The Note in MI
Bow to the pyramid
The Blues play since January can be attributed to the loss of none other than PocketNines. Come back my friend, for the Blues need you, and thus we need you.
The Blues are slated to make history. They have to in order to win the Lord Stanley if for any other reason, they have never won it and are the last of the expansion six not to win.
This does matter to the team as a whole. It matters to Steve Ott and to Ryan Miller and to each and every one of them, if it didn't, the team would not have posted 111 points, two points off from tying for the #1 spot in the league. And alot of this was done before Ryan Miller, before Steve Ott.
People are using Tarasenko's injury as an excuse. Bullsnot. The team is coasting, pure and simple. They understand these games don't matter, regardless what history says of past winners. These Blues are not going to win by following in the footsteps of history; they are going to make their own steps and trying to follow the footsteps of others have led to collosal disappoints and failures of many stripes, including the hiring of Mike Keenan.
These Blues are not going to follow history. And these aren't the same Blues who everyone is discounting them for. When they get serious, they move with purpose and precision. When a netminder fails, Brian Elliott has been there to pick up the slack. With Ryan Miller, we now have both an extra gear and a calm, focused voice in the lockerroom. If Ken Hitchcock can coach these guys like he did the Stars, and that 111 points did not just magically come out of thin air or arrived unearned, this might be the team the true blue, bleeding blue fans have waited almost half a century for.
Remember, no one believed the Kings would go anywhere in the playoffs and suddenly they made their run.
It's time for these Blues to make their own. History is waiting for them to finish their story with them hoisting of Lord Stanley, so they can begin their next chapter.
And this may be the year to see that.
How many have given up on this team? I see a lot of negativity (seems like fans don't like loosing for some reason) but have all those people given up on the Blues or are there people extrapolating the negativity into the notion people have given up? Apparently there cannot be anywhere on the continuum for people to simultaneously believe in the team and be hard on them. You either think things are rosy now and in the future or you are displeased now and thus don't believe in this team.
Why does our HF community need to get into these discussions of extremes and constantly get at people for different opinions? Can't we atleast try to understand each other and respect each other?
Just took a look at the Ducks forum after their loss to the Oilers.
They are even more negative and have already eliminated their own team from the playoffs. Yikes.
Guess that's how it goes in sports.
Extreme positivity is as unfounded as extreme negativity. The Blues are a great team and have a good shot at winning the cup. That is true. However, they have also showed some lackluster effort and have major holes in their game (Jax/Polak can't transition, inconsistent secondary scoring,missed opportunities from missed shots, lack of concentration or off-nights by goalies leads to soft goals, etc). That is also true.
Rainbows, unicorns and wishful thinking won't bring a cup to St. Louis. Smart hockey, inspired play, digging deep, and getting it together will. So when I criticize the Blues, I am not saying they are horrible and have no shot in the playoffs. I am not stopping from being a fan of them. I am pointing out where they can improve and hoping they live up to their potential. I am hoping they get the cup their long time fans so richly deserve. I have been a fan for 20+ years. I will be a fan for many more. Fans like me have seen too many great Blues teams fall short in the playoffs, and not just short but very short, to be blindly optimistic.
Lol, he's only been gone since round the Olympic break, hopefully he comes back as soon as he's able.The Blues play since January can be attributed to the loss of none other than PocketNines. Come back my friend, for the Blues need you, and thus we need you.
You are comparing a fan's opinion of a team vs. the things the team actually does on the ice which have nothing to do with each other. Constant criticism won't win a cup either.Extreme positivity is as unfounded as extreme negativity. The Blues are a great team and have a good shot at winning the cup. That is true. However, they have also showed some lackluster effort and have major holes in their game (Jax/Polak can't transition, inconsistent secondary scoring,missed opportunities from missed shots, lack of concentration or off-nights by goalies leads to soft goals, etc). That is also true.
Rainbows, unicorns and wishful thinking won't bring a cup to St. Louis. Smart hockey, inspired play, digging deep, and getting it together will. So when I criticize the Blues, I am not saying they are horrible and have no shot in the playoffs. I am not stopping from being a fan of them. I am pointing out where they can improve and hoping they live up to their potential. I am hoping they get the cup their long time fans so richly deserve. I have been a fan for 20+ years. I will be a fan for many more. Fans like me have seen too many great Blues teams fall short in the playoffs, and not just short but very short, to be blindly optimistic.
Tonight, I did a trend analysis of the Blues season in 6 game blocks of wins and losses, i.e. games 1-6, 7-12, etc. The worst the Blues have done over any stretch of 6 consecutive games that I analyzed is 3 wins and 3 losses, a .500 record (this has happened 5 times out of 13 this season). The current 6 game block is 3 & 3, so not a serious cause for concern on its own. The overall trend however is a little more concerning. Over the whole season, the Blues are currently trending at 2.1 losses per 6 games, up from a season low of 1.6 per 6 games.
The more alarming trend applies to our scoring. Considering the whole season, the Blues are currently trending at an average of 2.4 GF per game, down from a season high average of 4 GF per game. Goals against have basically been flat all season, from 2.4 to 2.2 GA per game.
That our scoring has taken such a beating gives me great concern going into the playoffs, especially when scoring has traditionally been our Achilles heel in the post season. I suspect scoring trends downward for most teams as the season wears on, but I doubt it's quite the nosedive the Blues scoring appears to have taken.
I wish I was set up to analyze the other 29 teams in a similar fashion. If anybody knows a place I can download data sets of Wins, Losses, GF and GA, I'm all ears. I will nose around NHL.com some more.
Best case scenario for me is to win the central, drop behind Anaheim/SJ/Winner of the Pacific and then we play Minnesota in the first round.
Careful what you wish for, I'd rather play Dallas in the first round and have home ice against the Pacific winner if it were to get to that point.
True, I guess I'm assuming the worst when it comes to Steen and Tarasenko though. I feel like we could beat Minnesota even without those two. Dallas, we'll definitely need Steen.
Hopefully Steen is ready to go by the playoffs if it is something serious.
Agree, but they play Dallas or Phoenix first rounf. They can get on a roll there. Also teams like the Hawks are built for more the regular season and will have a much tougher time this year because the teams got much tougher. The Blues are built for the playoffs. They are a tough team with a lot of depth and top defense and goaltending. They come hard on forecheck and backcheck. Grind teams out until they're black and blue.
Ahh, a fellow analytics nerd. I've been applying for some jobs in that field (graduate in May with an IT Service Management degree), but mostly for basketball.
I would have to assume that there is an advanced statistics site out there for hockey, 82games.com is grrrreat for basketball. I'll see what I can find.
EDIT: try http://www.extraskater.com or http://stats.hockeyanalysis.com/ ......both looked legit with sortable categories.
Agree, but they play Dallas or Phoenix first rounf. They can get on a roll there. Also teams like the Hawks are built for more the regular season and will have a much tougher time this year because the teams got much tougher. The Blues are built for the playoffs. They are a tough team with a lot of depth and top defense and goaltending. They come hard on forecheck and backcheck. Grind teams out until they're black and blue.
The Blues are slated to make history. They have to in order to win the Lord Stanley if for any other reason, they have never won it and are the last of the expansion six not to win.
This does matter to the team as a whole. It matters to Steve Ott and to Ryan Miller and to each and every one of them, if it didn't, the team would not have posted 111 points, two points off from tying for the #1 spot in the league. And alot of this was done before Ryan Miller, before Steve Ott.
People are using Tarasenko's injury as an excuse. Bullsnot. The team is coasting, pure and simple. They understand these games don't matter, regardless what history says of past winners. These Blues are not going to win by following in the footsteps of history; they are going to make their own steps and trying to follow the footsteps of others have led to collosal disappoints and failures of many stripes, including the hiring of Mike Keenan.
These Blues are not going to follow history. And these aren't the same Blues who everyone is discounting them for. When they get serious, they move with purpose and precision. When a netminder fails, Brian Elliott has been there to pick up the slack. With Ryan Miller, we now have both an extra gear and a calm, focused voice in the lockerroom. If Ken Hitchcock can coach these guys like he did the Stars, and that 111 points did not just magically come out of thin air or arrived unearned, this might be the team the true blue, bleeding blue fans have waited almost half a century for.
Remember, no one believed the Kings would go anywhere in the playoffs and suddenly they made their run.
It's time for these Blues to make their own. History is waiting for them to finish their story with them hoisting of Lord Stanley, so they can begin their next chapter.
And this may be the year to see that.