GDT: Game 3. Blues (1-0-1) vs Desert Puppies (1-2-0) 7PM CST BSMW

[jura]

good thing i fell asleep 10 min in

 

[bleedblue1223]

So, we're in agreement, we are back to being on Draft watch? Going to be another long season.

 

[AjaxManifesto]

This team should be embarrassed...but it isn't....

 

[Thallis]

I’ll reserve judgement until the team gets in a swing of playing regular games. But man this sloppy play is going to make us end up worse off than last season.

I’m starting to think Kyrou and Thomas aren’t very good powerplay players.

I really think Thomas is being misused on that flanker position. He's not in position to take a one timer because he's the wrong handedness and that's a spot you want a trigger man to take. If we put him down low, he could be on the lookout for the low - high passing option and pick the kill apart from dishing to any shooter that finds space and we could also run switch up plays with Kyrou to creat chaos.

 

[Linkens Mastery]

I really think Thomas is being misused on that flanker position. He's not in position to take a one timer because he's the wrong handedness and that's a spot you want a trigger man to take. If we put him down low, he could be on the lookout for the low - high passing option and pick the kill apart from dishing to any shooter that finds space and we could also run switch up plays with Kyrou to creat chaos.

Agreed, Vrana should be in that position on PP1, Schenn netfront, Kyrou where he is currently, and Thomas in position to pass.

 

[Cotton McKnight]

That was rough:
-We have a new Shakey Jakey, Neighbors needs to ride the pine or the bus in the A.
-Hofer, close those legs, 2 of 3 of those weak AF goals were 5 hole. Still, if Hofer cleaned up the weak goals we lose by 1. He's young, so I've got hope the goalie coach can get him to clean it up.
-Schenn, Thomas, and Kyrou money looks like we set it on fire.
-Krug, you are the albatross around the neck of this team.
-Got worked by the Yotes, again, and that does not look to be changing any time soon.
-I don't really expect anything great from this team for this year and next. After that, who knows what happens to the roster.
-Would love to see Bortz punching players in practice again, but this team would likely not rise to the occasion.

 

[Thallis]

Agreed, Vrana should be in that position on PP1, Schenn netfront, Kyrou where he is currently, and Thomas in position to pass.

The net front is the position to pass in the 1-3-1. The bumper is where I'd put Schenn. Give him free reign to move around and make havoc while keeping him a shooting threat.

 

[Linkens Mastery]

That was rough:
-We have a new Shakey Jakey, Neighbors needs to ride the pine or the bus in the A.
-Hofer, close those legs, 2 of 3 of those weak AF goals were 5 hole. Still, if Hofer cleaned up the weak goals we lose by 1. He's young, so I've got hope the goalie coach can get him to clean it up.
-Schenn, Thomas, and Kyrou money looks like we set it on fire.
-Krug, you are the albatross around the neck of this team.
-Got worked by the Yotes, again, and that does not look to be changing any time soon.
-I don't really expect anything great from this team for this year and next. After that, who knows what happens to the roster.
-Would love to see Bortz punching players in practice again, but this team would likely not rise to the occasion.

I'm much less worried about Kyrou. Right now he's doing what we wanted him to do. Play a 2 way game. Sometimes doing that is going to result in a loss of productivity at the beginning.

 

[BlueOil]

how far off are the blues from going 11-7 just to have perun in the line up for the PP?

maybe perun can just take neighbors spot on the 4th line too

 

[joe galiba]

Blues just need to shake this off and play a hard game against Pittsburgh.

At some point I want to see 11 forwards and 7 dmen and put Perunovich in the lineup. They need more offense and he can help the powerplay.

I think it should be 12 & 6, Tucker was brutal, needs to sit
Neighbors needs to go get top line AHL ice time as well, he needs work he cannot get at this level

the passing this game was unbelievably brutal, horrid, putrid, maybe we need a passing coach

 

[ort]

Tried to start watching this game at 9:30 or so streaming on the Bally Sports app... and rather than start from the beginning, I hit the button and it was already at the post game show with a giant 6-2 up on the screen.

Bally Sports is a giant dumpster full of smaller dumpsters all of which are on fire.

 

[Majorityof1]

i think club is too. that is large part of why we brought in hayes and vrana and kapanen. they don't want to let team bottom out, at least not until late in season, or revenue goes way down.

But hope is from a rebuild. Will the Blues (retool) or Chicago (rebuild) sell more tickets this year? Lose, get a top 5 pick, and then market the hope of that player. Bringing in Kevin Hayes and Mike Weber and jack shit else isn't hope. Bedard will sell 10 times the jerseys of Hayes, Kapanen and Vrana combined.

 

[Blueston]

I think it should be 12 & 6, Tucker was brutal, needs to sit
Neighbors needs to go get top line AHL ice time as well, he needs work he cannot get at this level

the passing this game was unbelievably brutal, horrid, putrid, maybe we need a passing coach

we need to look at big picture. kids were our worst players this game, but you don't want them playing scared to be benched. i wouldn't pull tucker and neighbours from lineup (unless for quick 1 game reset). we aren't contenders. let the kids play through this.

But hope is from a rebuild. Will the Blues (retool) or Chicago (rebuild) sell more tickets this year? Lose, get a top 5 pick, and then market the hope of that player. Bringing in Kevin Hayes and Mike Weber and jack shit else isn't hope. Bedard will sell 10 times the jerseys of Hayes, Kapanen and Vrana combined.

if we had bedard, sure. but how many will smith jerseys are sharks selling? how is reinbacher goosing montreal ticket sales? bedard is generational guy.

 

[STLegend]

I'm seeing a lot of guys being called out but the worst looking one from last night IMO was Sundqvist.

Sunny out there looking like he has the flu and a 50lb weight tied to his back.

 

[TheDizee]

I'm much less worried about Kyrou. Right now he's doing what we wanted him to do. Play a 2 way game. Sometimes doing that is going to result in a loss of productivity at the beginning.

im kyrou's least favorite supporter on this forum and hes not the reason the team sucks this year. yeah its more of the same from him but ive seen him play much worse. neighbors, kappanen, schenn, and krug are the worst players on the team. theyve done nothing productive at all thus far. thomas is not far behind and is just another average body, hes not being a impact or difference maker.

every line sucks and this team is boring to watch. atleast when we sucked when we had oshie, bergie, perron etc they were entertaining to watch.

I think it should be 12 & 6, Tucker was brutal, needs to sit
Neighbors needs to go get top line AHL ice time as well, he needs work he cannot get at this level

the passing this game was unbelievably brutal, horrid, putrid, maybe we need a passing coach

you can have a coach for everything but you cant teach talent and the blues simply have a bunch of talentless grinder scrubs. and the ones with talent are overpaid and underperforming.

 

[Majorityof1]

we need to look at big picture. kids were our worst players this game, but you don't want them playing scared to be benched. i wouldn't pull tucker and neighbours from lineup (unless for quick 1 game reset). we aren't contenders. let the kids play through this.


if we had bedard, sure. but how many will smith jerseys are sharks selling? how is reinbacher goosing montreal ticket sales? bedard is generational guy.

I guarantee Reinbacher is selling more jerseys than Hayes or Vrana. Have you watched how much the Coyotes are pumping Cooley's tires? You market your promising young players. You get the most promising ones by tanking. Tanking is better for ticket sales than extended mediocrity in the long run. Look at the blues "Come grow with us campaign" with Oshie, Berglund and Perron. None were high picks but they got butts in seats because nobody knew what we had with them and they were marketed well.

 

[Brian39]

I'm not nearly as down about last night as many here. We weren't good enough, but I'm not using this game as a clear harbinger of a season when we were missing our best player. That doesn't excuse how bad we looked and the Coyotes are still a beatable team without Buch. But basically all of the things that fell apart tonight were the things that he excels in. Hofer was overcommitting in the first half of the game, but he made a few stops that I was pretty happy about. I was hoping for a better night, but I'm not losing any sleep about that effort from him. He was far from our worst player last night.

I've been bitching about the construction of the top PP unit since training camp, but I'll renew my complaint now that the unit got benched after being a complete liability. Why in the hell is our best trigger man not on the top PP unit? And why the hell is our best playmaker being asked to stay on the wall on the side of the ice that eliminates him as a one time threat?

Schenn/Thomas

Kyrou-Thomas/Schenn-Vrana

Krug

This shouldn't be hard. I'd swap out Schenn for Buch when Buch is healthy, but having Kyrou and Vrana as one timer threats on each side should be an absolute no brainer. Force teams to respect the shooting threat from each side of the ice and then let Thomas make plays from the middle as teams creep out toward the shooters.

 

[joe galiba]

I'm not nearly as down about last night as many here. We weren't good enough, but I'm not using this game as a clear harbinger of a season when we were missing our best player. That doesn't excuse how bad we looked and the Coyotes are still a beatable team without Buch. But basically all of the things that fell apart tonight were the things that he excels in. Hofer was overcommitting in the first half of the game, but he made a few stops that I was pretty happy about. I was hoping for a better night, but I'm not losing any sleep about that effort from him. He was far from our worst player last night.

I've been bitching about the construction of the top PP unit since training camp, but I'll renew my complaint now that the unit got benched after being a complete liability. Why in the hell is our best trigger man not on the top PP unit? And why the hell is our best playmaker being asked to stay on the wall on the side of the ice that eliminates him as a one time threat?

Schenn/Thomas

Kyrou-Thomas/Schenn-Vrana

Krug

This shouldn't be hard. I'd swap out Schenn for Buch when Buch is healthy, but having Kyrou and Vrana as one timer threats on each side should be an absolute no brainer. Force teams to respect the shooting threat from each side of the ice and then let Thomas make plays from the middle as teams creep out toward the shooters.

Thomas low and Krug high passing to shooters on each side just seems like a dream scenario, I just don't get why they are not running it like this

 

[Davimir Tarablad]

Thomas low and Krug high passing to shooters on each side just seems like a dream scenario, I just don't get why they are not running it like this

Because this team has treated one timers like a forbidden technique ever since we stopped running Steen on the 1st PP unit.

 

[BadgersandBlues]

This game reminded me of our struggles on D last year. I'll give the Yotes credit, they play fast, and they pressure in the right spots. That said, our D made it far too easy on them. They backed in and in and in until they were basically at the top of the faceoff circle on every rush. With about 8 minutes left in the third, Faulk finally realized you could actually hit someone and all of a sudden he stepped up three times in a row and completely negated the Yotes rush attack all on his own.

That's how you beat a team like this - you lean on them. You can't let them skate around in circles. You have to get some body on them and slow them down. Don't be dumb and take a penalty, but also don't skate away when they're circling around. This was one of the least physical games I've seen the Blues play in awhile, and it played right into the hands of the Yotes.

Our PK was abysmal - b/c once again, our high man was pushing WAY too far out on the D. It's a simple play to go from D to wing then wing to wing cross ice for a 1-timer when our high man pushes out that far. It's how they scored all three PP goals against us.

Krug was terrible last night. He's been pretty atrocious to start the season, but dear lord, play Tucker with Faulk at this point, Krug needs to ride the f***ing bus in the A.

Vrana should be promoted to the Thomas/Kyrou line. Saad doesn't work there.

I thought Schenn and Kap played a decent game together, but they need to get to the inside more.

Our 4th line is worthless. Sunny is cooked. Sorry to everyone who was excited to have him back, but he's not the player he was when we won in '19.

 

[Brian39]

I guarantee Reinbacher is selling more jerseys than Hayes or Vrana. Have you watched how much the Coyotes are pumping Cooley's tires? You market your promising young players. You get the most promising ones by tanking. Tanking is better for ticket sales than extended mediocrity in the long run. Look at the blues "Come grow with us campaign" with Oshie, Berglund and Perron. None were high picks but they got butts in seats because nobody knew what we had with them and they were marketed well.

The Blues averaged 5,000 empty seats in 2005/2006, about 6,500 empty seats in 2006/07, and about 1,500 empty seats in 2007/08. And they were practically giving away tickets those years. The youth movement absolutely drove attendance moving forward, but not until after the team lost out on tens of millions of dollars in revenue.

I have never heard anyone claim owning the Blues from 2006-2013 was a financial success for Checketts and his investment partners and the team amassed an enormous amount of debt under them. I don't think that era of the Blues is a case study on financial success.

I have some very strong push back about the notion that the ticket/merch sales when you pull out of a tank outweigh the years of massive revenue loss during a tank.

Because this team has treated one timers like a forbidden technique ever since we stopped running Steen on the 1st PP unit.

Perron ripping 1 timers from the left side was the first option on our PP for his last year here. The year before that, we brought in Hoffman specifically so that we'd have them parked as one-timer threats on each side. We ran our PP around having 1 time threats until last year.

 

[joe galiba]

we need to look at big picture. kids were our worst players this game, but you don't want them playing scared to be benched. i wouldn't pull tucker and neighbours from lineup (unless for quick 1 game reset). we aren't contenders. let the kids play through this.


if we had bedard, sure. but how many will smith jerseys are sharks selling? how is reinbacher goosing montreal ticket sales? bedard is generational guy.

Tucker, to me, looks fine defending the front of the net or in the corners and that is it, maybe he can get a little better with decision making when to pinch and when not to, maybe he can marginally improve his passing and breakouts, but he is bad defending in open ice, his straight line speed and agility are both poor, I don't know that those are fixable, he reminds me of a worse skating Mikkola

if the Blues have decided Neighbors is just a fourth line guy, then fine, keep him here, otherwise he needs to work on things at a different level first before he can grow

 

[Blueston]

Tucker, to me, looks fine defending the front of the net or in the corners and that is it, maybe he can get a little better with decision making when to pinch and when not to, maybe he can marginally improve his passing and breakouts, but he is bad defending in open ice, his straight line speed and agility are both poor, I don't know that those are fixable, he reminds me of a worse skating Mikkola

if the Blues have decided Neighbors is just a fourth line guy, then fine, keep him here, otherwise he needs to work on things at a different level first before he can grow

I don’t disagree with your assessment. My point was these decisions need to be made in context if player development snd not just putting guys out there who are better now ( as we might if we were contenders).

 

[Majorityof1]

The Blues averaged 5,000 empty seats in 2005/2006, about 6,500 empty seats in 2006/07, and about 1,500 empty seats in 2007/08. And they were practically giving away tickets those years. The youth movement absolutely drove attendance moving forward, but not until after the team lost out on tens of millions of dollars in revenue.

I have never heard anyone claim owning the Blues from 2006-2013 was a financial success for Checketts and his investment partners and the team amassed an enormous amount of debt under them. I don't think that era of the Blues is a case study on financial success.

I have some very strong push back about the notion that the ticket/merch sales when you pull out of a tank outweigh the years of massive revenue loss during a tank.


Perron ripping 1 timers from the left side was the first option on our PP for his last year here. The year before that, we brought in Hoffman specifically so that we'd have them parked as one-timer threats on each side. We ran our PP around having 1 time threats until last year.

A down turn is inevitable. Do you suffer for years of mediocrity or tank hard 1-2 years and then sell the youth your tanking got you. I don't think tanking is financially worse than a slow retool. Its just depends on how you want to take your losses and how quickly you can turn it around.

 

[MissouriMook]

I'm not nearly as down about last night as many here. We weren't good enough, but I'm not using this game as a clear harbinger of a season when we were missing our best player. That doesn't excuse how bad we looked and the Coyotes are still a beatable team without Buch. But basically all of the things that fell apart tonight were the things that he excels in. Hofer was overcommitting in the first half of the game, but he made a few stops that I was pretty happy about. I was hoping for a better night, but I'm not losing any sleep about that effort from him. He was far from our worst player last night.

I've been bitching about the construction of the top PP unit since training camp, but I'll renew my complaint now that the unit got benched after being a complete liability. Why in the hell is our best trigger man not on the top PP unit? And why the hell is our best playmaker being asked to stay on the wall on the side of the ice that eliminates him as a one time threat?

Schenn/Thomas

Kyrou-Thomas/Schenn-Vrana

Krug

This shouldn't be hard. I'd swap out Schenn for Buch when Buch is healthy, but having Kyrou and Vrana as one timer threats on each side should be an absolute no brainer. Force teams to respect the shooting threat from each side of the ice and then let Thomas make plays from the middle as teams creep out toward the shooters.

Even in the following context this is far too small a sample size, but last night's game showed that if we have any designs on a short re-tool, we need to make sure that we have the cap space to re-sign Buch, even if it is at a price that makes us uncomfortable. He might not be wearing a letter or even considered part of the "leadership core" but he is inarguably the "straw that stirs the drink" for this team.