GDT: 10/9/14 Game #1: St. Louis Blues vs. New York Rangers

[2 Minute Minor]

Hi Ranger fan here. Just listened to my 1st broadcast with Pang&Kelly.(Center ICe is unscrambled) I found them knowledgable , objective & entertaiing. I know it's a small sample but if these announcers are always like last night ; Blues fans are lucky.

Pang is awesome, and Kelly does a good job at identifying players (for both teams) but can be stiff in his delivery. They do a very creditable job on being informed about the opposing team. The Blues ARE lucky to have that crew. Its even better when Bernie Federko is between the benches with Pang up in the box with Kelly.

 

[bleedblue1223]

Absolutely right 2MM about the 4th line. Last night was a prime example of why teams have those type of players on the 4th line instead of going full EA Sports with skilled guys. You need that spark and energy.

 

[bleedblue1223]

Pang is awesome, and Kelly does a good job at identifying players (for both teams) but can be stiff in his delivery. They do a very creditable job on being informed about the opposing team. The Blues ARE lucky to have that crew. Its even better when Bernie Federko is between the benches with Pang up in the box with Kelly.

Although when Federko is included, they tend to get way off-topic which leads to a lot of inside jokes and everyone is wondering what the hell they are talking about. When that happens, you know they'd be great drinking buddies, but it can get a bit much after awhile. I'm just glad they are complete homers, like most teams have.

 

[Blanick]

My thoughts from the game last night

- That first period was awful. I mean just awful.

- I would say the first two periods our transition game was pretty poor. We overused the stretch the pass, stretching out our 5 man units.

- Yes Cole was as bad as he looked. His board play was fine but his play with the puck was utterly embarrassing.

- It took some time to get him going but Schwartz was our best forward last night.

- Lehtera has got some quick mitts in tight. His work down below the goal line was impressive.

- The last powerplay of the night was solid the others were o so bad.

 

[Note Worthy]

I forgot to mention I thought Lindstrom looked good.

 

[BluesTraveller]

Too often Cole looked like he had a grenade on his stick. I was hoping that aspect of his game had diminished. He can get the puck to the net from the point. If he would just settle down with the puck he would be fine in the NHL. He looked great on the give-and-go, until he passed up on the shot. Indicative of what the rest of the team was doing at the time, not shooting.

Lindstrom made a bad play on the Kreider breakaway goal, but played pretty well otherwise.

I did not like the defensive pairings at all. Jackman looked out of place a lot.

 

[BluesTraveller]

- Schwartz - Aside from the goal he was extremely sloppy with the puck and killed a good portion of offensive zone pressure. The time off really showed

 

[chet1926]

I'm too lazy to look through this whole thread, what's the deal with Stastny? That was a brutal hit he took.

 

[bleedblue1223]

I'm too lazy to look through this whole thread, what's the deal with Stastny? That was a brutal hit he took.

Quad, not knee, and he returned without being limited, so we dodged a major bullet.

 

[execwrite]

Okay - deep breath - it's gonna be all right.

Hurts to play such a bad first period in the home opener, but it's only one game. There are 81 games left.

Very important that Stastny was not hurt. That would have been tough.

Like Hitchcock said, there is still work to be done - and that's okay.

I bet Jaskin jumped in a cab and headed to O'Hare airport when he saw Stastny go down.

 

[ManyIdeas]

too many passes that didn't pan out at all, and were worse options than shots.

 

[Thallis]

It's the truth. If he's supposed to be one of our best forwards he needs to do a lot more. He was completely out of sync in the first 2 periods.

 

[2 Minute Minor]

Forgot to mention that, too. At least 5 or 6 high quality shots were passed up in favor of making a pass that didn't get there, and nullified the scoring chance. Cole's was the most painful, but Tarasenko did it too. Easy to fix, that, and the scoring chance was there.

 

[Levitate]

Ummmmm....

Also, I don't get what all the hype is surrounding McDonagh? I thought he was very pedestrian last night, yet people claim he's better than Petro? I just don't get it, maybe he had an off night, but I looked for him every time he was on the ice and I was left really underwhelmed.

Does anybody else have a different take on him? And please rangers fans don't infect this board with your "Ryan is a top5 dman" claims. Am I missing something here?

Wasn't his best game, no. Seemed to be trying to jump into the play a bit much or forcing zone entries that weren't there. he makes quite a few good plays with the puck in the defensive end though and made some nice reads and jumped some passes by the Blues. Probably needs to dial it back a bit, he's trying to be all over the place and do everything at the moment

 

[542365]

Forgot to mention that, too. At least 5 or 6 high quality shots were passed up in favor of making a pass that didn't get there, and nullified the scoring chance. Cole's was the most painful, but Tarasenko did it too. Easy to fix, that, and the scoring chance was there.

Yeah, I think we're all seeing the same thing. Everyone knows they're on a line with very talented players, and it seemed like they were all just trying to be too fancy and score the highlight reel goals. When Hitch gets them to take a more direct approach, and look to shoot from everywhere, we will generate a lot more scoring chances. First goal was scored by Schwartz driving the net after Backes took a wrister from just inside the zone. Second goal was scored with a hard center lane drive. We need more of that, and less of spinning no look passes. I think we will see a major improvement in that regard against Calgary. Even the third period seemed to show some signs of improvement.

 

[bishop12]

Berglund with more PP time than Schwartz....cute What is with Hitch and not giving Schwartz much PP time...ever?

 

[griff713]

putting ott on the power play is beyond me. i expected our pp to be sloppy as it usually is and it was the first game back, tough loss but onto the next one!

 

[Thallis]

Forgot to mention that, too. At least 5 or 6 high quality shots were passed up in favor of making a pass that didn't get there, and nullified the scoring chance. Cole's was the most painful, but Tarasenko did it too. Easy to fix, that, and the scoring chance was there.

In the case of Tarasenko's play, I remember that as the one that really started off the "SHOOOOOT" yellers, but he really didn't have a good opportunity. He got past the defender ther, but the guy had lost his stick right in Vladi's lane. He wouldn't have had a good shot if he had taken it.

 

[medkit]

I'm more upset with the coaching staff than any sole player.

1. I'm surprised more of you don't think the defensive shuffling is stupid. Here you have one of the best top-4 in the game and you shatter it completely. Why? If you have to do that in order to work in Gunnarson or Cole then you've already subtracted more than they are worth IMO. And that bottom pair was vomit worthy. Bouw and Petro were possibly the best pair in the league last season. Chemistry is gold at the start of a season and we are gonna wish we had more of it over this next stretch.

2. The powerplay sucked again. Kirk Muller was infamous for his insanely TERRIBLE powerplay in Carolina, and look, he's been hired to run ours! Our 5v3 didn't look threatening at all and at one point we were dump and chasing on the PP. And as people were posting, at another point we were set up so that no one could take a one-timer. We might as well just watch some tape of another team's powerplay and copy that instead of trying out Kirk's stupid ideas.

3. None of our lines gelled. That's a failure of the coaching staff during the preseason. Hitch played Lehtera-Tarasenko all preseason when people assumed Stastny-Tarasenko was the first choice. Well, that worked great! But then game 1 he suddenly decides to mix everything up again? Let the guys build some continuity.. we have multiple people trying to adjust to new linemates AND a new league.

On top of that we didn't seem to be playing our brand of possession hockey. We had guys randomly pinching and everyone was trying to run-n-gun for most of the game with cute little passes. The fact that it was such a teamwide issue earns Hitch another glare, though I will give him some credit for his adjustments after the 1st.

 

[Vladys Gumption]

I still thing Tarasenko defers to other players too much at times. I want him to take charge and be the "go-to" guy on his line. God knows he's good enough to.

 

[JustOneB4IDie]

Year 48 starts out like every Blues games ended from the previous 47 seasons : Blues Lose. Meh we are used to it.

 

[rumrokh]

It's the truth. If he's supposed to be one of our best forwards he needs to do a lot more. He was completely out of sync in the first 2 periods.

I agree. He looked like a different player after scoring the goal, but before that, he looked rustier than most other players. I think he'll be fine, though. Without him, the Blues probably don't score at all and he made a couple good defensive plays, too.

 

[Chippewa]

It'll be interesting to see where we're at come Thanksgiving. By then new season jitters should be worked out, defensive pairings solidified, Allen gotten a few starts, etc.

I really didn't like the game last night. I just want to know how much of it is on first game of the season randomness, and how much is on the coaching staff.

Looking at you especially, Muller. That was a disgraceful powerplay last night. Absolutely nothing has changed. Why are you even here? Take his salary and pay Sobotka to come back. What makes it worse is that Canes fans warned us about this. With the personnel we have, running whatever the hell they ran last night should not be done. 90% of that is squarely on the coaching.

 

[griff713]

i guess we should have listened to the canes fans, sounds like one of our weaknesses was just pushed even further

 

[Dbrownss]

I still thing Tarasenko defers to other players too much at times. I want him to take charge and be the "go-to" guy on his line. God knows he's good enough to.

This is why being on a line with steen isn't a good idea. Lehtera is a pure passer, Schwartz is a 50/50 guy, tank is the shooter