GDT: Blues vs. Oilers| 7pm, BSMW| The Pitlick Era Begins

[shpongle falls]

The one thing I've noticed during these last 2-3 games where we've struggled offensively is our D core's inability to move the puck up the ice with precision. So many times the last couple of games the D will either A) Get hemmed in for long periods of time or B) Win possession of the puck fairly quickly and then make a terrible outlet pass, be it behind a guy, way too far in front, or just simply to no one.

I expect that type of thing from Mikkola, but not Parayko and Krug. Parayko especially should be using his legs and frame to transport the puck up the ice way more - he's far too willing to skate towards the boards and then flip the puck up off the glass. Krug has been a bit of a mess these last couple of games, he's never going to be the best defensive guy, but transition should be his strong suit and he's simply making poor passes left and right.

Faulk and Leddy look like the only two competent D-men we have at transitioning the puck up the ice with any authority, and it's killing our offensive game (Which has become super reliant on transition these last 2-3 years).

It's ugly hockey and hopefully we can identify the issues and fix them, otherwise this season might start to fall off the rails quickly.

Totally agree with all that. Parayko always goes for the flip the puck off the glass play and it drives me nuts sometimes lol.

 

[Reality Czech]

I don't think I've ever met someone who hates, or just loves to shit on, the teams they supposedly cheer for more than you.

Some people are just miserable and can't help but spread that misery around. It's really rich that the guy who claims Lindgren is better than Binnington claims to be a realist and the guy who complains about the refs more than anyone is mocking people for mentioning last night's non-call. The amount of overreaction after 6 games is absurd, but I expect no less.

Two of the best teams in the West just played two games that could have easily gone either way. Our offense failed to convert a lot of chances, but Skinner also matched Binnington save for save and was easily the #1 star of the game. Let's not forget the egregious no-call when ROR was taken down in the 3rd period. That's one of those idiotic "game management" decisions where you know the refs were thinking "It's a close game, both teams are playing hard, so we don't wanna call 2 penalties in a row against the Oilers" even though it couldn't have been more blatant. So instead of getting another PP, the Oilers had a chance to take the lead moments later. I don't usually complain much about officiating but the refs f***ed us in this one.

 

[TheDizee]

Some people are just miserable and can't help but spread that misery around. It's really rich that the guy who claims Lindgren is better than Binnington claims to be a realist and the guy who complains about the refs more than anyone is mocking people for mentioning last night's non-call. The amount of overreaction after 6 games is absurd, but I expect no less.

Two of the best teams in the West just played two games that could have easily gone either way. Our offense failed to convert a lot of chances, but Skinner also matched Binnington save for save and was easily the #1 star of the game. Let's not forget the egregious no-call when ROR was taken down in the 3rd period. That's one of those idiotic "game management" decisions where you know the refs were thinking "It's a close game, both teams are playing hard, so we don't wanna call 2 penalties in a row against the Oilers" even though it couldn't have been more blatant. So instead of getting another PP, the Oilers had a chance to take the lead moments later. I don't usually complain much about officiating but the refs f***ed us in this one.

if you think that trip on ROR was worthy of a call, you are a HOMER. thats not a call in October, its not a call in January and its not a call in G7 of the finals.

the officials did not f*** them at all, in fact they gave them a goal last night. what f***ed them was their worst period of the year (1st), forwards who played miserable (schenn, kyrou and brown) and blown coverage by people like leddy and parayko on the second goal.

you should perhaps blame them and their total failure to produce anything 5on5 before you go after the zebras for a lame trip that had no impact at all on anything and is only a call if the zebras are in makeup mode. You CERTAINLY don't call that shit in a tie game right after they just had a PP and did nothing with it.

 

[PocketNines]

I missed the last 44 minutes of this one with caffeine withdrawal migraine and woke up not long ago expecting 6-1, 7-1, 6-0 or 7-0. So I guess 3-1 with an empty netter could have been worse. Don't remember last Blues game I missed.

I did watch the first 16 minutes and it was disgusting. Clearly some of the 20 goal scorers were more important than the others because these leftovers make up a below average group. Blues bottom six looks wretched. I thought Toropchenko was great at the end of last year, a revelation even. He looks like a fringe NHLer and it doesn't matter if he's in the lineup. The Rockette can win faceoffs and apparently nothing else.

This team badly misses David Perron already, 5 games in.

 

[Reality Czech]

if you think that trip on ROR was worthy of a call, you are a HOMER. thats not a call in October, its not a call in January and its not a call in G7 of the finals.

the officials did not f*** them at all, in fact they gave them a goal last night. what f***ed them was their worst period of the year (1st), forwards who played miserable (schenn, kyrou and brown) and blown coverage by people like leddy and parayko on the second goal.

you should perhaps blame them and their total failure to produce anything 5on5 before you go after the zebras for a lame trip that had no impact at all on anything and is only a call if the zebras are in makeup mode. You CERTAINLY don't call that shit in a tie game right after they just had a PP and did nothing with it.

Am I supposed to be impressed? You give Blues fans a bad name on the main boards with your behavior and your childish and unfunny Ref Jose/Refalanche nicknames, and you lower the standard of this board by trying to make everything about you. It seems like you just want everyone to acknowledge your greatness, but the funny thing is I respect people not because of how often they are "right" but how much respect they show other people. Guess what I think of you.

The funny thing is you're not even right very often, you just ignore anything that contradicts what you have said. I never said the missed call is the ONLY reason they lost, but it sure as hell looked like a penalty to me. The fact that they just had a PP should have nothing to do with it....either it's a penalty or it isn't. But I recognize it's only been 5 games and we're still over .500 yet you act like the season is lost already. Either you're just trolling us or you're the worst Blues fan I've ever seen.

 

[TK 421]

Scandella and Perunovich out 6 months before the season even started, Buchnevich injured in game 1, Saad injured in game 3.......and we're 5 f***ing games into the season. Can't do anything about the injuries but as many have pointed out we CAN try some different line combinations to both mitigate our losses and try to get some guys going 5v5.

Kyrou has been shit so far. It would be greatly beneficial to put him where he can more easily succeed. I won't pretend to know where that is but obviously he can be a real asset for us 5v5 with the right linemates. It's not like any other guys have been hugely successful either so maybe it's time to focus on catering to our biggest ES threats to start generating some offense and eventually we'll be able to get Saad and Buch back integrated.

Walker is a guy with some skill that could play up, others mentioned putting him in the top 9 and I agree with that. I'd take it a step further and drop Kyrou from a PP unit in favor of Walker. I'm not suggesting this be a permanent solution but a coaches job is to find creative ways to get around injuries or poor play from certain guys and this could help short term.

 

[TheOrganist]

Finally watched a game in it's entirety...the played well for the final 40 especially down two top nine forwards. Kyrou looked rough but it's early. Binny will be one of the better values in the league if he continues this trend.

 

[TheDizee]

Am I supposed to be impressed? You give Blues fans a bad name on the main boards with your behavior and your childish and unfunny Ref Jose/Refalanche nicknames, and you lower the standard of this board by trying to make everything about you. It seems like you just want everyone to acknowledge your greatness, but the funny thing is I respect people not because of how often they are "right" but how much respect they show other people. Guess what I think of you.

The funny thing is you're not even right very often, you just ignore anything that contradicts what you have said. I never said the missed call is the ONLY reason they lost, but it sure as hell looked like a penalty to me. The fact that they just had a PP should have nothing to do with it....either it's a penalty or it isn't. But I recognize it's only been 5 games and we're still over .500 yet you act like the season is lost already. Either you're just trolling us or you're the worst Blues fan I've ever seen.

no offense but i could really care less what you or anyone else thinks of me. but since you brought it up, i will briefly touch on it. i will say i am more right than any other poster on the board and it has been proven time and time again, not gonna bother to derail yet another thread, my own thread has pages and pages of my wins. feel free to read it and admire it.

as far as it only being 5 games. ok sure, but what happens when 5 becomes 10? Will you say its just 10 games then? 10 becomes 20 etc etc. This team, outside of goaltending, hasnt looked good and they already are struggling to score against teams that are not exactly the best defenders in the world.

 

[BadgersandBlues]

If we could learn to bottle stupidity and confidence and turn them into electricity, TheDizee would be the world;s first Trillionaire

 

[Brian39]

Boy, this is a fun thread...

I'm pretty far from 'sky is falling' mode. With that said, I was lucky enough to only put about 20% of my attention into the 1st period because I was at dinner with some family. So I largely missed the worst of the game.

I'm not seeing a huge difference in our actual play between the last week of this team vs the stretches where the offense sputtered last year. We've buried a couple fewer chances than we were during rough patches last year, but simultaneous injuries to Buch and Saad is as big of a loss to the top 6 than we faced all season last year. Losing your #1 and #2 at any position at the same time throws your lineup into chaos. There is plenty of room for improvement and we certainly aren't playing well. But we had stretches of awful even strength play last year too.

From what I saw of the 1st, we looked awful. We only put in a 40 minute effort (and arguably less than that), but we did that all the time last year. At the end of the day, we put up 40 shots, had an xGF total of 3.55 and a 5 on 5 xGF total of 2.25. The team needs to play better than they have the last few days, but I'm not seeing a wholesale difference in our play from last year other than simply not finishing.

I fully and completely disagree that the loss of Perron is fueling the struggle to score at 5 on 5 right now. He was tied with Parayko for 10th on the team in 5 on 5 points last season with 27. His twelve 5 on 5 goals was tied for 8th and 6 primary assists was tied with Mikkola for 13th. By any metric, he just wasn't an offensive driver at 5 on 5 last year. He was an absolute stud on the PP and was really good at 4 on 4 and 3 on 3. He was a complete (offensive) passenger at 5 on 5. Coincidentally, he also has zero even strength production in his last 3 games.

I absolutely expect our D to continue contributing at or near their current level offensively. Faulk won't finish as a point per game player and he won't score 3 goals every 5 games. But he is going to keep activating offensively and putting up points. He'll cool down, but Krug will certainly improve on his zero point pace at 5 on 5 and I think we can expect Leddy to have a couple points every 5 games. I expect Parayko to score more than the 16 points he's on pace for. For all the talk about overpaying for D and their issues defensively, this group is specifically built to jump into the offensive zone. They aren't just ripping shots from the point and getting lucky. Leddy, Faulk, and Krug are consistently activating and playing like a 4th forward in the offensive zone. That will continue.

I'm far from panicking unless/until we get word that Buch and/or Saad are out long term. I've been a big supporter of the "Buch drives whatever line he's on" argument and Saad is a fantastic compliment to ROR. They are the two best defending wingers on the team and losing both at the same time forces everyone to take on new responsibilities. We need one back and are have to try to tread water until that happens.

 

[Majorityof1]

I fully and completely disagree that the loss of Perron is fueling the struggle to score at 5 on 5 right now. He was tied with Parayko for 10th on the team in 5 on 5 points last season with 27. His twelve 5 on 5 goals was tied for 8th and 6 primary assists was tied with Mikkola for 13th. By any metric, he just wasn't an offensive driver at 5 on 5 last year. He was an absolute stud on the PP and was really good at 4 on 4 and 3 on 3. He was a complete (offensive) passenger at 5 on 5. Coincidentally, he also has zero even strength production in his last 3 games.

The loss of Perron is a trickle down effect. Part of the reason he didn't put up points 5v5 is because he was deployed so heavily with ROR on the defensive side. Now we have to put Kyrou there, which has neutralized some if not much of his fantastic 5v5 production so far.

Even at 27 5v5 points, that is likely more than the next man up will have. Neighbours would be his fill in and he is on a 16 point pace (small sample size but I have not been impressed). With the trickle down effect, 1 single injury neuters our third line as it leaves us with only 1 solidly NHL Top 9 caliber player. 2 injuries, like now, and we have 2 4th lines. With the RoR line focused on stopping the other teams top line, thier best D can focus on the Thomas line and we are shut down. We have great players but not McDavid level guys who are going to break through regardless. We need to take advantage of matchups and our lack of a 3rd line is really hurting us in that regard.