Half-Assed GDT: Blues Vegas: Do or Die

[Hrkac Circus]

Vegas has 11 games left. If they win a conservative 5 of them, they finish with 95 points. That would mean the Blues have to win 8 of their last 10 games to pass them with 96 points.

 

[Eldon Reid]

Not a fan of Bannister's decision to go 11/7. When things are going well, why change anything? That just meant the lines and D pairings were all jumbled up and we never got into a groove. I guess the one silver lining was Binnington, who solidified his status as team MVP this year.

This right here was my biggest complaint from the game. If defense is banged up and we needed to play 7th because chance of someone coming out of game was pretty good, I get it. But instead we stapled Peru & Scandella to the bench for almost all of the 3rd and lost Sunny in the 2nd so right there down to 10 & 5.

Still with the normal routine and I think we would have won. I would have even been fine playing Blais for the game we knew was going to be physical one.

 

[Ted Hoffman]

Why worry about coaching? This is year 2 of the rebuild.

Retool. Remember, it's not a rebuild.

 

[Ted Hoffman]

Well Blues have played better game. I think coaching chamge did improve our game, but I view this is The limit on this team. Some near of .50 team.

If we had more talent Blues could be playoffs team easily. Contender.

Pietro, Dunn, Schwartz, Tarasenko, O'Reilly, Perron, Mikkola. Ish Husso tho he had tough season with injuries. Or even Walman.

I would rather have Piero, Dunn and Mikkola than Faulk, Leddy and Krug.

Mikkola was crap here, everyone couldn't wait to get rid of him. He was crap with the Rangers, they couldn't wait to get rid of him. People got excited by Husso for 1/2 a season, he wilted in the playoffs and he's been very hot-and-cold in Detroit.

Keeping the band together would feel good, remind us of 2019. I'm not sure we're a better team, though. We saw some of it last year: we were less than the sum of the parts, by a large margin. Schwartz over the last 4 years has been an average 45-point player. Tarasenko isn't near being a 30-goal scorer. We've had the Dunn discussion too many times to count. Perron wasn't going to be a 60-point guy forever. ROR is having a renaissance in Nashville, will he really carry that for another 3 years? We could have kept everyone around and really had the roster knotted up with no room to move anyone, clogging things for kids to come up.

OK, sure, maybe the defense is better. The forward corps would be aging and on the decline. Best case, we'd still be about where we are but trending down.

 

[Majorityof1]

This right here was my biggest complaint from the game. If defense is banged up and we needed to play 7th because chance of someone coming out of game was pretty good, I get it. But instead we stapled Peru & Scandella to the bench for almost all of the 3rd and lost Sunny in the 2nd so right there down to 10 & 5.

Still with the normal routine and I think we would have won. I would have even been fine playing Blais for the game we knew was going to be physical one.

I don't understand people getting upset about shortening the bench at the end of a close and important game. It's not like anyone played an inordinate amount for an OT game. Parayko had 24 minutes but that is not uncommon. Buchy played 23 and that might be high for a forward, but not if it's just one game.

I don't like Krug getting 20 minutes, but he seemed to have played well until the OT goal.

 

[Majorityof1]

Mikkola was crap here

No he wasn't. He got the toughest defensive deployment outside Parayko and did not look out of place. He showed flashes of offensive talent with his smart pinches and ability to get back. He struggled in transition and had some unforced turnovers. People jumped on those and created a narrative he was bad. But he wasn't.

 

[TheOrganist]

I don't understand people getting upset about shortening the bench at the end of a close and important game. It's not like anyone played an inordinate amount for an OT game. Parayko had 24 minutes but that is not uncommon. Buchy played 23 and that might be high for a forward, but not if it's just one game.

I don't like Krug getting 20 minutes, but he seemed to have played well until the OT goal.

Exactly. Did someone just insinuate that dressing Sammy Blais to take 3 shifts would've moved the needle in a game like that?....that's comedy.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

I was feeling pessimistic about the playoffs until JR posted his article claiming this loss ends the postseason chances.

 

[LogosBlue]

Kyrou should have taken the man on the last goal. Zero effort to stop the play. He stood there watching, even had time to look around. Krug skated from 10 feet behind him and almost got there but still no reaction from Kyrou. No reaction but to look. We can bag on Krug all we want, at least he cares and gave some effort to defend. We won't make the playoffs as long as we have players standing around watching the other teams score.

And don't give me BS that he was playing the slot. His gut reaction should be to close the distance to the puck carrier and stop the play. No active stick, nothing. Pathetic.

 

[Reality Czech]

Kyrou should have taken the man on the last goal. Zero effort to stop the play. He stood there watching, even had time to look around. Krug skated from 10 feet behind him and almost got there but still no reaction from Kyrou. No reaction but to look. We can bag on Krug all we want, at least he cares and gave some effort to defend. We won't make the playoffs as long as we have players standing around watching the other teams score.

And don't give me BS that he was playing the slot. His gut reaction should be to close the distance to the puck carrier and stop the play. No active stick, nothing. Pathetic.

Kyrou didn't look very good on that last goal and honestly he looked pretty bad most of the game. Making bad passes and generally looking out of sync. Not that he was the only one but Kyrou contributed very little last night, including poor effort on the winning goal against. Which is surprising because I've been told he's really, really good at defense.

 

[Linkens Mastery]

Kyrou should have taken the man on the last goal. Zero effort to stop the play. He stood there watching, even had time to look around. Krug skated from 10 feet behind him and almost got there but still no reaction from Kyrou. No reaction but to look. We can bag on Krug all we want, at least he cares and gave some effort to defend. We won't make the playoffs as long as we have players standing around watching the other teams score.

And don't give me BS that he was playing the slot. His gut reaction should be to close the distance to the puck carrier and stop the play. No active stick, nothing. Pathetic.

If He goes after the puck Carrier he leaves the man completely open in the slot waiting for a pass. He let the goalie play the puck carrier while he played the pass which is fundamental hockey when you are the only player back because Krug and Schenn wanted to go play puck chasers behind the goal line in the corner.

No matter what Kyrou does there he is f***ed. Hell last year he did exactly some people are saying what they want him to do there where he went pressured the puck and the puck carrier passed it to the open man who scored and everyone shit on him there too. He was in a lose-lose situation here.

 

[PocketNines]

Robert Thomas you’re my favorite pro…Robert Thomas you’re my favorite pro…Robert Thomas you’re my favorite pro…Robert Thomas you’re my favorite pro…Robert Thomas you’re my favorite pro…

That is nothing compared to the seasonlong assault of bank ads with the sweet, gentle, nice, welcoming, feminine voiceovers. Gee I wonder what the banks know that people know about them. Banks! We're so cuddly!

 

[PocketNines]

was cheering against vegas this late out in florida, man i hate that team. wish the blues pulled it off. strangely i still have hope for them.

lol they wiped the Final with Florida last year. It was a noncompetitive walkover after such a great playoffs. Realistically Bobrovsky robbed fans of Carolina Vegas because Carolina could have easily won all four of those games if not for him. credit to the Panthers for getting there but the Final was a joke

 

[PocketNines]

Really ought to add that whoever decided on the branding "BoS" ... just amazing work. "Bank of shit" every time I hear that

 

[simon IC]

Mikkola was crap here, everyone couldn't wait to get rid of him. He was crap with the Rangers, they couldn't wait to get rid of him. People got excited by Husso for 1/2 a season, he wilted in the playoffs and he's been very hot-and-cold in Detroit.

Keeping the band together would feel good, remind us of 2019. I'm not sure we're a better team, though. We saw some of it last year: we were less than the sum of the parts, by a large margin. Schwartz over the last 4 years has been an average 45-point player. Tarasenko isn't near being a 30-goal scorer. We've had the Dunn discussion too many times to count. Perron wasn't going to be a 60-point guy forever. ROR is having a renaissance in Nashville, will he really carry that for another 3 years? We could have kept everyone around and really had the roster knotted up with no room to move anyone, clogging things for kids to come up.

OK, sure, maybe the defense is better. The forward corps would be aging and on the decline. Best case, we'd still be about where we are but trending down.

Not everyone wanted Mikkola gone. I really liked him and I thought we gave up on him far too prematurely

 

[Majorityof1]

Kyrou should have taken the man on the last goal. Zero effort to stop the play. He stood there watching, even had time to look around. Krug skated from 10 feet behind him and almost got there but still no reaction from Kyrou. No reaction but to look. We can bag on Krug all we want, at least he cares and gave some effort to defend. We won't make the playoffs as long as we have players standing around watching the other teams score.

And don't give me BS that he was playing the slot. His gut reaction should be to close the distance to the puck carrier and stop the play. No active stick, nothing. Pathetic.

He played it correctly. Defense is about positioning more than effort. If you are judging a player's d based on how far out of position someone can get as a good thing because they had further to go to be in the right position you are judging it wrong.

Kyrou didn't look very good on that last goal and honestly he looked pretty bad most of the game. Making bad passes and generally looking out of sync. Not that he was the only one but Kyrou contributed very little last night, including poor effort on the winning goal against. Which is surprising because I've been told he's really, really good at defense.

Nobody is saying he is reallyx2 good at defense. He is just much improved and playing better than most of our team. It's a low bar.

The fact that you are singling out the only guy on that play even remotely close to being in the right position shows extreme bias. But that can't be right, you just want Kyrou to be consistently amazing every game. No double standard there, right?

 

[Brian39]

If I were in Binner's shoes last night, I'd have been livid if Kyrou made me take an uncontested low-to-high slot one timer (with time to hold the puck and make a deke if I exploded out fast) instead of having me deal with an uncontested shooter from an angle. Here are some screenshots to capture the play development starting from the moment the puck dribbles out from the puck battle and we become fully screwed:

Kyrou made the absolutely correct decision not to chase Marchessault behind the goal line here. He drited to the puck-side post following him, then put on the brakes and returns to the top of the crease:

You can't tell on screenshots, but he has his head on a swivel between the puck carrier and Theodore at the top of the circles. Watch the video and watch his head if you want to see him looking at the play developing in the slot area. His stick is positioned to the passing lane and then he drifts out directly toward the passing lane:

He remains close enough to Marchessault to keep him at a decent angle from the net rather than bailing on the puck to closely check Theodore:

The shot he gave Marchessault allowed Binner to RVH to a butterfly on a slight puck movement. Chasing that puck carrier would have resulted in a wide open slot chance requiring a hard push off the post from the goalie. The goalie almost certainly arrives late on that type of play and if he doesn't, Theodore had the time/space to hesitate and/or change the angle of release to force an overslide. I don't think I've ever met a goalie that would prefer the 2nd option.

This wasn't some elite defensive play by Kyrou, but it was miles away from a poor play. A poor angle uncontested shot was absolutely the best outcome we were going to get after Buch and Krug both engaged below the goal line and then lost the puck battle.

 

[AjaxManifesto]

Start playing the kids before locker clean out. At least it will make the final games interesting rather than a funeral procession.

89 needs to see a sports psychologist...his game was a mess....that penalty shot was bizarre

25 and 28 need to listen to a motivational speaker or two...that was just not good enough last night

 

[LogosBlue]

If He goes after the puck Carrier he leaves the man completely open in the slot waiting for a pass. He let the goalie play the puck carrier while he played the pass which is fundamental hockey when you are the only player back because Krug and Schenn wanted to go play puck chasers behind the goal line in the corner.

Thats why you close the gap on the player with the puck while utilizing and active stick to defend against the pass at the same time. He just stood there watching. There is NO defense (pun intended) for that. He didn't "play the pass". He didn't do anything but stand there stunned. He was five feet from the dude. If he decided to pass, he could have interrupted the attempt with an active stick.

 

[BadgersandBlues]

Thats why you close the gap on the player with the puck while utilizing and active stick to defend against the pass at the same time. He just stood there watching. There is NO defense (pun intended) for that. He didn't "play the pass". He didn't do anything but stand there stunned. He was five feet from the dude. If he decided to pass, he could have interrupted the attempt with an active stick.

So why aren't you ripping Faulk the same way on our first goal? It's literally the same play. Faulk's caught between two bad options and he plays the pass. Binner didn't come up with the save, it is what it is.

Jesus this board needs to R E L A X when it comes to Kyrou. He's singlehandedly won three of our last five games (3/16 against Min 1g 1a and the Shootout winner, 3/21 against Ott 1g 2a, and 3/23 against Minn hat trick). Rob Thomas has had a great season but has been on a milk carton for all of March. The only reason we were even within striking distance of Vegas is thanks to Kyrou.

He's improved his overall defensive play dramatically compared to last year. He's still putting up at minimum a 25 goal 60 point season unless something horrible happens in the last 10 games. Is he worth every penny of his 8.125 million contract? Probably not, but he's very much worth 6.5-7.25M of it, unlike Hayes who isn't worth 1.5 of his or Schenn who's probably a league minimum player with his per/60 rates.

Kyrou's per/60 at 5v5 - 1st in goals, 1st in primary assists, 1st in total points. But yea, he's the problem. Get a grip folks.

 

[TheDizee]

So why aren't you ripping Faulk the same way on our first goal? It's literally the same play. Faulk's caught between two bad options and he plays the pass. Binner didn't come up with the save, it is what it is.

Jesus this board needs to R E L A X when it comes to Kyrou. He's singlehandedly won three of our last five games (3/16 against Min 1g 1a and the Shootout winner, 3/21 against Ott 1g 2a, and 3/23 against Minn hat trick). Rob Thomas has had a great season but has been on a milk carton for all of March. The only reason we were even within striking distance of Vegas is thanks to Kyrou.

He's improved his overall defensive play dramatically compared to last year. He's still putting up at minimum a 25 goal 60 point season unless something horrible happens in the last 10 games. Is he worth every penny of his 8.125 million contract? Probably not, but he's very much worth 6.5-7.25M of it, unlike Hayes who isn't worth 1.5 of his or Schenn who's probably a league minimum player with his per/60 rates.

Kyrou's per/60 at 5v5 - 1st in goals, 1st in primary assists, 1st in total points. But yea, he's the problem. Get a grip folks.

he hasnt singlehandedly won anything LOL. he did however contribute to the loss vs the Refalanche last week.

the kyrou bashing here last night is IMO silly. Kyrou sucks and is a cancer but last nights loss is not on him. the goal last night was not on him. its on the coach for putting both him and krug out there together when its 3on3 and on schenn and krug for overcommitting then losing a puck battle to one vegas player.

Yes I am sick of watching him play every night and lose every board battle but last night was not on Kyrou.

 

[BlueOil]

Kyrou should have taken the man on the last goal. Zero effort to stop the play. He stood there watching, even had time to look around. Krug skated from 10 feet behind him and almost got there but still no reaction from Kyrou. No reaction but to look. We can bag on Krug all we want, at least he cares and gave some effort to defend. We won't make the playoffs as long as we have players standing around watching the other teams score.

And don't give me BS that he was playing the slot. His gut reaction should be to close the distance to the puck carrier and stop the play. No active stick, nothing. Pathetic.

krug deserves the criticism here, glossing over it to sharply critique kyrou for not being lidstrom is just silly and makes no sense. you can scream about what krug and schenn tried to do because it failed miserably and put kyrou and binnington in a terrible spot. plenty of frustration to be had with the play, but kyrou doesn't deserve it, even if you don't like him.

 

[joe galiba]

But even if behind the Net he's not a shooter, he is a passer, and Kyrou deciding to go chase the puck carrier behind the Net while the other two defenders are in the corner out of the play leaves the VGK player all alone in front of the net in a prime goal scoring position with all three Blues players behind the goal line.

And having Binner moving us well rather than squaring up
taking away the pass and leaving the shooter to the goalie is the correct way to play that

both goals were the same problem, Walker needlessly dove for a puck rather than keeping his feet and his player, leaving Faulk in a 1 on 2
and we had 2 players double the puck in OT and didn't get it, that bad decision left us 1 on 2 again
a symptom of players trying to do too much, instead of just doing their own job

 

[helloconga]

lol they wiped the Final with Florida last year. It was a noncompetitive walkover after such a great playoffs. Realistically Bobrovsky robbed fans of Carolina Vegas because Carolina could have easily won all four of those games if not for him. credit to the Panthers for getting there but the Final was a joke

completely agree mate

 

[Eldon Reid]

I don't understand people getting upset about shortening the bench at the end of a close and important game. It's not like anyone played an inordinate amount for an OT game. Parayko had 24 minutes but that is not uncommon. Buchy played 23 and that might be high for a forward, but not if it's just one game.

I don't like Krug getting 20 minutes, but he seemed to have played well until the OT goal.

I don't mind shortening benches as most team do but playing 11 & 7 was dumb IMO unless someone was really banged up playing because then it puts in bide if someone happens such as losing Sunny or say for some reason they give Schenn an instigator. I get it if player x is banged up.