulk, and are going to even out the hard usage a bit, I would like to see Perunovich with Parako and keep Krug and Kessel together

 

[Brian39]

I thought that was a pretty well-played game by the Blues, although I would credit this game as a special teams win more than anything else. We allowed too many shots/chances, but most of the stuff that concerned me happened after we had a 2 goal lead and the Rangers went into desperation mode. This was largely a toss up game up to the point where we scored our 2nd PP goal to make it 3-1. The Rangers turned it on (and we went squarely into lead-protect mode) after that and the numbers turned heavily in their favor.

I thought we earned our PPs by getting their D to run around chasing and then we scored 2 nice PP goals. The 4 PPs we got in the first half of the game are a huge reason the game was even to that point, but the penalty gap was a result of us getting them chasing. Then they earned their PPs from us running around chasing after the score was 3-1. I think this game was much more closely played than the box score indicates. Binner was great, but I would not say he was the only (or even biggest) reason we won that game.

I thought all of our goals were quality goals, so it isn't like we capitalized of a bad night by Shesterkin. The 1st was stoppable, but it was a low-to-high pass from the wall to the high slot and Kyrou ripped a quick release into the top corner. The puck flipped up on end as the shot was being taken, so there was no way for the goalie to read the shot off the blade. That's a good goal. The 2nd and 3rd goals go in damn near every time and the 4th goal was a well placed shot on a breakaway where Kyrou wasn't remotely pressured.

That's 2 good goals and 2 almost sure-thing goals. In addition to those plays, Shesterkin made a couple fantastic stops on back door cross-ice plays that easily could have gone in. I don't think our expected 2.5 goals accurately captures how good our chances were tonight. I'd expect 3-4 goals off those chances on the large majority of nights. Now, does Binner hold them to 2 most nights like that? No. But I think he holds them to 4 or less way more often than not.

That game reminded me of a lot of games in our 2021/22 season where we were opportunist with our chances and passed up quantity for ++ quality. There are absolutely things to work on and I'm not saying that it was a perfectly played game by us. But I think that was a decent win against a good team.

 

[Blueston]

if we are putting Leddy with Faulk, and are going to even out the hard usage a bit, I would like to see Perunovich with Parako and keep Krug and Kessel together

that is interesting thought. my concern would be that i think krug can handle some tougher minutes if he has good enough defensive partner (i believe he played primarily with carlo last few years in boston), while i question whether peru can. but not opposed to trying.

 

[Majorityof1]

I thought that was a pretty well-played game by the Blues, although I would credit this game as a special teams win more than anything else. We allowed too many shots/chances, but most of the stuff that concerned me happened after we had a 2 goal lead and the Rangers went into desperation mode. This was largely a toss up game up to the point where we scored our 2nd PP goal to make it 3-1. The Rangers turned it on (and we went squarely into lead-protect mode) after that and the numbers turned heavily in their favor.

I thought we earned our PPs by getting their D to run around chasing and then we scored 2 nice PP goals. The 4 PPs we got in the first half of the game are a huge reason the game was even to that point, but the penalty gap was a result of us getting them chasing. Then they earned their PPs from us running around chasing after the score was 3-1. I think this game was much more closely played than the box score indicates. Binner was great, but I would not say he was the only (or even biggest) reason we won that game.

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I thought all of our goals were quality goals, so it isn't like we capitalized of a bad night by Shesterkin. The 1st was stoppable, but it was a low-to-high pass from the wall to the high slot and Kyrou ripped a quick release into the top corner. The puck flipped up on end as the shot was being taken, so there was no way for the goalie to read the shot off the blade. That's a good goal. The 2nd and 3rd goals go in damn near every time and the 4th goal was a well placed shot on a breakaway where Kyrou wasn't remotely pressured.

That's 2 good goals and 2 almost sure-thing goals. In addition to those plays, Shesterkin made a couple fantastic stops on back door cross-ice plays that easily could have gone in. I don't think our expected 2.5 goals accurately captures how good our chances were tonight. I'd expect 3-4 goals off those chances on the large majority of nights. Now, does Binner hold them to 2 most nights like that? No. But I think he holds them to 4 or less way more often than not.

That game reminded me of a lot of games in our 2021/22 season where we were opportunist with our chances and passed up quantity for ++ quality. There are absolutely things to work on and I'm not saying that it was a perfectly played game by us. But I think that was a decent win against a good team.

Bannister pretty directly disagrees with you. His post game comments were among the most negative I've seen from a coach after a multi-goal win. He did not like our 5v5 game at all, and said we won because of Binnington and PP.

 

[GoldenSeal]

Bannister pretty directly disagrees with you. His post game comments were among the most negative I've seen from a coach after a multi-goal win. He did not like our 5v5 game at all, and said we won because of Binnington and PP.

Bannister is starting to be my favorite coach just because of that.

 

[Brian39]

Bannister pretty directly disagrees with you. His post game comments were among the most negative I've seen from a coach after a multi-goal win. He did not like our 5v5 game at all, and said we won because of Binnington and PP.

Not for nothing, but my first sentence is describing the game as a special teams win, which is pretty well in line with Bannister's comments.

I don't disagree with most of what he said. We had a bad start, then we responded well, and then the PP got us a lead. Too many turnovers and we don't win that game without the PP. I don't think our 5 on 5 play was as bad as he did, but I also think that his critique about the 5 on 5 play was more about style than execution. I see a coach looking to make a point about process over results there. I see a coach that doesn't want his team playing like the 2021/22 team and instead wants to make a point.

I guess I'm saying that I don't fully buy what he is selling in the same way I don't fully buy what Tocchet was selling when he downplayed an Elias Petersson hat trick to focus on turnovers. Some of coaching is performative and there is real value to downplaying wins to bring home a point about buying in to process. Nothing wrong with that and I think that Bannister is correct for being frustrated about the turnovers. He doesn't want that style to become the habit and is making a point.

I certainly don't get the impression that he thought we were fortunate to put 4 past Shesty, which was probably the overall point I was trying to make.

 

[ScratchCatFever]

Bannister is starting to be my favorite coach just because of that.

He seems to be a bit of an introvert who isn't direct in the way Berube was but instead dangles criticism carrots to get his message across then backs it up with positive reinforcement when met with results. All of which I think are good for this current group in search of an identity and overall qualities in his style.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

Why did Buchnevich break his stick after scoring the empty net goal?!

 

[jura]

Why did Buchnevich break his stick after scoring the empty net goal?!

see post #145

 

[Reality Czech]

I agree, Keep Kessel on pair two and move Krug down with Scandella.

It's ridiculous how much crap Krug takes. He's been playing great lately and looks better defensively than ever but fans keep acting like he's the problem.

 

[PerryTurnbullfan]

I agree, Keep Kessel on pair two and move Krug down with Scandella.

Just keep Kessel and Krug together. It works.

 

[Linkens Mastery]

I'm totally fine running 7 D right now. It's not like Blais is doing anything meaningful right now.