GDT: Game #25 | St. Louis Blues vs Anaheim Ducks | Berglund is Back Edition!

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Davimir Tarablad

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Blues need to find a way to give Brodziak and Upshall some games off, especially when playoffs get close. Those guys will be key to a playoff run and they ran into a wall last year under Yeo’s heavier usage of them.
 

Celtic Note

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Dec 22, 2006
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He's arguably been the best Blues player with the puck tonight. Beaten his man multiple times with the puck on his stick, and created time and space for himself a number of others. Lots of escapability with the puck, both in space and on the line, at ES and with the man advantage. A number of really nice passes, and he's getting the puck to the net...not empty shots that are being gobbled up, either. No panic with the puck, and if he had any bad turnovers, I didn't see them.

It was a meh night defensively, but the whole team kind of stunk when it came to puck support and battles tonight. Dunn's not a player I would expect to dominate on that front, anyway, so maybe I'm grading on a curve there.

Either way, his transition impact and puck poise are extremely advanced for a rookie defenseman. His skill set is going to be a tremendous asset for the Blues.
I agree with all of that. But in addition to his board play and timidness at puck retrieval, I also thought he was decidedly worse than usual at keeping the puck in on the point. I guess I saw all the positives and a lot of the flaws as well. Overall, a pretty good game for a rookie, but a game where he wasn’t at his best.

It’s funny how few points he has, but he also spend a lot of time 5v5 not with the top line, which is really the catalyst for our entire offense.
 

Celtic Note

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Honestly I am over Alexander Steen at this point. I really hope Army finds a way to trade him this offseason. His ability to be "another coach" on the ice is overshadowed by the fact that he is shell of the player he once was.
Even his defense has slipped.

I would be ok looking at trades, but the willingness to make one depends on the move. I wouldn’t trade him just to trade him. He is still a valuable player to have.

With Schwartz, Fabbri and Sobotka/Berglund, you have plenty of talent on LW. If you can use Steen to build up the RWers or the Cs, then I would look into those possibilities. Even trading him this year and rolling with Schwartz, Berglund and Sobotka would be ok, assuming you are getting a comparable RWer/C.
 

simon IC

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JBo misses 20 odd games and the entire preseason with an ankle fracture, and after 4 games back is a "turd". Hilarious. :(
 

AjaxManifesto

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Question should be why do Blues always look bad after being off several days? You would think with rest and coaching to review incoming team they would be better. We seem to be better on b2b games with no rest and no prep! Why do we seem to come out slow on home ice? Is this a coaching problem, like our special teams play?


I love this team. But when they come to their home rink well rested and are playing against a tired and beaten up opponent and play this uninspired and feckless, I really wonder why I bother to tune in. I feel bad for the fans who paid money to attend this shit show performance.
 

Dbrownss

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Jan 5, 2014
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I love this team. But when they come to their home rink well rested and are playing against a tired and beaten up opponent and play this uninspired and feckless, I really wonder why I bother to tune in. I feel bad for the fans who paid money to attend this **** show performance.
On NHL radio they touched on this. The difference between being at home and away, and extended time off. Life outside the rink plays a big factor. Hockey isn't the only thing on their minds, harder to get back in "go mode". Blues seem to suffer from it more then others. The low intensity crowd probably didnt help either last night.

Anyways, Im not overly suprised they lost. Desperate team trying to stay in the playoff picture vs team comfortably in the picture. If the intensity isnt dialed up down the stretch run, then Ill actually worry instead of just being annoyed
 
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Brian39

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On NHL radio they touched on this. The difference between being at home and away, and extended time off. Life outside the rink plays a big factor. Hockey isn't the only thing on their minds, harder to get back in "go mode". Blues seem to suffer from it more then others. The low intensity crowd probably didnt help either last night.

Anyways, Im not overly suprised they lost. Desperate team trying to stay in the playoff picture vs team comfortably in the picture. If the intensity isnt dialed up down the stretch run, then Ill actually worry instead of just being annoyed
Completely Agree. Last night was a bad game. Bad enough that I watched Duke Basketball instead of the 3rd period, which is pretty rare for me. But it's an 82 game season. Every team in the NHL is going to play like we just did at least 10 times this year. It sucks from a fan/entertainment perspective but it's just the reality of a 6+ month long season.

Long term, the only thing concerning about this game to me is the continued struggle of our special teams. 24th in PP and 27th in PK is incredibly troubling. I wish the PP specialist we traded Lehtera for would show up and make that trade worthwhile....
 

2 Minute Minor

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Jun 3, 2008
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I bet all my Vcash on the Blues, and as soon as I hit 'submit' I knew they'd lose last night. It just felt like they were due to have a crappy game where no one shows up. Every team does this from time to time, but it still is hard to watch. I remember the Kings having a game like this when they were fighting for the 8th playoff spot, and thinking, "They're done." Then they won the Cup.
 

TruBlu

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Completely Agree. Last night was a bad game. Bad enough that I watched Duke Basketball instead of the 3rd period, which is pretty rare for me. But it's an 82 game season. Every team in the NHL is going to play like we just did at least 10 times this year. It sucks from a fan/entertainment perspective but it's just the reality of a 6+ month long season.

Long term, the only thing concerning about this game to me is the continued struggle of our special teams. 24th in PP and 27th in PK is incredibly troubling. I wish the PP specialist we traded Lehtera for would show up and make that trade worthwhile....

I don't hang any shame at all on Schenn. He's tossed in a couple of game winners for us, not to mention his incredible scoring pace thus far. The problem with the PP is completely structural. Our current approach is unable to even enter the zone cleanly with possession to set up. When we are able to enter the zone to set up, it is nothing but perimeter shots and no one there to snag the rebound or it is gobbled up by the goalie because there's no one screening, etc.
 

Dbrownss

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Completely Agree. Last night was a bad game. Bad enough that I watched Duke Basketball instead of the 3rd period, which is pretty rare for me. But it's an 82 game season. Every team in the NHL is going to play like we just did at least 10 times this year. It sucks from a fan/entertainment perspective but it's just the reality of a 6+ month long season.

Long term, the only thing concerning about this game to me is the continued struggle of our special teams. 24th in PP and 27th in PK is incredibly troubling. I wish the PP specialist we traded Lehtera for would show up and make that trade worthwhile....
I think the PP has looked better, just no results. They have the players, the guys on the ice just need to get it going. The PK is the biggest issue imo....they sank the team last night. They've been bad with the same personal.
 

wannabebluesplayer

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Apr 16, 2012
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The PK almost looks like a different scheme to me than last year. I can't quite put my finger on it. I don't know if they decided to do more of an aggressive style, but it feels more open and I don't think the Blues have the horses to play that style PK.
 

BadgersandBlues

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Jun 6, 2011
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It's clearly a different scheme. We are far more aggressive at following the puck carrier with our F1 to the side-boards then in the past. Then we rotate our F2 towards the middle. Generally the puck gets to the opposite side boards, and we try and rotate our D out towards the circle, but by that time we've given a very clear lane to the net with only one D back covering two remaining forwards. The puck carrier (Think Taraskeno in our offensive PP) has a really solid top of the circle look to shoot at the net, with one D-man trying to push out on him (generally far too late) as well as at least two solid passing options. I'd like to see our F1 play a lot less aggressive, and stay more towards the middle of the ice, only pouncing if they believe they can cause a turnover (something our forwards were really good at last year) PK is all about understanding WHEN to apply pressure, and for some reason we are applying pressure at stupid times. It's clearly a coaching thing, as our personnel hasn't changed on the PK for like 4 years and we've been a top 3-5 team in that regard.
 
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wannabebluesplayer

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It's clearly a different scheme. We are far more aggressive at following the puck carrier with our F1 to the side-boards then in the past. Then we rotate our F2 towards the middle. Generally the puck gets to the opposite side boards, and we try and rotate our D out towards the circle, but by that time we've given a very clear lane to the net with only one D back covering two remaining forwards. The puck carrier (Think Taraskeno in our offensive PP) has a really solid top of the circle look to shoot at the net, with one D-man trying to push out on him (generally far too late) as well as at least two solid passing options. I'd like to see our F1 play a lot less aggressive, and stay more towards the middle of the ice, only pouncing if they believe they can cause a turnover (something our forwards were really good at last year) PK is all about understanding WHEN to apply pressure, and for some reason we are applying pressure at stupid times. It's clearly a coaching thing, as our personnel hasn't changed on the PK for like 4 years and we've been a top 3-5 team in that regard.

See, that's what I was seeing, but I wasn't 100% sure to call it out. I think it's just time to get used to a new scheme. They have got to continue to work on when to be aggressive. This and STOP PUTTING BOUWMEESTER WITH PIETRANGELO. Sorry...had to get that out.
 

Brian39

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I think the PP has looked better, just no results. They have the players, the guys on the ice just need to get it going. The PK is the biggest issue imo....they sank the team last night. They've been bad with the same personal.

I don't think it has looked better recently to be honest. Dunn is at least decisive with the puck, but he has been making some really poor decisions. We have gotten better at generating shots on the PP, but I'm still seeing a ton of low percentage shots from the points. We're taking more one timers, but they are mainly point to point one timers, which aren't all that dangerous. I'm still not seeing many powerplays where I felt we should have scored but got unlucky. Instead, I feel like we could have scored, but it wasn't likely.
 

Dbrownss

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I don't think it has looked better recently to be honest. Dunn is at least decisive with the puck, but he has been making some really poor decisions. We have gotten better at generating shots on the PP, but I'm still seeing a ton of low percentage shots from the points. We're taking more one timers, but they are mainly point to point one timers, which aren't all that dangerous. I'm still not seeing many powerplays where I felt we should have scored but got unlucky. Instead, I feel like we could have scored, but it wasn't likely.
They've been trying to work it down low more. They are at least able to keep it in the zone for time now. Given how low they set the bar, "better" still isn't good. Point shots are fine if they are decisive. The Blues are so slow at generating those shots, its maddening. They have the guys who can shoot but they have to have made the decision to fire the puck before it ever gets to them. Dunn passes up good shooting chances all the time and Parayko still waits too long to fire the puck. He needs to have his stick ready as soon as that pass is made.
 

Brian39

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They've been trying to work it down low more. They are at least able to keep it in the zone for time now. Given how low they set the bar, "better" still isn't good. Point shots are fine if they are decisive. The Blues are so slow at generating those shots, its maddening. They have the guys who can shoot but they have to have made the decision to fire the puck before it ever gets to them. Dunn passes up good shooting chances all the time and Parayko still waits too long to fire the puck. He needs to have his stick ready as soon as that pass is made.

What's frustrating to me is that he often passes up chances to shoot and then 20 seconds later fires a shot into the shin pads of a PKer who is 4 feet in front of him. Like I said though, he is at least decisive with it. His decision is made before the puck is on his stick. I like seeing that, even though the actual decision making needs to improve.
 
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