GDT: Blues @ Avs

[Alklha]

Missed most of this game; father was taken to hospital, got in to see the second period and the hospital phoned to get me back in. Sounds like I really didn't miss much.

As for Backes, the only problem I have with it is that he wasn't smart enough to take someone with him. There was nothing in what he was really doing, just Duchene was smart enough not to bite.

Rather a 5-0 spanking than another 1 goal loss. Think about that over the next few days and hopefully it wakens this team up to their problems.

 

[Yoko Ono*]

Hitch is not the problem with this team its all Armstrong. Every trade has been and epic failure and letting Bishop go was just genius.

 

[bleedblue1223]

We had no choice on Bishop, the Bouwmeester deal was great, the Shattenkirk deal has worked for both teams, the Halak deal was good, the Tarasenko trade was genius, the Gunnarsson deal has also been good as well.

 

[Vladys Gumption]

Hitch is not the problem with this team its all Armstrong. Every trade has been and epic failure and letting Bishop go was just genius.

The Bouwmeester and Shattenkirk trades were totally flops? That's news to me. The trade for the Tarasenko pick seems like a massive win if you ask me.

 

[Jordeau]

Hitch is not the problem with this team its all Armstrong. Every trade has been and epic failure and letting Bishop go was just genius.

The only questionable trades that I can think of are the Perron and Miller trades. Perron was necessary to promote Schwartz and Tarasenko into more consistent and important roles in the top 6, plus he didn't fit our style of play and always seemed like an outcast for some reason.
The Miller trade was pretty bad, but a lot of people thought he would get us over the hump. It was good to see him take a chance on something at the deadline, even if it failed. Plus the only real asset we lost from that trade was the 1st round pick, which is almost made up for by the Barbashev pick in the second round last draft.

 

[BlueDream]

I didn't see the game tonight as I was with family, and I'm not trying to defend whatever he did, but Backes completely losing his cool and jumping someone is not something that I would consider a frequent occurrence at this point in his career.

We'll have to disagree then.

Remember a couple years ago at the end of the game against Vancouver (that I think the Canucks won in OT) where Backes immediately went after one of the Sedins? That was a poor showing of sportsmanship which I thought was very stupid. He actually did the same thing against Vancouver recently - might have been last year, I forget, where he started something at the end of the game just because we lost.

You have the MacKinnon and now Duchene incidents against Colorado.

Backes probably challenges Toews to a fight every time we play Chicago. One time Toews was actually dumb enough to oblige, but he's not a fighter either.

Backes goes after Shawn Horcoff.

There's probably other incidents I'm forgetting. So it's not an extremely long list, but it is enough to raise red flags for me. That's at least 5 guys right there he has no business going after.

I just don't think it's the right way for a guy who is a captain especially to act. He loses composure easily and then how is the rest of the team supposed to respond? He seems like a childish leader to me and hasn't gotten the team over the hump yet. I would really like to see what a more composed captain could do for this team.

It is one thing to go out there and hit everything in sight and set the tone for the team and help lead us to a victory after being down 3-0 to LA. That was great, do more things like that. But this throwing a hissy fit at Duchene type stuff is embarrassing, in my opinion, and far too often I see that happen as opposed to how a captain should really act.

 

[Backes to the wall]

We'll have to disagree then.

Remember a couple years ago at the end of the game against Vancouver (that I think the Canucks won in OT) where Backes immediately went after one of the Sedins? That was a poor showing of sportsmanship which I thought was very stupid. He actually did the same thing against Vancouver recently - might have been last year, I forget, where he started something at the end of the game just because we lost.

You have the MacKinnon and now Duchene incidents against Colorado.

Backes probably challenges Toews to a fight every time we play Chicago. One time Toews was actually dumb enough to oblige, but he's not a fighter either.

Backes goes after Shawn Horcoff.

There's probably other incidents I'm forgetting. So it's not an extremely long list, but it is enough to raise red flags for me. That's at least 5 guys right there he has no business going after.

I just don't think it's the right way for a guy who is a captain especially to act. He loses composure easily and then how is the rest of the team supposed to respond? He seems like a childish leader to me and hasn't gotten the team over the hump yet. I would really like to see what a more composed captain could do for this team.

It is one thing to go out there and hit everything in sight and set the tone for the team and help lead us to a victory after being down 3-0 to LA. That was great, do more things like that. But this throwing a hissy fit at Duchene type stuff is embarrassing, in my opinion, and far too often I see that happen as opposed to how a captain should really act.

Funny, I was thinking these exact words as I listened to a deflated Hitch tell a reporter how he was heartbroken after the Sharks defeat.

Heartbreaking defeat? Really ?
FFS Hitch, if you have to show real emotion, SHOW SOME ANGER, get the guys motivated, don't bring them down with ******** talk about being heartbroken!
Be blunt, be brutally honest and say the team deserved to lose after being outshot 9-3 in the 3rd. How many times are they gonna win games when up by a goal playing in a shell?
Say ANYTHING that will get them wanting to get back on the ice and
prove themselves, but omg DONT say you are heartbroken....UGH!

After that interview I expected the team to either come out next game like a band of hungry wolves...or a group of dejected kids.
Guess we saw what showed up.

I hated when Backes took a swing at Seabrook a few games ago when the game was over, thought then that he looked frustrated, now I am convinced of it.

I think Backes and Hitch are oil and water....

 

[2 Minute Minor]

I really don't mind Backes getting into altercations. To me, they usually look calculated and he allows himself to do it when either the game is out of hand, or he wants to send a message to either the Blues and/or the opponent team.

There is a huge difference between this behavior and a guy who takes cheapshots that put other players at risk for injury. Backes doesn't do that. Recently I saw him pass up a chance to blow up Kopitar on a play where the hit wasn't needed and would have put Anze in a dangerous situation. I think a guy losing his cool out there would not have the judgement to make a smart decision like that.

Backes shows passion. There are times the Blues lack passion, and I think his tiffs with opponents are one of the ways he brings it to the team. Would you prefer the Brewer type of captaincy? If Backes was an elite talent, he could do things like Tarasenko and single-handedly get the goal back. But Backes has to work with the tools he has.

As for the Colorado incident, I thought he was unlucky not to come out of that with matching penalties. That's less Backes' fault and more on the refs, but it certainly wasn't anything that impacted the outcome of the game by that point.

 

[RR10*]

Funny, I was thinking these exact words as I listened to a deflated Hitch tell a reporter how he was heartbroken after the Sharks defeat.

Heartbreaking defeat? Really ?
FFS Hitch, if you have to show real emotion, SHOW SOME ANGER, get the guys motivated, don't bring them down with ******** talk about being heartbroken!
Be blunt, be brutally honest and say the team deserved to lose after being outshot 9-3 in the 3rd. How many times are they gonna win games when up by a goal playing in a shell?
Say ANYTHING that will get them wanting to get back on the ice and
prove themselves, but omg DONT say you are heartbroken....UGH!

After that interview I expected the team to either come out next game like a band of hungry wolves...or a group of dejected kids.
Guess we saw what showed up.

I hated when Backes took a swing at Seabrook a few games ago when the game was over, thought then that he looked frustrated, now I am convinced of it.

I think Backes and Hitch are oil and water....

Totally agree. Hitch is either telling jokes like a clown or being the nice old uncle. Some attitude wouldn't hurt. He's standing with his hands crossed the entire game and during interviews he's more concerned about making jokes it seems.

Regarding Backes, he should be a goon and pick fights when needed and not pretending to start something when you are losing by a couple. Pathetic.

 

[Ranksu]

I like how Hitch has giving this season players controll on locker room and they decide are we gonna fight this or what. Hitch giving rispect to players is just right way to the top. Players have now tools and know Hitch system, they just need to work it out as a team now.

I don't like at all coaching type like Babcock,Julien or extreme side what Tortorella is standing for. Last year they showed that tv-series 'Road To The Winter Classic' and that was quite ridiculous yelling on locker room. Maybe that work on some players, but if they are elite players they know what to do on ice.
I have this picture on my head that generally teams don't win big games if coaching stuff is yelling and bossy.

Team like Oilers need some real attitude, the old covenant coaching stuff.

We can judge Army choices on trades/building up team and is Hitch game book correct, but what happends on ice its stands on players are Blues gonna success or not.

It's idiotic even put blame coaching stuff in mid-season. Let's judge end of season and give team silence now and full credit.

 

[BlueDream]

Funny, I was thinking these exact words as I listened to a deflated Hitch tell a reporter how he was heartbroken after the Sharks defeat.

Heartbreaking defeat? Really ?
FFS Hitch, if you have to show real emotion, SHOW SOME ANGER, get the guys motivated, don't bring them down with ******** talk about being heartbroken!
Be blunt, be brutally honest and say the team deserved to lose after being outshot 9-3 in the 3rd. How many times are they gonna win games when up by a goal playing in a shell?
Say ANYTHING that will get them wanting to get back on the ice and
prove themselves, but omg DONT say you are heartbroken....UGH!

After that interview I expected the team to either come out next game like a band of hungry wolves...or a group of dejected kids.
Guess we saw what showed up.

I hated when Backes took a swing at Seabrook a few games ago when the game was over, thought then that he looked frustrated, now I am convinced of it.

I think Backes and Hitch are oil and water....

Ah yeah I forgot about that Seabrook thing. I would have had more of a problem with that if Seabrook didn't throw such a dirty hit in the playoffs. So I don't really care too much about that, Seabrook can go get sucker punched in every game for the rest of his career for all I care.

However, it is interesting listening to Hitchcock talk because the things he says and the team's play on the ice often don't correlate. He always talks about needing to check better and how we're better when we play reckless, yet... are they doing either of those? In my opinion, no. They are too conservative most of the time. So, I really don't get what's going on sometimes in the locker room. However, I think Hitch is here to stay so it's either the players listen, or they go.