GDT: ♫ @ ★

[Blues88]

What a good game to watch.

Holy ****!

 

[Fred Murtz]

Vladimir Tarasenko post game interview

 

[Vladys Gumption]

You're the man Fred! Thanks a bunch!

I love Tarasenko so much. He's just so mature and always looking to get better. His English is a lot better too.

 

[Fred Murtz]

looking for the TERRORsenko kiss now

 

[jura]

His English is a lot better too.

no accent

 

[jura]

looking for the TERRORsenko kiss now

do a gif please

 

[BadgersandBlues]

What an awesome game to watch. So much skill. We had no answer for their top line, they had no answer for Lethera and Tank. That move on Tank's second goal was unreal. I watched it about 10 times and just kept laughing.

Couple of thoughts:

Steen might not be scoring, and I also don't really care for him on the PP point, but man is he still an effective hockey player. Just makes great reads, and plays great defense. Had at least 3-4 times this game where his backchecking sprung the rush.

Oshie looks like crap. It's not even a little like crap, it's super crap. However, he did make the potentially game-saving play on that Seguin rebound that was just sitting in front of our net with Elliott swimming. Glad to still see the hustle.

I was actually impressed a bit with Berglund tonight. That's really the type of play we need from him on a game by game basis. Just get tenacious on the puck, and make the simple play. Shoot when you have a lane, look to go pass-off-pads. Make a pass and get to the net, then work hard to retrieve. Get back on D and move your man out of the way. Really don't need/want him to do anything fancy, because that's when he makes the bad play. He plays like that every game, points will come, his shot is too good not to go in some of the time.

Elliott gave up his first softie of the year on the third goal, but he also made some absolutely incredible saves. Benn and Seguin should have had at least one more each.

I really liked Gunnarson. I think his speed is going to be a huge asset for us once he's shaken off the rust a bit. He looked faster then Jay-Bo at times, and he also seems to play a simple, yet high-IQ type of game.

AP. He FINALLY made a play tonight that looked like vintage AP, where he had the puck in our corner of the D-zone, had two forecheckers closing in on him, and beat both of them with a nice little pass into the middle to Schwartz to spring the rush. That's the type of play I remember him making all the time a couple of years ago. However, he hasn't looked like the guy we all thought was a surefire Norris contender from 11-12, frankly in quite some time. I remember talking about him that year, and saying to all my friends here (I live in Chicago) that he was going to the Hall of Fame if he kept improving. He hasn't. In fact, I'm wondering if getting Jay-Bo has had a bit of a negative impact on him. (Bear with me, I'm having some fun with reasonable speculation here in an attempt to figure out why AP hasn't looked Norris in awhile)

Two reasons: 1) Jay-Bo is all about not missing time. I think he allows himself to stay on the peripheral at times, especially in the offensive zone, so as not to take unnecessary hits. He especially doesn't try to over-exert himself in a way that could put him in any type of a bad situation, even if that means eating the puck in an unfavorable place in the defensive zone, but a place he's comfortable that he's not going to get hit/hurt. I'm not calling him soft per se, but more like, he doesn't take -any- chances to put himself in a vulnerable position. You see it a lot on dump-ins, he will take a more outside looping route to the puck, generally putting the offensive player on his outside hip and getting to the puck a lot slower then he could if he took a better angle, and when he arrives at the puck, he doesn't have any options other then to push the puck forward away from the defender, or -try- and reverse it, but all the while knowing the puck will most likely hit the forechecker and that forechecker will gain the puck. He doesn't, however, put himself in a position to have a forechecker get a hit on him, especially from an angle. I think this makes AP-Jay-Bo a bit predictable, and allows the F2 to get in on AP a lot faster then maybe otherwise, because the percentage is high that the puck is coming right to AP. I also wonder if this penchant for not taking chances has rubbed off on AP, and he has stopped putting himself in positions where he's uncomfortable getting hit, as he now believes that getting through the season healthy is more important then being the best player he can be.

2) The other reason I wonder if Jay-Bo isn't so great with AP is that when you look at most of the other top Dmen, they aren't usually playing with a partner at the level of Jay-Bo. This actually allows them to be "The Man" a little bit more. We saw it with AP when he was with Cola, but once he got Jay-Bo, it seems like that's when his play started regressing. You look around the league though, and really, with the exception of maybe Keith-Seabrook, most Norris contenders aren't playing with people as talented as Jay-Bo. I think Keith runs that pairing though, and AP being younger sort of deferred to Jay-Bo when they got matched up.

The only other things I can think of is that his knee injury knocked him off the pedestal of HOF to usually really good, which doesn't really make sense to me, or Hitch just gives him latitude b/c of his contract, or his TOI, or whatever. I really don't know at this point. All I do know is that the guy I used to love to watch dominate without ever having to play one minute in the offensive zone, and a guy I really believed could one day go into the HOF, has fallen far, far off that pedestal.

 

[Meatball]

I really hope Oshie and Petro get it together soon. I know I've been repeating it a lot but if they're still playing below their capabilities in December, then it's time to worry.

tl;dr It's still October.

 

[KirkOut]

minimalist gdt is 2-0

 

[rumrokh]

What an awesome game to watch. So much skill. We had no answer for their top line, they had no answer for Lethera and Tank. That move on Tank's second goal was unreal. I watched it about 10 times and just kept laughing.

Couple of thoughts:

Steen might not be scoring, and I also don't really care for him on the PP point, but man is he still an effective hockey player. Just makes great reads, and plays great defense. Had at least 3-4 times this game where his backchecking sprung the rush.

Oshie looks like crap. It's not even a little like crap, it's super crap. However, he did make the potentially game-saving play on that Seguin rebound that was just sitting in front of our net with Elliott swimming. Glad to still see the hustle.

I was actually impressed a bit with Berglund tonight. That's really the type of play we need from him on a game by game basis. Just get tenacious on the puck, and make the simple play. Shoot when you have a lane, look to go pass-off-pads. Make a pass and get to the net, then work hard to retrieve. Get back on D and move your man out of the way. Really don't need/want him to do anything fancy, because that's when he makes the bad play. He plays like that every game, points will come, his shot is too good not to go in some of the time.

Elliott gave up his first softie of the year on the third goal, but he also made some absolutely incredible saves. Benn and Seguin should have had at least one more each.

I really liked Gunnarson. I think his speed is going to be a huge asset for us once he's shaken off the rust a bit. He looked faster then Jay-Bo at times, and he also seems to play a simple, yet high-IQ type of game.

AP. He FINALLY made a play tonight that looked like vintage AP, where he had the puck in our corner of the D-zone, had two forecheckers closing in on him, and beat both of them with a nice little pass into the middle to Schwartz to spring the rush. That's the type of play I remember him making all the time a couple of years ago. However, he hasn't looked like the guy we all thought was a surefire Norris contender from 11-12, frankly in quite some time. I remember talking about him that year, and saying to all my friends here (I live in Chicago) that he was going to the Hall of Fame if he kept improving. He hasn't. In fact, I'm wondering if getting Jay-Bo has had a bit of a negative impact on him. (Bear with me, I'm having some fun with reasonable speculation here in an attempt to figure out why AP hasn't looked Norris in awhile)

Two reasons: 1) Jay-Bo is all about not missing time. I think he allows himself to stay on the peripheral at times, especially in the offensive zone, so as not to take unnecessary hits. He especially doesn't try to over-exert himself in a way that could put him in any type of a bad situation, even if that means eating the puck in an unfavorable place in the defensive zone, but a place he's comfortable that he's not going to get hit/hurt. I'm not calling him soft per se, but more like, he doesn't take -any- chances to put himself in a vulnerable position. You see it a lot on dump-ins, he will take a more outside looping route to the puck, generally putting the offensive player on his outside hip and getting to the puck a lot slower then he could if he took a better angle, and when he arrives at the puck, he doesn't have any options other then to push the puck forward away from the defender, or -try- and reverse it, but all the while knowing the puck will most likely hit the forechecker and that forechecker will gain the puck. He doesn't, however, put himself in a position to have a forechecker get a hit on him, especially from an angle. I think this makes AP-Jay-Bo a bit predictable, and allows the F2 to get in on AP a lot faster then maybe otherwise, because the percentage is high that the puck is coming right to AP. I also wonder if this penchant for not taking chances has rubbed off on AP, and he has stopped putting himself in positions where he's uncomfortable getting hit, as he now believes that getting through the season healthy is more important then being the best player he can be.

2) The other reason I wonder if Jay-Bo isn't so great with AP is that when you look at most of the other top Dmen, they aren't usually playing with a partner at the level of Jay-Bo. This actually allows them to be "The Man" a little bit more. We saw it with AP when he was with Cola, but once he got Jay-Bo, it seems like that's when his play started regressing. You look around the league though, and really, with the exception of maybe Keith-Seabrook, most Norris contenders aren't playing with people as talented as Jay-Bo. I think Keith runs that pairing though, and AP being younger sort of deferred to Jay-Bo when they got matched up.

The only other things I can think of is that his knee injury knocked him off the pedestal of HOF to usually really good, which doesn't really make sense to me, or Hitch just gives him latitude b/c of his contract, or his TOI, or whatever. I really don't know at this point. All I do know is that the guy I used to love to watch dominate without ever having to play one minute in the offensive zone, and a guy I really believed could one day go into the HOF, has fallen far, far off that pedestal.

Addressing the bold portion...

I don't buy this borderline conspiracy theory. Bouwmeester takes hits to make plays and puts himself in traffic all the time. Some of those angles you're talking about are because of his huge stride. Other players take tiny steps and are up to speed, Bouwmeester has to be a lot more deliberate about it and then changing direction is a whole different ordeal. I wouldn't call him a particularly tough and gritty player but he doesn't put himself in position to avoid hits, and sometimes goes into the side boards with an attacking forward with a lot of speed that could easily bang him up.

But the absolute most telling thing is how Bouwmeester blocks shots. He puts his body on the line nightly in this regard.

As for the rest about Pietrangelo: Eh. He's still one of the best overall defenders in the league and some of his issues are because other teams have a specific game plan to deal with him. Most elite players go through some growing pains when they break through as a player worth targeting. He's regularly one of the best players on the ice for both teams, and when there aren't guys scoring hat tricks (there usually aren't), chances are high that he's the very best.

Kings fans don't bother to defend Doughty's lack of production in the regular season. Hawks fans never concede that it's a discredit to Keith that he's used not against top lines, but like the Blues use Shattenkirk. Because both players are still good and both teams have had such great performance in the playoffs that they tend not to nitpick their best players until things really matter. Unless Pietrangelo's play slides drastically (and it certainly hasn't), that's what I care about. Get to the playoffs and have an impressive whole-team performance. And then we can talk about whether or not Pietrangelo is doing defensive-zone toedrags. Hell, what about that sweet fake to set up the game-winner? It's the lack of team success that puts Pietrangelo under the microscope. So when he helps the team succeed, are his achievements similarly magnified? It seems like they very rarely are.

 

[2 Minute Minor]

I was at the game. During the OT, I turned to my wife (her first NHL game) and said, "They better watch out, Tarasenko is out there again." about 2 seconds before he ended the game. I got some hairy eyeballs from the Stars fans sitting around us.

There was a nice tribute to Ott. He is obviously well loved. Lots of Ott jerseys.

I didn't realize they yell "star!" when it comes up during the national anthem. Kind of cheesy, but better than yelling the whole way through like Chicago does.

 

[rumrokh]

I was at the game. During the OT, I turned to my wife (her first NHL game) and said, "They better watch out, Tarasenko is out there again." about 2 seconds before he ended the game. I got some hairy eyeballs from the Stars fans sitting around us.

There was a nice tribute to Ott. He is obviously well loved. Lots of Ott jerseys.

I didn't realize they yell "star!" when it comes up during the national anthem. Kind of cheesy, but better than yelling the whole way through like Chicago does.

Years back, many visiting stars fans would do that in St. Louis during the playoffs. I honestly think that was the impetus for the reactionary development of the "Home of the Bluuuuuuues" thing.

 

[LGB51]

Oshie is looking terrible this year

Been saying it 4 games now, I don't know what his deal is, but Oshie looks more like a 3rd/4th line tweener this year. Nine games into the season, and at least so far he belongs on a checking line with less offensive responsibility. I think were looking at a off year, or at least a badly slumping year after producing a career season last year, and becoming famous in the process.

 

[LGB51]

Both of us

Same here, I have Frank in all 8 of my yahoo leagues including our HF board league, and I didn't start him in all 8 because I thought he was sick D2D. Missed on a huge night, but oh well I'm just glad we beat those thugs and goons they have over there in Dallas.

 

[LGB51]

shatty has been playing more than pie for a while now....

shatty has been the freaking man this season, stepped up his play bigtime, even around the net. The guy is just playing with so much confidence & poise, you can just see on his face & and in the way moves around the ice. Still believe he's been our best D man.

 

[LGB51]

I'm never leaving Tarasenko on the bench again in fantasty. Ever. Every time I do, it comes back to bite me in the ass.

First time I did, and yeah that bite is pretty suck.

 

[LGB51]

That's like trying to choose between J-lo and Jessica Alba

Easy Jessica Alba.

 

[bleedblue1223]

That's like trying to choose between J-lo and Jessica Alba

That's actually a pretty easy decision, easily Alba.

 

[Meatball]

Years back, many visiting stars fans would do that in St. Louis during the playoffs. I honestly think that was the impetus for the reactionary development of the "Home of the Bluuuuuuues" thing.

While we're at it, Jets fans yelling "true north" during the Canadian anthem needs to stop.

 

[elkranio]

 

[elkranio]

 

[RR10*]

Any news on Backes?

 

[PeterAngelo]

What an enjoyable few hours of entertainment that was. Lehterrorsenkshow!

Man it is just so pleasing to see Schwartz and Tarasenko coming along. What a great ride we are all in for. On the downside my GF has taken a fancy to Schwartz more than Tarasenko so tonight's 'ride' wasn't quite as good as after the Coyotes game, but still....Couldn't be happier!

LGB!

 

[Thallis]

Years back, many visiting stars fans would do that in St. Louis during the playoffs. I honestly think that was the impetus for the reactionary development of the "Home of the Bluuuuuuues" thing.

That comes from when Oshie, Toews and the North Dakota Fighting Sioux were in town for the Frozen Four. They shout "Siouuuxx" at the end for the same effect.

 

[BadgersandBlues]

Jessica Alba AINEC. I think she's top 5 in the world.