GDT: Blues vs. Ducks| Potential Playoff Clincher| 7pm, BSMW|

[kreele]

The shooters we put out in the shootout every time just boggles my mind. I just don't f***ing get it.

idk why Bozak is not used, hes almost as good as Oshie was in em

Kyrou and Thomas and Hoff should have been given the reigns with the way they have been playing.

 

[mk80]

Congrats to Backes! It would be nice to see him come back into the front office somehow if he wanted to.

As far as the game, well we didn't take advantage of the opportunity to do our part to clinch tonight. That said this is what our 16th of 19 possible points lately? I know my math is wrong on that. Regroup and start picking up the points against Vegas again this weekend.

 

[scottyajak]

ducks fan dropping in to say you guys were lucky to have backes all those years. he's one of the good guys in the league and it's awesome to see him go out in STL. even though he only played 20 or so games with the ducks, i became a big fan of his quickly

honestly don't know why he didn't play more this season because he was always one of the better forwards in every game he played. for a cap dump, he turned out to be pretty solid

classy on the blues part to send him out that way

He was an absolute warrior for us. Glad you got to appreciate him.

 

[simon IC]

ducks fan dropping in to say you guys were lucky to have backes all those years. he's one of the good guys in the league and it's awesome to see him go out in STL. even though he only played 20 or so games with the ducks, i became a big fan of his quickly

honestly don't know why he didn't play more this season because he was always one of the better forwards in every game he played. for a cap dump, he turned out to be pretty solid

classy on the blues part to send him out that way

Nice post, thank you. Good luck to your team going forward!

 

[Linkens Mastery]

I would absolutely love to see the Blues to sign Backes to a 1 day contract to retire as a Blues, or hell, if Backes wants to play one more year and he's be ok with a league minimum contract a 1 year deal.

 

[TheDizee]

Terry Yake was a monster on NHL 94

 

[Xerloris]

I would absolutely love to see the Blues to sign Backes to a 1 day contract to retire as a Blues, or hell, if Backes wants to play one more year and he's be ok with a league minimum contract a 1 year deal.

Lol f*** no.

 

[Mike Liut]

not to be a debbie downer, but, I thought this last year too. but folks forget how much sloppier this team was just under 2 weeks ago.. it's not gonna go away right away.. at times ya just gotta work thru it

that being said, they HAVE taken 9 out of the last 11 pts so...

I hear ya, but after the lockdown, they just weren’t ready to play. I hope this year is different

 

[Mike Liut]

I would absolutely love to see the Blues to sign Backes to a 1 day contract to retire as a Blues, or hell, if Backes wants to play one more year and he's be ok with a league minimum contract a 1 year deal.

I love Backes, but we cant waste a roster spot on him for a contending team. I won’t even use him on the taxi squad.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

I would absolutely love to see the Blues to sign Backes to a 1 day contract to retire as a Blues, or hell, if Backes wants to play one more year and he's be ok with a league minimum contract a 1 year deal.

Did you not see that he can’t skate any more?

 

[stl76]

When he was being interviewed in the post game media scrum, I wish someone would have asked Hoffman what the f*** he was doing on the ducks second goal.

 

[CaliforniaBlues310]

At this point I’m not even that disappointed that we lost this game.

I never thought I’d have another night where the duo of Backes and Oshie got me as emotional as they did, but tonight was absolutely great to see for both of them.

Two of my all-time favorite Blues, and I still wish to this day that they were on the team who won it all.

 

[Reality Czech]

At this point I’m not even that disappointed that we lost this game.

I never thought I’d have another night where the duo of Backes and Oshie got me as emotional as they did, but tonight was absolutely great to see for both of them.

Two of my all-time favorite Blues, and I still wish to this day that they were on the team who won it all.

Absolutely, I didn't expect that little tribute at the end to get so emotional but you can see how much it meant to him. What a warrior he was for this team!

 

[The Note]

Always thought Backes was miscast as a #1 center here, particularly compared to Toews and Kopitar who were leading the two WCF powerhouses during that time. I think he would’ve been a great 2nd line center on a team with a true #1 (ala Schenn behind ROR) but nonetheless was a good player for the Blues. He - along with a handful of other guys - was a huge part of taking the Blues from rebuild to respectability and I will always remember him fondly, particularly during that 2016 run. He had a great career and hopefully has a healthy post playing career.

 

[Linkens Mastery]

Lol f*** no.

I love Backes, but we cant waste a roster spot on him for a contending team. I won’t even use him on the taxi squad.

Did you not see that he can’t skate any more?

I'll be honest, I was drunk and in my feels. I'm 100% on board with him signing a 1 day contract and retiring as a Blue, the year contract was a bad idea.

 

[Brian39]

Another loss to the worst team in The NHL. Really depressing. They'll back into the playoffs, and not have a good feeling about the way they've been playing.

they should have dominated the Ducks and they didn't. That might explain the uneasiness

1st round exit HERE WE COME!

I have absolutely zero heartburn about this loss and I don't see any reason to believe that our level of play in these past 2 games has any bearing on how we will be playing 2 weeks from now.

These are the exact same types of comments we were seeing at the end of March after we dropped 2 games to the Ducks. That was in the middle of our brutal 14 game stretch where we managed 2 wins and were approaching the gauntlet of good teams in April. Since that 14 game stretch, we are 8-3-2 and 7-1-2 vs the other 3 playoff teams. Playing terrible against the bottom feeders didn't translate to getting waxed by the good teams in April like everyone was predicting.

We lost 1 game in regulation to the Ducks this year. So did the Avs, Knights and Wild (who have 2 more games against them still).

All 5 of our wins came in regulation and we lost both games that went to OT/SO. The Avs beat them 4 times in regulation and went 2-1 in OT/SO games. The Knights beat them 5 times in regulation and won both games that went to OT/SO. The Wild have beaten them 5 times in regulation and no games have gone to OT/SO.

So what is the catastrophic issue? The Avs and Knights have been no better vs the Ducks in regulation than we have. The difference is that they have won 3 on 3 while we haven't. There is no 3 on 3 or SO in the playoffs, so I have zero concern about comparative results in those scenarios.

I have been clear that I don't view this team as a Cup contender, but our performance against the Ducks has zero bearing on that opinion. I genuinely don't see any cause for concern over taking "only" 3 of 4 points against the Ducks.

Krug, Dunn, and Tarasenko not playing is much more concerning to me than how the on-ice players fared without them.