GDT: Game #2: Sharks @ Blues

[illinidave]

With Brouwer slash and Ott interference penalties, coupled with lack of coordinated offensive push.....I was expecting the classic Hitch no-buy-in speech.

 

[KingBran]

Very surprised more people are not talking about Steve Ott and his dumbass plays last night.

Killed the little momentum we were getting after our first PP with his stupid penalty.

 

[STL BLUES]

The one thing that's missing in several of the Blues players is compete. They have the hockey sense and skills. But, often lack the hard to quantify at draft time willingness to "compete". That"s why I believe Tampa wanted Fab's because he's got it. IMHO some of the Blues just make to much money and have a cushy life that they are not willing to turn it up for these important games.

This lack of compete is not all on the players back. Certainly the hockey sense went out the door with some of the stupid penalties by veteran players. The lack of compete has played out way to many times this season. Management has ignored it. Army and Hitch should have gotten this under control along time ago.

 

[Ranksu]

I'm not worried at all, we'll rebound and be totally different team next game llke we did against Chicago and Dallas.

I really don't like what Edmundson brings on table. I'm bit dissapointed we didn't use Lindbohm more end of regular season and we don't know can he handle the pressure, 'cus tbh now Edmundson is our worst dmen with Shattery and they are d-pairs. Maybe guy like Lindbohm with Shattery would have worked, 'cus Petteri play much simpler game, don't back up on blueline in o-zone, always clear front of net. Ofc this is meaningless now, but knowing he could be better option for Edmundson spot is killing me. I wouldn't talk even this if Edmundson would play his normal level, but he looks lost at d-zone and same goes with Shattery, but he brings so much more offensive so no need to scratch him over Bortuzzo. Shame that Bortuzzo is RD.

 

[2 Minute Minor]

I wish the crowd would pick the team up when they are struggling. I've seen hockey games where it felt like the crowd willed the team to victory. But that never happens in St Louis.

 

[Colton Parayko]

I wish the crowd would pick the team up when they are struggling. I've seen hockey games where it felt like the crowd willed the team to victory. But that never happens in St Louis.

I wish we played better so the crowd could have a reason to be excited.

 

[KingBran]

I wish the crowd would pick the team up when they are struggling. I've seen hockey games where it felt like the crowd willed the team to victory. But that never happens in St Louis.

The crowd was super into it with LETS GO BLUES chants, making lots of nose, hooting and hollering for 2 periods. The Blues kept crapping the bed. After 40 minutes of trying to will the Blues to life I have no problem with the crowd bowing out. They sure did try though. Not sure how you didn't notice it.

 

[TheBluePenguin]

Cant blame the crowd for the Blues lack of effort and always trying those stupid no-look and cute passes. I was frustrated last night too, and do not blame people that shelled out all that money to see a game. If I spent $200 a ticket and the team decided to take a night off I would be pissed. Its not like we lost because of a few bad bounces and the game was back and forth, that level of effort is unacceptable at this stage. It better wake them up or this round is OVER,

We play like we did in game one and Sharks take this in 6
We play like we did in game two and Sharks take this in 5

We need to get back to our Chicago play and do it quickly.

 

[joshyhockey26]

The crowd was super into it with LETS GO BLUES chants, making lots of nose, hooting and hollering for 2 periods. The Blues kept crapping the bed. After 40 minutes of trying to will the Blues to life I have no problem with the crowd bowing out. They sure did try though. Not sure how you didn't notice it.

40min of trying? Nahh,they were as lackluster as the on ice play. I've been to most games this year and that was one of the quieter crowds this year. Perhaps the worst for this years playoffs. As for the Ott issues, it's an easy fix. Healthy scratch him the next two games.

 

[KingBran]

The good new (to me) is that the Blues played so bad last night and only allowed 3. Ells definitely could have been better *puts up flame shield* and obviously the team in front of him was awful.

Blues play just a little better and that's a tie game. The Blues play like the Blues and they win that one. Its 1-1 going back to SJ. SJ is the best home team this postseason, They were the worst home team that made the playoffs in the regular season, so need to take advantage and make them lose at home.

What get's me is the Sharks are the 5th oldest team in the NHL. They have the same failure of a core that hasn't won jack **** for years. Blues are younger and have no excuse to play so lethargic against this team.

 

[KingBran]

40min of trying? Nahh,they were as lackluster as the on ice play. I've been to most games this year and that was one of the quieter crowds this year. Perhaps the worst for this years playoffs. As for the Ott issues, it's an easy fix. Healthy scratch him the next two games.

For playing that bad and scoring 0 they were doing good. Cheering for all the breakouts, Ooh'ing and ahh'ing at close attempts, LETS GO BLUES chants, cheering big hits, steals, odd-man rushes... etc. Seemed like a good crowd that had absolutely nothing to cheer for. No surprise if it was the quietest. They were pretty dang lound for 2/3 of the game.

Just saying I don't blame them.

 

[Evocable Manager]

We've seen players come in to the playoffs and do well. Torey Krug, Chris Kreider, are a couple examples. Maybe throwing in Lindbohm isn't the worst idea.

 

[Vladys Gumption]

Hitchcock needs to dump this stupid "conservative" approach because it's killing us. We have got to be aggressive on the forecheck. Letting SJ get speed built up exiting the defensive zone is going to kill us.

 

[thunderchief1994]

Forget about it. First 2 games wiped each others slate clean.
Now it's a best of 5, fresh start, don't dwell on the clunker.

 

[2 Minute Minor]

The crowd was super into it with LETS GO BLUES chants, making lots of nose, hooting and hollering for 2 periods. The Blues kept crapping the bed. After 40 minutes of trying to will the Blues to life I have no problem with the crowd bowing out. They sure did try though. Not sure how you didn't notice it.

There are times when the TV picks up the crowd noise better, but it wasn't hard to hear the crowd last night. It just wasn't very often. Judging from the telecast it was not a very impressive crowd compared with some I've seen. Think about Winnipeg's crowd. Maybe the best example I can think of is the last game played in Winnipeg before the team moved to Arizona. That team was completely outclassed on the ice, but the crowd was in a frenzy the entire game, and they nearly pulled off a big upset.

I'm not absolving the team of blame, the whole thread is about that, but I wish that the St Louis crowd was more aggressive and rowdy.

 

[KingBran]

There are times when the TV picks up the crowd noise better, but it wasn't hard to hear the crowd last night. It just wasn't very often. Judging from the telecast it was not a very impressive crowd compared with some I've seen. Think about Winnipeg's crowd. Maybe the best example I can think of is the last game played in Winnipeg before the team moved to Arizona. That team was completely outclassed on the ice, but the crowd was in a frenzy the entire game, and they nearly pulled off a big upset.

I'm not absolving the team of blame, the whole thread is about that, but I wish that the St Louis crowd was more aggressive and rowdy.

No doubt it wasn't as impressive as previous games. My point was the crowd WAS into it and trying to get the team going. I am not saying they were this amazing crazy go nuts crowd that cheered their team playing their worst game in months losing almost the entire game.

Not sure what a city losing a team's crowd has to do with game 2 in the WCF so I won't comment on that.

I just don't get this mentality of you need to be a Kool-Aid drinker and cheer 1,000% of the time even when your team is playing like garbage and you spent hundreds of dollars to watch it. The way I see it, the crowd did a great job for the product on the ice last night.

Cheering your team playing terrible just tells them that you can't disappoint your fans. You should be able to disappoint your fans, it needs to be what drives you. What impressed me last night is for MOST of the game the crowd was very into it. What was there to be frenzied about?

 

[joshyhockey26]

We've seen players come in to the playoffs and do well. Torey Krug, Chris Kreider, are a couple examples. Maybe throwing in Lindbohm isn't the worst idea.

Huge fan of Lindbohm but idk if throwing him in after not playing a game in so long would make much of a difference. He will get his chances to impress in camp/pre season

 

[StLHokie]

The good new (to me) is that the Blues played so bad last night and only allowed 3. Ells definitely could have been better *puts up flame shield* and obviously the team in front of him was awful.

Blues play just a little better and that's a tie game. The Blues play like the Blues and they win that one. Its 1-1 going back to SJ. SJ is the best home team this postseason, They were the worst home team that made the playoffs in the regular season, so need to take advantage and make them lose at home.

What get's me is the Sharks are the 5th oldest team in the NHL. They have the same failure of a core that hasn't won jack **** for years. Blues are younger and have no excuse to play so lethargic against this team.

There is less than a year difference in the average age of the Sharks and the Blues....

The Blues' average age is 28.047. The Sharks average age is 28.968. That is meaningless.

 

[Captain Creampuff]

There are times when the TV picks up the crowd noise better, but it wasn't hard to hear the crowd last night. It just wasn't very often. Judging from the telecast it was not a very impressive crowd compared with some I've seen. Think about Winnipeg's crowd. Maybe the best example I can think of is the last game played in Winnipeg before the team moved to Arizona. That team was completely outclassed on the ice, but the crowd was in a frenzy the entire game, and they nearly pulled off a big upset.

I'm not absolving the team of blame, the whole thread is about that, but I wish that the St Louis crowd was more aggressive and rowdy.

Any crowd can seem dull when watching it on TV depending on the audio levels. There hasn't been a playoff game I've been to this year where the crowd hasn't put in 110%.

 

[2 Minute Minor]

No doubt it wasn't as impressive as previous games. My point was the crowd WAS into it and trying to get the team going. I am not saying they were this amazing crazy go nuts crowd that cheered their team playing their worst game in months losing almost the entire game.

Not sure what a city losing a team's crowd has to do with game 2 in the WCF so I won't comment on that.

I just don't get this mentality of you need to be a Kool-Aid drinker and cheer 1,000% of the time even when your team is playing like garbage and you spent hundreds of dollars to watch it. The way I see it, the crowd did a great job for the product on the ice last night.

Cheering your team playing terrible just tells them that you can't disappoint your fans. You should be able to disappoint your fans, it needs to be what drives you. What impressed me last night is for MOST of the game the crowd was very into it. What was there to be frenzied about?

I don't understand what point you're trying to make. Who is talking about Kool-aid?

I simply stated that I wish the St Louis crowd had a bigger impact in picking up the team, rather than being more of a reflection of what they're doing. I gave an example so you'd understand what kind of noisy crowd I'm talking about. Its a famous example I thought most people would be familiar with. But lots of crowds are like that, where its so deafening the opponent struggles to function. I remember Columbus trying to play the last few minutes the year the Blues got back into the playoffs for the first time. There was no doubt they wouldn't score, because you couldn't hear yourself think. It has nothing to do with unrealistic expectations, or drinking Kool-aid.

The team played a bad game, and San Jose played a great defensive game. But the Blues crowd was nothing special, and at times was borderline embarrassing when they started booing the team. I wish our crowd had a different impact on the game and a lot more intensity that could help provide a true home ice advantage.

 

[2 Minute Minor]

Any crowd can seem dull when watching it on TV depending on the audio levels. There hasn't been a playoff game I've been to this year where the crowd hasn't put in 110%.

The Game 6 Chicago crowd was louder than any Blues crowd except maybe the end of Game 7. And it visibly had a bigger impact on the players for both teams. The Dallas crowds were average, and so has been St Louis crowds.

 

[carter333167]

1. We should be happy b/c we are lucky to have taken one game with the level of play we showed over those 6 periods.
2. Our passing was horrible last night..kind of hard to maintain momentum when every other pass is in the skates or behind the player. We had missed passes in the neutral zone and missed passes in the O-Zone...it was a horrible night for execution. The Sharks pressured, sure, but we made things easy for them with horrid passing.

 

[ChicagoBlues]

i'd make one line change, 1 lineup change.

fabbri-stastny-tarasenko
berglund-lehtera-backes
schwartz-steen-brouwer
upshall-brodziak-reaves

we need a skill line. Hence putting our best sniper with our best playmakers. We also could use brouwer (better along boards) and add some grit to that line. Berglund-lehtera-backes worked previously, can certainly work again.

bingo!!

 

[KingBran]

There is less than a year difference in the average age of the Sharks and the Blues....

The Blues' average age is 28.047. The Sharks average age is 28.968. That is meaningless.

Its almost just a year difference between top and bottom. That's how averages work. I am talking about their old core who has been to the dance so many times. Very far from meaningless.

I don't understand what point you're trying to make. Who is talking about Kool-aid?

I simply stated that I wish the St Louis crowd had a bigger impact in picking up the team, rather than being more of a reflection of what they're doing. I gave an example so you'd understand what kind of noisy crowd I'm talking about. Its a famous example I thought most people would be familiar with. But lots of crowds are like that, where its so deafening the opponent struggles to function. I remember Columbus trying to play the last few minutes the year the Blues got back into the playoffs for the first time. There was no doubt they wouldn't score, because you couldn't hear yourself think. It has nothing to do with unrealistic expectations, or drinking Kool-aid.

The team played a bad game, and San Jose played a great defensive game. But the Blues crowd was nothing special, and at times was borderline embarrassing when they started booing the team. I wish our crowd had a different impact on the game and a lot more intensity that could help provide a true home ice advantage.

It sounds like you want the Blues fans to cheer as if they are about to win the cup for 60 minutes even when playing a game like they did last night. All I am saying is I think for how the team performed, the crowd was great.

It's almost text-book Kool-Aid drinking to be cheering your team as you describe when losing and playing that bad. If it was the Blues last game in STL, or a game 7 or some other kind of elimination game... etc. I would get it. Like your examples. The problem is your examples are a far-cry from the kind of game that was played last night. Those games meant something. This game? Game 2 of the WCF where even if you lose, the series is tied. Why cheer uncontrollably for the trash show that was on the ice last night?

 

[Brian39]

I don't feel the need for a long insightful post at this point. We were bad. I think it was much more poor execution than it was poor effort, but there was certainly a bit of both. We seemingly forgot how to make tape to tape passes, panicked about that and then forced ourselves into terrible decisions. San Jose was great defensively, but we had dozens of unforced mistakes in the neutral zone and offensive zone.

Last night was tough to watch. With that said, we seem to bounce back after efforts like that, so I'm not too worried.