Half-Assed GDT: Blues vs Philly

[Linkens Mastery]

I've been wondering this. But, maybe the Blues were playing a bit open last night to let Binny feel the puck? The fact they were able to go down and regain the lead almost effortlessly makes me feel they wanted Binny to make some saves and get comfortable again.

 

[Joshuar56]

I’m on vacation so missed the last couple games, but sounds like we’ve played pretty well. As bad as Montreal loss looked, we got 7/8 points in trip. I’ll take that. And Habs have played well since so maybe wasn’t as bad as we thought.

With their schedule right now they need to be picking up points every single game. Thankfully they are, other than the devils game.

 

[execwrite1]

Great interview by Vladi

Good teammate!

And answers a Russian journalist in his native tongue. Beautiful.

From the Athletic - great leadership from Vladi -

“You have to know how to be happy for your teammates when they have success,” Tarasenko said. “Hockey’s a tough sport; people struggle sometimes. It’s always nice to see a guy get confidence, get a win when he deserves it. He (works) very hard, he’s nice in the locker room; we all love him. And like I said before, we’re just very happy for him.”

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

Faulk had 5 hits, 5 blocks with over 27 minutes played and +2. He's really proving to be a hell of a player this year and a leader on this team.

I’ve really liked Faulk’s game lately. He’s become the defensive anchor.

 

[joe galiba]

I’ve really liked Faulk’s game lately. He’s become the defensive anchor.

the only real complaint I have on Faulk is on the PP, he doesn't look out of place, but he also doesn't really pop as dynamic either
it simply looked way better when Peru was out there on the 2nd unit

 

[Brian39]

It's a team he should beat, flyers are atrocious offensively. I hope it gets him on track, but I'm not ready to declare him fixed after one game. He had a good game against the stars but has been absolutely awful since New Years. Even with the stars game he had a GAA of about 4.5 and a save % if around .860

This isn't college football where the bottom teams in the division lose by 30+ to the top dogs 99% of the time. Literally no one is saying that 1 game has enough predictive value to declare him "fixed." But there is no merit to the idea that 1 goal against on 26 shots is just what "should" have been the outcome because the Flyers suck offensively. The offensively atrocious Flyers average 2.53 goals per game this year. They had scored 3+ goals in 7 of their last 8 games and scored 2 in the other. That was the 12th time they have been held to 1 goal or less this season. They have had 2+ in their other 39 games. Our offense didn't score enough to secure a win without Binner holding them to a single goal.

Binner wasn't Hasek in his prime last night. But he played really well and was the biggest reason we took 2 points out of that game. He could very well look terrible in his next start and this single game doesn't prove otherwise. Reading too much into small sample sizes is dangerous which is exactly what many of us have been saying in response to the 'Binner is a broken piece of human garbage who has no hope of making any saves' crowd.

When numerous posters are chalking the game up as a loss when he's announced as the starter, criticizing the coaching staff for ever putting him in an NHL game, and saying that his only hope to be fixed is an AHL stint, then it is fully and completely reasonable to point to a .962 outing and say 'maybe this will calm some people down for a couple days.'

 

[Brian39]

I would have played Husso last night, but I get why Berube went with Binner if he was seeing good things in practice. This was a good opponent to set Binner up for success both from a narrative and on-ice standpoint. It is nice that it worked out and Binner objectively played well. This is year 1 of a 6 year investment. I didn't like that investment, but none of us have a time machine to change it. Whether it was a good or bad investment isn't really relevant to what we do now. Right now, it is up to Berube and the rest of the staff to get him back to playing like an NHL-level goalie without harming this team's chances of success. You have to tip your cap to Berube on this one. He put his player in a position to succeed and his player got the job done.

April is a grind, with 16 games in 29 days. In the 5 weeks between 3/22 and 4/26, we only have a single 2 day break. Other than that, we alternate between a game and a day off for 5 weeks (with 4 sets of B2Bs thrown in for good measure). We need both goalies playing like actual NHL guys in that stretch. The team has to get Binner going before then. Husso can't play every game in that stretch and you don't want him gassed heading in to that stretch. I've been vocal about limiting your starter to a 50ish start pace for years and that is especially important when you are riding a guy who has never started 45 regular season games in his pro career (Hussio's career high is 42 games played in a regular season. He had 57 total games in his final year in Finland if you combine his 39 regular season starts with his 18 playoff starts). Husso should be the guy unless on-ice performance dictates otherwise, but we play 32 games in the final 64 days of the season and you really don't want him playing much more than 20 of those. I would have waited until the first week of March (or maybe the 2/27 Chicago game if Husso was fading) to get Binner into another game, but Berube saw something different and it worked. Great first step.

I expect Husso to start at home on Friday and then I'd play Binner on Sunday at Chicago (with the intention of starting Husso against the Rangers next week). Tentatively, I would have our next 9 games looking like this:

2/25 vs BUF: Husso
2/27 @ CHI: Binner
3/2 @ NYR: Husso
3/6 @NYI: Husso
3/7 @ NJD: Binner
3/8 vs OTT: Husso
3/10 vs NYR: Husso
3/12 @ NSH: Binner
3/13 vs WPG: Husso

Swap the B2B matchups if you want, but that would be my tentative plan. You're still treating Husso like your clear starter, but keep him from tiring out while playing Binner in some favorable road matchups.

 

[BlueDream]

I would have played Husso last night, but I get why Berube went with Binner if he was seeing good things in practice. This was a good opponent to set Binner up for success both from a narrative and on-ice standpoint. It is nice that it worked out and Binner objectively played well. This is year 1 of a 6 year investment. I didn't like that investment, but none of us have a time machine to change it. Whether it was a good or bad investment isn't really relevant to what we do now. Right now, it is up to Berube and the rest of the staff to get him back to playing like an NHL-level goalie without harming this team's chances of success. You have to tip your cap to Berube on this one. He put his player in a position to succeed and his player got the job done.

April is a grind, with 16 games in 29 days. In the 5 weeks between 3/22 and 4/26, we only have a single 2 day break. Other than that, we alternate between a game and a day off for 5 weeks (with 4 sets of B2Bs thrown in for good measure). We need both goalies playing like actual NHL guys in that stretch. The team has to get Binner going before then. Husso can't play every game in that stretch and you don't want him gassed heading in to that stretch. I've been vocal about limiting your starter to a 50ish start pace for years and that is especially important when you are riding a guy who has never started 45 regular season games in his pro career (Hussio's career high is 42 games played in a regular season. He had 57 total games in his final year in Finland if you combine his 39 regular season starts with his 18 playoff starts). Husso should be the guy unless on-ice performance dictates otherwise, but we play 32 games in the final 64 days of the season and you really don't want him playing much more than 20 of those. I would have waited until the first week of March (or maybe the 2/27 Chicago game if Husso was fading) to get Binner into another game, but Berube saw something different and it worked. Great first step.

I expect Husso to start at home on Friday and then I'd play Binner on Sunday at Chicago (with the intention of starting Husso against the Rangers next week). Tentatively, I would have our next 9 games looking like this:

2/25 vs BUF: Husso
2/27 @ CHI: Binner
3/2 @ NYR: Husso
3/6 @NYI: Husso
3/7 @ NJD: Binner
3/8 vs OTT: Husso
3/10 vs NYR: Husso
3/12 @ NSH: Binner
3/13 vs WPG: Husso

Swap the B2B matchups if you want, but that would be my tentative plan. You're still treating Husso like your clear starter, but keep him from tiring out while playing Binner in some favorable road matchups.

I can’t see Husso starting Friday. Last night was about getting Binnington’s confidence back and it was a big step toward that. Sitting him and going right back to Husso would be dumb. Build off it, give Binnington another start vs a weaker opponent and then evaluate from there. If we need to go back to Husso during a day game (where we usually seem to play poorly) against Chicago, that would make more sense.

 

[Joshuar56]

This isn't college football where the bottom teams in the division lose by 30+ to the top dogs 99% of the time. Literally no one is saying that 1 game has enough predictive value to declare him "fixed." But there is no merit to the idea that 1 goal against on 26 shots is just what "should" have been the outcome because the Flyers suck offensively. The offensively atrocious Flyers average 2.53 goals per game this year. They had scored 3+ goals in 7 of their last 8 games and scored 2 in the other. That was the 12th time they have been held to 1 goal or less this season. They have had 2+ in their other 39 games. Our offense didn't score enough to secure a win without Binner holding them to a single goal.

Binner wasn't Hasek in his prime last night. But he played really well and was the biggest reason we took 2 points out of that game. He could very well look terrible in his next start and this single game doesn't prove otherwise. Reading too much into small sample sizes is dangerous which is exactly what many of us have been saying in response to the 'Binner is a broken piece of human garbage who has no hope of making any saves' crowd.

When numerous posters are chalking the game up as a loss when he's announced as the starter, criticizing the coaching staff for ever putting him in an NHL game, and saying that his only hope to be fixed is an AHL stint, then it is fully and completely reasonable to point to a .962 outing and say 'maybe this will calm some people down for a couple days.'

2.5 goals a game is terrible. There's only 4 teams in the league who are worse, and they're just barely better than the islanders. It's the reason the Flyers have only one 15 out of 51 games. They're a REALLY bad team (only 2 teams with less wins than them), so yes it's a game Binnington should win. Just like the Devils game was a game he should win. If he had let in another 4 or 5 goals last night I don't know what they could do with him the rest of the year, other than start him on one of the two back to back games and that's it. He had to have a good game last night.

 

[WATTAGE4451]

2.5 goals a game is terrible. There's only 4 teams in the league who are worse, and they're just barely better than the islanders. It's the reason the Flyers have only one 15 out of 51 games. They're a REALLY bad team (only 2 teams with less wins than them), so yes it's a game Binnington should win. Just like the Devils game was a game he should win.

youre missing the point. he held them to 1 goal so he did better than a goalie does on average. youre acting like its a gimmie game he should shutout. he did play well and was one of the best blues players and reason we won that game

 

[Xerloris]

2.5 goals a game is terrible. There's only 4 teams in the league who are worse, and they're just barely better than the islanders. It's the reason the Flyers have only one 15 out of 51 games. They're a REALLY bad team (only 2 teams with less wins than them), so yes it's a game Binnington should win. Just like the Devils game was a game he should win. If he had let in another 4 or 5 goals last night I don't know what they could do with him the rest of the year, other than start him on one of the two back to back games and that's it. He had to have a good game last night.

Must suck that you have to make shit up to try and knock Binnington after last nights game.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

2.5 goals a game is terrible. There's only 4 teams in the league who are worse, and they're just barely better than the islanders. It's the reason the Flyers have only one 15 out of 51 games. They're a REALLY bad team (only 2 teams with less wins than them), so yes it's a game Binnington should win. Just like the Devils game was a game he should win. If he had let in another 4 or 5 goals last night I don't know what they could do with him the rest of the year, other than start him on one of the two back to back games and that's it. He had to have a good game last night.

Was it a quality start or not?

By any reasonable metric it was.

 

[Reality Czech]

2.5 goals a game is terrible. There's only 4 teams in the league who are worse, and they're just barely better than the islanders. It's the reason the Flyers have only one 15 out of 51 games. They're a REALLY bad team (only 2 teams with less wins than them), so yes it's a game Binnington should win. Just like the Devils game was a game he should win. If he had let in another 4 or 5 goals last night I don't know what they could do with him the rest of the year, other than start him on one of the two back to back games and that's it. He had to have a good game last night.

Are you for real? You say Binnington should have won the game against the Devils as if the rest of the team has nothing to do with it. They played like crap and there is no way Husso would have won that game either. Stop embarrassing yourself.

 

[Joshuar56]

Must suck that you have to make shit up to try and knock Binnington after last nights game.

Who is knocking him? He played well, something he hasn't done very often. Some on here want to act as if the criticism wasn't justified because he has one good game against a really bad team.

 

[Joshuar56]

Are you for real? You say Binnington should have won the game against the Devils as if the rest of the team has nothing to do with it. They played like crap and there is no way Husso would have won that game either. Stop embarrassing yourself.

Husso has given up more than 3 goals once all year, and that was 4 against the lightning, but sure...

 

[Reality Czech]

Husso has given up more than 3 goals once all year, and that was 4 against the lightning, but sure...

Lol, whatever man. No use arguing with someone who doesn't even understand how the game works.

 

[WATTAGE4451]

Lol, whatever man. No use arguing with someone who doesn't even understand how the game works.

trying to deny binnington played well last game like that guy did is ridiculous but to say husso couldnt win nj game is also ridiculous. the blues were outplayed but the xga was 3.37 and between husso playing above average this far and the blues scoring 4 goals, its reasonable to think husso could have won that game. to be fair, we only scored 4 cuz new jerseys goalie wasnt good either

 

[Xerloris]

trying to deny binnington played well last game like that guy did is ridiculous but to say husso couldnt win nj game is also ridiculous. the blues were outplayed but the xga was 3.37 and between husso playing above average this far and the blues scoring 4 goals, its reasonable to think husso could have won that game. to be fair, we only scored 4 cuz new jerseys goalie wasnt good either

Since January 29th Husso has a 905 sv%. Not really playing above average but some how we're still winning, probably because the team has come out and played their ass off instead of no-showing like they did against NJ.

 

[execwrite1]

I start Husso on Friday and Binner in Chicago.

 

[Reality Czech]

trying to deny binnington played well last game like that guy did is ridiculous but to say husso couldnt win nj game is also ridiculous. the blues were outplayed but the xga was 3.37 and between husso playing above average this far and the blues scoring 4 goals, its reasonable to think husso could have won that game. to be fair, we only scored 4 cuz new jerseys goalie wasnt good either

Fair point, there is no way of knowing if Husso would have stolen the game for us or not. But anyone who watched the game could easily see that the Blues deserved to lose that game. They played like crap, gave up a bunch of high quality chances and left Binnington in a bad situation. ROR, Vladi and others have commented about how bad they have played in front of Binner lately so I'm not just pulling this outta my ass.

I just got annoyed by Joshua's comment that Binnington should beat NJ by himself regardless of how poorly the team played. So absurd.

 

[BlueOil]

Who is knocking him? He played well, something he hasn't done very often. Some on here want to act as if the criticism wasn't justified because he has one good game against a really bad team.

you are. you're trying to discount his play by suggesting it was an inferior opponent so it doesn't matter. drop the negative narrative and hope both goalies have success for a change.

 

[Brian39]

I can’t see Husso starting Friday. Last night was about getting Binnington’s confidence back and it was a big step toward that. Sitting him and going right back to Husso would be dumb. Build off it, give Binnington another start vs a weaker opponent and then evaluate from there. If we need to go back to Husso during a day game (where we usually seem to play poorly) against Chicago, that would make more sense.

I don't think that one quality start (that definitely should have bolstered confidence) demands that he gets the next start in order to maintain that confidence. Berube has a reputation for being blunt/honest with his players and it is very clear by all comments that Binner is well aware that he wasn't playing well enough. It should be a fairly simple conversation for Berube to convey to Binner that the staff is very happy with his performance vs Philly, but that Husso's body of work has been good enough that one good start from Binner doesn't immediately earn him back sole position of the starter's crease. Tell Binner during this conversation that he is getting the net again vs Chicago on Sunday.

The part that I would leave unsaid if I'm Berube is that I don't want him playing at home right now. Some bronx cheers or boos from our crowd would be more damaging to his confidence than having him wait to play until Sunday. Only 1 of our next 5 is at home and the Hawks are a worse offensive team than the Sabres. Let him try to put together a few quality starts on the road rather than at home if you are worried about his confidence. Putting him in front of a home crowd that wants to see the other goalie is a recipe to completely erase the confidence gained in the Philly game.

The crease should be an open, merit based competition for the next few weeks. Even if your desired outcome is for Binner to win it back, he needs to actually win it back. That reality shouldn't hurt his confidence. Playing him Sunday is a clear uptick in his usage from the last month and is a clear reward for his performance against Philly. Husso has looked more human lately, which is expected and absolutely not a knock on him. He should absolutely still hold the clear edge in the battle for the crease right now and should play 3 of the next 5 barring an unexpected outcome. Giving Binner 2 of our next 5 starts makes for an even 50/50 split in a 6 game window when you factor in the Philly game. That's plenty fair to him given the last 6 weeks of the season.

 

[Joshuar56]

trying to deny binnington played well last game like that guy did is ridiculous but to say husso couldnt win nj game is also ridiculous. the blues were outplayed but the xga was 3.37 and between husso playing above average this far and the blues scoring 4 goals, its reasonable to think husso could have won that game. to be fair, we only scored 4 cuz new jerseys goalie wasnt good either

No one is saying Binnington didn't play well last game...

 

[joe galiba]

Our current coaching staff has showed a willingness to cut the playing time of our best players when they are struggling
in goal, the player that gives us what the coaches think is our best chance will play, but they also will not bury a guy either
if Husso is the best guy for the remainder of the year he will get the majority of the starts, if not, then he won't
this year will play out however it will
Next year will be its own thing, it always is

 

[ChicagoBlues]

Husso is better than Binnington is better than Husso…