GDT: Blues @islanders gameday 10-14

[AjaxManifesto]

Is there some satire I'm missing?

No.

They played lazy and uninspired in the last half of the 3rd.

A win that they pissed away.

 

[AjaxManifesto]

It didn't look like they weren't trying hard to me. There was some panic in their game, especially with their puck management, but it's not like they simply stopped caring.

At the end of a game with a lead when you're naturally focused on playing conservatively/trying not to make a mistake and the other team is letting it all hang out with a full court press because they have nothing to lose, it's extremely common to find the momentum swing heavily against you. That's not because the winning team "gave up" or "stopped playing." That's just the nature of sports. It's an incredibly pervasive phenomenon, and there isn't a team in this league that doesn't struggle with it.

That doesn't excuse the loss. It was a bad loss, and there are some things in the Blues game that definitely need to be cleaned up. The loss just wasn't because the Blues didn't give a **** about playing the last five minutes of the game. The Blues lost their composure and structure, but there was plenty of effort there.

Wrong.

They got lazy. The rest of what you said is the result of being lazy.

There is a difference, after all, between being lazy and not caring. The Blues "care" to be a good team and repeat. However, they think they can "mail it in" at this point. Other teams are gunning for them. You can't just "mail it in" and expect to win.

Their "swagger" cuts two ways now with a Cup in hand:

1) they can over come deficits and feel that they can beat anyone
2) they can also piss away leads and/or not put in the work because they underestimate the opposition

 

[Dbrownss]

No.

They played lazy and uninspired in the last half of the 3rd.

A win that they pissed away.

I was really hoping some posters were wrong about fans after the championship.

Yes, it's annoying when they lose winnable games. We've also seen exactly what this team can do. This is the cup hang over. The Blues can't bring their C game, because other teams do indeed see the Blues as the bench mark now. We're going to see games where they get outworked by "lesser" teams. In a league where the worst team can hand it to the best team, you just can't take shifts off when other teams come at you with that desire to beat the big dog. Its October hockey and the Blues are playing some very sloppy hockey. Luckily, Central suuuucks in this 5 game sample size.

Last year should really preach patience.

 

[ort]

Stay healthy and make the playoffs. That's all that matters in the regular season.

 

[Stopsight]

Sorry guys, I woke up and turned the game on with 10 minutes left in the third, you know who to blame

 

[TK 421]

Remember when every home game last season we were just waiting to see how they would f*** it up and embarrass us and they ended up doing it ALL SEASON LONG and STILL WON THE CUP? This iteration of the Blues is great but they'll also drive you cray cray. That's just how they roll.

When we got blown out in G6 against Boston my 1st reaction was "Yes! This is it, we're about to win our 1st Cup!"

 

[JoshFromMO]

Nice to see the board hasn't completely lost its mind after losing a random October game

 

[Default]

trade them all

blow it up

we've already won

ez

 

[izzy]

Wow one good year, that means a lot! He's 33 so how about every year before that?

his record and stats have been really good in new york, a lot of teams have trouble beating him

 

[EastonBlues22]

Wrong.

They got lazy. The rest of what you said is the result of being lazy.

There is a difference, after all, between being lazy and not caring. The Blues "care" to be a good team and repeat. However, they think they can "mail it in" at this point. Other teams are gunning for them. You can't just "mail it in" and expect to win.

Their "swagger" cuts two ways now with a Cup in hand:

1) they can over come deficits and feel that they can beat anyone
2) they can also piss away leads and/or not put in the work because they underestimate the opposition

In the last five minutes of the game, I saw plenty of hustle. Schwartz made a turnover at the line on a weak play, but that was immediately preceded by him obtaining the puck to begin with, and immediately followed by him diving to try to block a pass. There was bad puck management in there, but it wasn't "mailing it in."

Steen deflected a pass into his own net as he was coming back down low to try to shut down a passing lane. An unfortunate bounce, but not lazy.

There were plenty of people battling for pucks, engaging physically, and generally moving their legs. There was too much confusion due to the Islander's movement in the offensive zone and not enough of those puck battles were won, and often when they were won then puck management handed it right back to them, but it wasn't like the Blues were just floating around out there not bothering to move their legs or engage.

People like Dunn and ROR (among others) were clearly engaged physically, others were blocking shots, etc. Those are effort plays, and they were being made. Who wasn't making effort plays at the end? It's a short list.

You seem to think bad execution boils down to bad effort, and I disagree. I've seen plenty of teams that have bad effort, and that wasn't the problem here. Sometimes bad execution is just bad execution.

If you think score effects on momentum are the direct product of bad effort, then I disagree there as well. It's a well-recognized phenomenon, to the point where many analytics actively account for it because it's so pervasive with bigger score gaps and late in the game. How do you rationalize every other team "mailing it in" when they have a lead late in the game? They clearly all aren't riding the Cup winning swagger that you're chalking this up to. Hell, this very team was much worse at closing out games to begin last year (to the point where it got their coach fired), and that clearly didn't have anything to do with them having just won the Cup. Essentially the same team, with an even worse version of the same problem. What was the rationalization for that?

If the Blues were mailing it in and/or underestimated their opposition, wouldn't that have been evident the entire game and not just something that became a factor in the last handful of minutes? How did they build the lead to begin with and hold it for so long if they didn't take the game seriously and put in the work to make it happen? Those aren't switches that just get flipped off when the game is almost over.

 

[BlueDream]

Check his stats with the Islanders. He had one bad year (as did Halak the same season with no defense in front of them). He has been very good with the Islanders since he got here. He's good.

Nobody cares

 

[BlueDream]

his record and stats have been really good in new york, a lot of teams have trouble beating him

Guess you missed the years 2016-2018.

 

[izzy]

Guess you missed the years 2016-2018.

its not hard to work hockeydb and realize he only had one bad season since hes been on the island and it was the year they were getting pounded anyway

 

[Vladys Gumption]

Guess you missed the years 2016-2018.

He's got a .916 save percentage in his 4+ years as an Islander. And that's including the terrible year when he put up an .892.

If you want to say that he's been an average to good goalie then that's an argument I'd be willing to entertain. But calling him terrible is just flat out wrong.

 

[Dbrownss]

Greiss f***ing owns us.

 

[EastonBlues22]

Discuss the content of posts, not the abilities of posters.

 

[67Blues]

Go back and watch a lot of the games in the playoffs. The Blues were absolutely maddening when trying to clear the zone as the clock ticked down. It was really an issue there in game 7 until they finally cleared it out with 10 seconds left. It is almost like they are afraid to just hammer the puck down to relieve the pressure with an icing. We've been a good faceoff team, let your centers win the face off and regroup out of the zone. It is those little flips and soft passes up the board that drive me crazy at times.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

Go back and watch a lot of the games in the playoffs. The Blues were absolutely maddening when trying to clear the zone as the clock ticked down. It was really an issue there in game 7 until they finally cleared it out with 10 seconds left. It is almost like they are afraid to just hammer the puck down to relieve the pressure with an icing. We've been a good faceoff team, let your centers win the face off and regroup out of the zone. It is those little flips and soft passes up the board that drive me crazy at times.

Then there was the double icings that Winnipeg took advantage of in the first series. It’s just not easy to consistently shut down a team with the extra attacker some times.

 

[AjaxManifesto]

Well...at least they aren't as bad as a Cards...

 

[BlueKnight]

Well i finally had a chance to watch the game. I thought it was bad the first time watching it's even worse watching it the second time. What the hell was that in the last half of the 3rd. What a absolute joke .

 

[Mafisen]

I hope they have good time in white house. Maybe Trump can fire up our players.

I'm very disappointed they are going there. Boycott that moron.

 

[AjaxManifesto]

I'm very disappointed they are going there. Boycott that moron.

They go out of respect for the office, not the person.

The last thing the NHL needs is to get political, like the NFL and NBA.

Just be a bunch of nice Canadians, Europeans, etc. and go through the motions. We have enough to deal with when the likes of Lebron James, Colin Kepernick, and Megan Ripone grab the mics every few days.

 

[AjaxManifesto]

In the last five minutes of the game, I saw plenty of hustle. Schwartz made a turnover at the line on a weak play, but that was immediately preceded by him obtaining the puck to begin with, and immediately followed by him diving to try to block a pass. There was bad puck management in there, but it wasn't "mailing it in."

Steen deflected a pass into his own net as he was coming back down low to try to shut down a passing lane. An unfortunate bounce, but not lazy.

There were plenty of people battling for pucks, engaging physically, and generally moving their legs. There was too much confusion due to the Islander's movement in the offensive zone and not enough of those puck battles were won, and often when they were won then puck management handed it right back to them, but it wasn't like the Blues were just floating around out there not bothering to move their legs or engage.

People like Dunn and ROR (among others) were clearly engaged physically, others were blocking shots, etc. Those are effort plays, and they were being made. Who wasn't making effort plays at the end? It's a short list.

You seem to think bad execution boils down to bad effort, and I disagree. I've seen plenty of teams that have bad effort, and that wasn't the problem here. Sometimes bad execution is just bad execution.

If you think score effects on momentum are the direct product of bad effort, then I disagree there as well. It's a well-recognized phenomenon, to the point where many analytics actively account for it because it's so pervasive with bigger score gaps and late in the game. How do you rationalize every other team "mailing it in" when they have a lead late in the game? They clearly all aren't riding the Cup winning swagger that you're chalking this up to. Hell, this very team was much worse at closing out games to begin last year (to the point where it got their coach fired), and that clearly didn't have anything to do with them having just won the Cup. Essentially the same team, with an even worse version of the same problem. What was the rationalization for that?

If the Blues were mailing it in and/or underestimated their opposition, wouldn't that have been evident the entire game and not just something that became a factor in the last handful of minutes? How did they build the lead to begin with and hold it for so long if they didn't take the game seriously and put in the work to make it happen? Those aren't switches that just get flipped off when the game is almost over.

I guess it must be me.

I watched a different last 5-10 minutes than you (and apparently many others around here).

So in summary, they played really hard and just got unlucky. It was a fluke that they lost.

 

[GoldenSeal]

I see nothing worrying or concerning. Chief just needs to instill a tad more discipline. We let the Isles come back, maybe we felt bad for them? lol. Destroy them. Move on. No mercy.

 

[MissouriMook]

One thing I've found maddening over the last 3 coaching regimes is their 5 v 6 play. I get that we've had three consecutive defensive oriented coaches, but to me, when the other team pulls their goalie for the extra attacker, you have to have a kill or be killed mindset. Our MO seems to be to get the puck to the neutral zone and fall back to defend the next wave of attack. I would much rather see us attack more when we've cleared the zone and work harder to get the puck beyond the center red line so we can take a shot at the empty net BEFORE we fall back into a defensive posture. Sure, you might get caught up ice more often but our poor track record of surrendering leads 5 v 6 should be enough to suggest the need for a different approach. If you are able extend your lead, you lose fewer of these types of games.