GDT: Blues @ Avs 2: Electric Blue-galoo| 8pm CST| FSMW|

[Reality Czech]

I’m not gonna pretend anything like this can be established after one game, but I’ve been surprised more people were not worried about our PK going in the season. It’s been a weird discourse, as everyone just wants to talk about how much our power play would improve (we already were at 25% or there about last year without Hoffman and Krug, which is generally about as high as a PP% can be sustainable), which was 3rd in the league, but it feels like we took a step back in Penalty Killing which was already 18th. Playing teams like Colorado and Vegas could really expose that potential weak spot.

I agree it may be a concern, so that means we need to play extra disciplined...especially against top teams. But the PK was solid in game 1, so I don't think we need to panic just yet. However, Steen was one of our top PKers and Petro obviously contributed a lot, too. Bouwmeester was a rock on the PK. So either current guys will have to step up, or we may need to add another defense-first d-man. Gunnar would be fine for the PK, but there are only 6 D spots so Berube needs to find the best ways to use them. This is why I am skeptical of having both Dunn and Krug on this team long-term. I'm not sure it's sustainable to have two offense-first guys on the blue line, especially when you have Faulk as well.

 

[TK 421]

Mikkola needs to be the guy getting in for Borts.

 

[Novacain]

Mikkola needs to be the guy getting in for Borts.

Who are you playing off-hand?

 

[TK 421]

Who are you playing off-hand?

Mikkola, he can play both sides effectively.

 

[fishsandwichpatrol]

Ouch. Well, can't win em all.

 

[Ted Hoffman]

Really? Please share.

Saw this, meant to come back to it. Let's go off the top of my head, not necessarily in order of badness:

1. The Winnipeg game in 2018. That one. Don't let the 8-4 score fool you, it was much worse.
2. Vancouver, 1996. The one that got Keenan fired. Same score as tonight, but every Blues player signaled they had quit on him.
3. Ottawa, 1996. I got to witness this one in person. The Senators were dreadful but had picked up Jacques Martins a few weeks prior. We were around .500 but not lousy. We played about 3 great shifts, then went for a line change and the Sens skated down the ice and scored. And then scored. And then scored again. 4-0 goals in 2:38 before the game was 5 minutes old, 6-0 just 1:31 into the 2nd, and it ended a 7-1 blowout that they could have easily repaid us for the 11-1 pasting we put on them a couple seasons prior.
4. Chicago, 1990 Norris Division Final, Game 7. Longtime Blues fans remember this. I've said too much already.
5. Columbus, 2015. We went into that one 34-13-4 and tied with Nashville atop the Central and on a 7-game winning streak; the Blue Jackets were 16 points out of a playoff spot and losers of 4 of their last 5 and 8 of their last 11. We took advantage and laid down for a 7-1 beating.
6. Columbus, 2010. Two good teams playing each other early in the season; we were 9-1-2, they were 8-5-0. They kicked the ever-loving shit out of us 8-1 at their place. [I think we even lost Oshie in this game to injury.]
7. Any of Arizona/Vancouver/Calgary, December 2018. Collectively it's a complete shitstorm; individually, we looked like pee-wees skating against the '77 Canadians and the score of each game understated how bad it was.

That's not even the night in 1991 that Theo Fleury had the league's only SH hat-trick against us, or the night in 1981 where we were supposed to be the league's best team and Edmonton was crap and Gretzky had 5-2-7 in a 9-2 romp, or the 1993 early-season game at Chicago which became a 9-2 massacre.

Yeah, 8-0 and 6 PPGA against is bad. I can write that off as take the PK out and it's not nearly as bad and Colorado is at least a really good team, that happens and it's only the 2nd game of the season, this doesn't hurt. Almost of the above were to teams clearly worse than us or in games that were much more meaningful.

 

[Ranksu]

Mikkola needs to be the guy getting in for Borts.

I agree, but you believe Chief will bail out his urinal best friend?

 

[Arto Kilponen]

I don't think I've ever seen that many goals scored from "absolutely no-one even thinks about coming close to the shooter"-situations. That kind of great thing that defense obviously trusts the goalies to stop the shooter, but still I think they might want to think about this defensive strategy again.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

I’m not gonna pretend anything like this can be established after one game, but I’ve been surprised more people were not worried about our PK going in the season. It’s been a weird discourse, as everyone just wants to talk about how much our power play would improve (we already were at 25% or there about last year without Hoffman and Krug, which is generally about as high as a PP% can be sustainable), which was 3rd in the league, but it feels like we took a step back in Penalty Killing which was already 18th. Playing teams like Colorado and Vegas could really expose that potential weak spot.

Pretty sure I’ve been beating this drum. The PP will be fine, but it’s not statistically possible to get much better than last season. But the PK has to be rebuilt and wasn’t very good last season. It’s a bigger and more important project.

 

[AjaxManifesto]

Poop in a bag, flat like a pancake




I was walking the dog and saw this on the sidewalk...made me think about the Blues game last night

 

[Ted Hoffman]

The one thing that stands out from last night: like last year's playoffs, we really struggled when Colorado was skating with speed. We didn't have an answer for it, we struggled to keep up and play at the same speed, and so any mistake got magnified that much more. We're fine if we can clog things up and slow the game down so our physical play can have an impact. We can't be physical if the opposition is buzzing around and we're chasing them trying to keep up, and we don't have the speed to keep up with them. It's why smart positional play becomes even more critical.

It's a lesson we're going to have to learn. Let's see if the coaching staff figures it out.

 

[Bluesnatic27]

Well that sucked.

Although I do hope that this game does tone down the “Colorado is a paper tiger” nonsense that seems to be the popular phrase nowadays. That team is deadly. The analytics back it up, the eye tests back it up, and for all intents and purposes, last night backs it up. Anyone still spinning that Colorado is not a Cup contender needs to pack it in.

 

[AjaxManifesto]

Well that sucked.

Although I do hope that this game does tone down the “Colorado is a paper tiger” nonsense that seems to be the popular phrase nowadays. That team is deadly. The analytics back it up, the eye tests back it up, and for all intents and purposes, last night backs it up. Anyone still spinning that Colorado is not a Cup contender needs to pack it in.

Agreed. They will be good, but seasons can go in many directions. They are a few injuries away (like many teams) from being downgraded from "likely to win the Cup" to "a very good team". Let's see how this season plays out.

I think last night was an outlier. The Blues just quit. It reminded me of the bubble hockey games. I wonder when their PRIDE will kick in? I expected their leadership to prevent such disasters, so hopefully this is a wake up. Thankfully, the net result is the same as losing 2-3.

 

[MissouriMook]

Wow, did the Blues look flat last night. I know this happens every year that Colorado makes the playoffs, but I wonder if the altitude is going to give them an advantage in the second of two games against teams not used to it. Because we sure looked to be sucking wind from the puck drop.

As @AjaxManifesto pointed out, I think we'll get more out of this than losing 3-2 or even 6-5 in a game that we were in until the end. Just memory hole the game, burn the tape and get ready for San Jose. I just hope leaving Husso in there didn't mess up the confidence he had coming in out of camp. He was really late getting over on one of the goals, but the other three weren't really saves you would expect him (or any goalie) to make.

 

[MortiestOfMortys]

Saw this, meant to come back to it. Let's go off the top of my head, not necessarily in order of badness:

1. The Winnipeg game in 2018. That one. Don't let the 8-4 score fool you, it was much worse.
2. Vancouver, 1996. The one that got Keenan fired. Same score as tonight, but every Blues player signaled they had quit on him.
3. Ottawa, 1996. I got to witness this one in person. The Senators were dreadful but had picked up Jacques Martins a few weeks prior. We were around .500 but not lousy. We played about 3 great shifts, then went for a line change and the Sens skated down the ice and scored. And then scored. And then scored again. 4-0 goals in 2:38 before the game was 5 minutes old, 6-0 just 1:31 into the 2nd, and it ended a 7-1 blowout that they could have easily repaid us for the 11-1 pasting we put on them a couple seasons prior.
4. Chicago, 1990 Norris Division Final, Game 7. Longtime Blues fans remember this. I've said too much already.
5. Columbus, 2015. We went into that one 34-13-4 and tied with Nashville atop the Central and on a 7-game winning streak; the Blue Jackets were 16 points out of a playoff spot and losers of 4 of their last 5 and 8 of their last 11. We took advantage and laid down for a 7-1 beating.
6. Columbus, 2010. Two good teams playing each other early in the season; we were 9-1-2, they were 8-5-0. They kicked the ever-loving shit out of us 8-1 at their place. [I think we even lost Oshie in this game to injury.]
7. Any of Arizona/Vancouver/Calgary, December 2018. Collectively it's a complete shitstorm; individually, we looked like pee-wees skating against the '77 Canadians and the score of each game understated how bad it was.

That's not even the night in 1991 that Theo Fleury had the league's only SH hat-trick against us, or the night in 1981 where we were supposed to be the league's best team and Edmonton was crap and Gretzky had 5-2-7 in a 9-2 romp, or the 1993 early-season game at Chicago which became a 9-2 massacre.

Yeah, 8-0 and 6 PPGA against is bad. I can write that off as take the PK out and it's not nearly as bad and Colorado is at least a really good team, that happens and it's only the 2nd game of the season, this doesn't hurt. Almost of the above were to teams clearly worse than us or in games that were much more meaningful.

Yes, those were all bad. There are maaany dark spots in the history of this club.

I’m willing to allow some grace for this one, given the circumstances. First, there’s obviously a global pandemic. We’re a different team than last year, with many new faces that haven’t had the luxury of building chemistry with each other over a preseason and long offseason. It’s clear that everybody is off in their timing and understanding of where each other will be on the ice at any given time. That was clear in the opener, too. A lot of missed passes (SO many), too many penalties, these are things that show a team isn’t used to playing and playing with each other. Fine.

What’s embarrassing about this one is that they showed two days prior that they are better than that. No internal turmoil (a la Keenan), no taking the night off against a basement-dwelling team looking to make a statement, no wilting under the pressure of a high-stakes situation. This was game 2 of the season, against a team we controlled two nights earlier. What’s embarrassing is that this was a total self-own, with no apparent cause other than guys simply decided to roll over and let the Avs have a go at their underbelly. They got spanked yesterday, and there was no response or retaliation, no spine. It was like watching a kid get sand kicked in their face by the schoolyard bully and instead of doing anything about it they just open their mouths wider. They made themselves our daddy and then sent us to go run off to STL with our tails between our legs. It was pitiful, especially since we *know* that they could control what was happening on the ice. They just chose not to, for whatever reason. That’s what makes this one at least as bad as all of the others, imo.

 

[GoldenSeal]

We had big losses to Boston in the Final too. Big deal. Two powerhouses going toe to toe, this can happen. We just need to beat who we should and let the chips fall with everyone near the expected top of the division.

This is also my ideology. I've seen us get hammered but the resolve to come back and hammer back got stronger. We had what I would say are 'weaker' pieces of the puzzle with players like Maroon, but they contributed to coming back from a bad loss and made the other team pay.

What I am looking for is to see if, after this team gets hammered, if they roll over and die.

ROR is the Captain with actual experience being a Captain. I'm hoping Chief as well as Army really listen to his input. I didn't feel like Hitch listened to Backes' input (or really anyone else's, for that matter) and I'm hoping ROR doesn't wind up in a situation like Buffalo where management didn't just put him or ignore him, but blamed him for everything and pretty much ran him out of town.

The D unit needs a better strategy because they left out Binny to dry and Husso got hammered. Not saying Husso was great but that D was nowhere to be seen and there's too much money on that blueline to tolerate that.

 

[Blueston]

This is also my ideology. I've seen us get hammered but the resolve to come back and hammer back got stronger. We had what I would say are 'weaker' pieces of the puzzle with players like Maroon, but they contributed to coming back from a bad loss and made the other team pay.

What I am looking for is to see if, after this team gets hammered, if they roll over and die.

ROR is the Captain with actual experience being a Captain. I'm hoping Chief as well as Army really listen to his input. I didn't feel like Hitch listened to Backes' input (or really anyone else's, for that matter) and I'm hoping ROR doesn't wind up in a situation like Buffalo where management didn't just put him or ignore him, but blamed him for everything and pretty much ran him out of town.

The D unit needs a better strategy because they left out Binny to dry and Husso got hammered. Not saying Husso was great but that D was nowhere to be seen and there's too much money on that blueline to tolerate that.

All 4 of goals against Husso were onColorado pp. so we’re 2 against Binny. We never got our game going at es but it was our pk that turned it into a rout.

 

[GoldenSeal]

All 4 of goals against Husso were on Colorado pp. so we’re 2 against Binny. We never got our game going at es but it was our pk that turned it into a rout.

With the strategy the Blues are employing, es should be our strength with the lines we're running. I'm actually expecting high scoring games against us while we score a lot more goals aggressively. If your opponent is beating you on special teams, you really have to take a hard look at your roster and playbook and find the problems. It's only one game and it's not something to worry about, but for a team that so many spoke down on, the Avs looked hungry, professional and determined. We were undisciplined, got tired far too fast, and became lazy.

 

[Stlblue50]

Still no hearing as of yet on the hit against Bortz. There isn’t a chance that hit doesn’t get at least a hearing right???

 

[Linkens Mastery]

So I decided to put myself through the misery of rewatching the game.

The Bad:
They couldn't string together multiple passes together to save their lives.
Everyone outside of Thomas looked like they were stuck in mud, or 1/2 asleep.
Penalties and the PK.
No offensive pressure at all.
Bortuzzo getting sandwiched between some dudes shoulder and the glass.
Schenn-RoR-Perron just isn't jelling well right now.
Dunn.

The Meh:
Krug and Hoffman are still learning the system.

The Good.
Robert Thomas
Faulk looks a lot better than last year.
Parayko is a defensive master.
Binnington looked good until the 2nd goal.

 

[Moose and Squirrel]

So I decided to put myself through the misery of rewatching the game.

The Bad:
They couldn't string together multiple passes together to save their lives.
Everyone outside of Thomas looked like they were stuck in mud, or 1/2 asleep.
Penalties and the PK.
No offensive pressure at all.
Bortuzzo getting sandwiched between some dudes shoulder and the glass.
Schenn-RoR-Perron just isn't jelling well right now.
Dunn.

The Meh:
Krug and Hoffman are still learning the system.

The Good.
Robert Thomas
Faulk looks a lot better than last year.
Parayko is a defensive master.
Binnington looked good until the 2nd goal.

agree with this. will add, especially early, they looked 'rushed' to make a pass and obviously weren't very successful at it. and instead of short passes, which worked VERY well the 1st game, they were going way too far up the ice, again not very successfully.
it's 1 game, and we've seen these types of stinkers before, and regardless of what someone might think, it even happens with HOF players on a team.
wasn't the 1st time it's happened, won't be the last. just gotta learn from it and move forward.

oh, will add... Husso... he's gotta learn to stop and get back into position after sliding across the crease. there were times last night he just looked back but never made any effort to get back into the crease. Wasn't it Allen that had that problem early in his career, and honestly, off and on thru his career.

 

[joe galiba]

our PK kind of sucked last year
we didn’t have Petro, Bo, Steen who were key to some of our prior years good PK teams
we also lost Borts who is a good penalty killer
and not much time to get new players on the PK work with no preseason
also showed on powerplay with new coaching and not a lot of time to work on it
the bottom line was a lack of consistent effort

 

[jura]

Sorry, couldn’t resist.

 

[DoubleK81]

oh, will add... Husso... he's gotta learn to stop and get back into position after sliding across the crease. there were times last night he just looked back but never made any effort to get back into the crease. Wasn't it Allen that had that problem early in his career, and honestly, off and on thru his career.

Allen was a slider, but it's more because he was relying on his athleticism to make a save instead of being positionally sound in the first place. I didn't pay enough attention to Husso playing since the game was pretty well out of hand by the time he came in so I have no idea if its the same situation or not.

 

[EastonBlues22]

I’m not gonna pretend anything like this can be established after one game, but I’ve been surprised more people were not worried about our PK going in the season. It’s been a weird discourse, as everyone just wants to talk about how much our power play would improve (we already were at 25% or there about last year without Hoffman and Krug, which is generally about as high as a PP% can be sustainable), which was 3rd in the league, but it feels like we took a step back in Penalty Killing which was already 18th. Playing teams like Colorado and Vegas could really expose that potential weak spot.

There was definitely at least a few people who were vocal about their concern.

I think mostly it just got lost in the noise surrounding the greater Pietrangelo dialogue.