GDT: Defending Cup Champs St. Louis Blues vs. Ottawa Senators | 6:30 PM | Going for 3

[Blueston]

For people bashing Faulk, the dude was picked up a week before the season and has been moved around a lot so far this year.

Give him time. He was a very good player for Carolina and will be one here.

He has looked really good on right side. Struggled tonight but hasn’t hardly played offside since college. Will take time to adjust to flipping sides. Heck, I don’t even like to sit on other side of sofa.

 

[Blueston]

He was a meh player in Carolina. Better than Edmunson, but still bottom 3 at best. If we had a hole on the right side I might understand the move, but I've been scratching my head since it got announced.

Bottom 3. Funny.

 

[LetsGoBooze]

DA upgraded our roster from last season w/faulk and looks like a plan is in place to keep everyone. Not sure about all this hate, even if we move Faulk to 3rd pairing for good we're still improved.

 

[Halak Ness Monster]

He was a meh player in Carolina.... bottom 3 at best.

Completely disagree with that.

 

[AjaxManifesto]

Faulk is okay.

Everybody calm down.

 

[Blanick]

Just looking to add some perspective here. We are 3-0-1 to start the year and have yet to play our best game. Honestly I thought our best effort so far this year was in the first game against WSH, the OT withstanding, and that was our only loss??

 

[Ranksu]

Good to see other players like Allen no matter how difficult game was.

 

[TheDizee]

allen is a shitty goalie so always nice to get points when he plays

 

[Stopsight]

Man Allen does like to make things interesting huh, though i guess the team also left him alone in the zone with three senators and the puck that one time and he bailed em out.

 

[DoubleK81]

The Blues were barely awake, but Allen was in a coma. Dude is a complete headcase and it's hard to watch.

If things don't go his way from the start of the game, you can almost guarantee it's gonna be a bad night.

 

[simon IC]

Congratulations lads!

Fun game. Well fun until I had to take my mum to the burns unit. I digress, good looking team you have. Mum thinks I’d have got a girlfriend by now if she’d named me Louis. Girls like foreign names like that.

Anyway, good luck for the season ahead.

Aw man, that's awful. I genuinely hope she is okay! I appreciate the input. Best wishes!

 

[Falco Lombardi]

You guys remember how hard it was for this team to string three wins together last year? I don't think we actually had a three game winning streak all season until the big 11 game winning streak that turned the season around.

Funny the difference a year can make....

 

[CaliforniaBlues310]

With how not very good the third line has been, and with Vladi getting off to a slow start...I wonder if Berube would swap up the lines a little bit when Thomas gets back. You could run the top 9 equally in minutes, with the top players obviously getting the special teams minutes as well. Plus I’m sure Berube will want to limit everyone’s minutes this year anyways...so I’m thinking something like this

Blais-O’Reilly-Perron
Schwartz-Schenn-Thomas
Fabbri-Bozak-Tarasenko
Barbashev-Sundqvist-Steen

Gunnarsson-Pietrangelo
Bouwmeester-Parayko
Dunn-Faulk


That’s 4 lines and 3 pairings that you feel comfortable with on the ice pretty much no matter what. The third line would get heavy O-zone starts though obviously, but you’d also probably put Vladi with 10/17 for some shifts to get him a few more minutes a game.

 

[Frenzy31]

I don’t think Allen was brutal at all. I think he gave up 1 weak goal, but he was hung out to dry by the entire team. Bad puck luck on the first goal..... but he made some critical saves.

Our d zone coverage was crap at points in this game. Just crap. Dunn played like garbage and was a turn over machine. I agree with everyone else about the Pie/Faulk pairing. It will take time to adjust.

 

[Mike Liut]

With how not very good the third line has been, and with Vladi getting off to a slow start...I wonder if Berube would swap up the lines a little bit when Thomas gets back. You could run the top 9 equally in minutes, with the top players obviously getting the special teams minutes as well. Plus I’m sure Berube will want to limit everyone’s minutes this year anyways...so I’m thinking something like this

Blais-O’Reilly-Perron
Schwartz-Schenn-Thomas
Fabbri-Bozak-Tarasenko
Barbashev-Sundqvist-Steen

Gunnarsson-Pietrangelo
Bouwmeester-Parayko
Dunn-Faulk


That’s 4 lines and 3 pairings that you feel comfortable with on the ice pretty much no matter what. The third line would get heavy O-zone starts though obviously, but you’d also probably put Vladi with 10/17 for some shifts to get him a few more minutes a game.

Tarasenko would be even more invisible with lesser line mates.

 

[Falco Lombardi]

With how not very good the third line has been, and with Vladi getting off to a slow start...I wonder if Berube would swap up the lines a little bit when Thomas gets back. You could run the top 9 equally in minutes, with the top players obviously getting the special teams minutes as well. Plus I’m sure Berube will want to limit everyone’s minutes this year anyways...so I’m thinking something like this

Blais-O’Reilly-Perron
Schwartz-Schenn-Thomas
Fabbri-Bozak-Tarasenko
Barbashev-Sundqvist-Steen

Gunnarsson-Pietrangelo
Bouwmeester-Parayko
Dunn-Faulk


That’s 4 lines and 3 pairings that you feel comfortable with on the ice pretty much no matter what. The third line would get heavy O-zone starts though obviously, but you’d also probably put Vladi with 10/17 for some shifts to get him a few more minutes a game.

Would rather just plug Thomas back in for Sanford first and see what happens.

 

[Chet Manly]

Jesus, the Faulk hate is real around here.

It's been 4 games. In a brand new defensive system. Playing on his off side. It's going to take some time to adjust. Holy hell.

I don't like where this forum is going. From some of the comments, you'd think we're 0-4. Considering most of these guys weren't playing hockey all summer, I think they're looking pretty sharp. Can we just forget we won a cup until around January?

/Old man rant over

 

[bleedblue1223]

I'm just happy there isn't a clear Cup hangover. 3-0-1 after 4 games, I'm not going to nitpick things that could improve.

 

[TheBluePenguin]

I remember when the Blues played bad and Allen was off meant we were guaranteed to lose by 3-4 goals

BUT

This team is good enough to over come a pretty bad played game and a normal Allen game lol

calm down everyone they are supposed to be on a cup hangover and we are 3-0-1

 

[Blueston]

With how not very good the third line has been, and with Vladi getting off to a slow start...I wonder if Berube would swap up the lines a little bit when Thomas gets back. You could run the top 9 equally in minutes, with the top players obviously getting the special teams minutes as well. Plus I’m sure Berube will want to limit everyone’s minutes this year anyways...so I’m thinking something like this

Blais-O’Reilly-Perron
Schwartz-Schenn-Thomas
Fabbri-Bozak-Tarasenko
Barbashev-Sundqvist-Steen

Gunnarsson-Pietrangelo
Bouwmeester-Parayko
Dunn-Faulk


That’s 4 lines and 3 pairings that you feel comfortable with on the ice pretty much no matter what. The third line would get heavy O-zone starts though obviously, but you’d also probably put Vladi with 10/17 for some shifts to get him a few more minutes a game.

I was thinking when Thomas is back maybe put Schwartz on 3rd line. Not as a demotion but to get them going. I think he drives play more than Tarasenko.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

allen is a ****ty goalie so always nice to get points when he plays

What’s the opposite of a prophet? That’s what Dizee is regarding Blues goalies. I can’t help but juxtapose this quote in my head with the stuff you were saying when Elliott was here. It’s amazing you have the audacity to pipe up about Allen now at all. (Or would be amazing under different circumstances, like if you were almost any other poster.)

The Blues’ best player this season has been Binnington. The team needs to tighten up that defense if they expect the wins to continue. They’re giving up a lot better chances than they did last year during the good times. But Binnington has never had to play behind such a half-assed effort as last night. 2 points will do, but not a game to feel great about. Allen was sketchy too, but he does get credit for battling back after the 2 goal deficit, and snuffing out that 2 on 0. I’m sure Berube had some choice words for everyone.

I wish I had a gif of him saying, “Boy” and shaking his head after the...4th? Goal? That expression was priceless.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

With how not very good the third line has been, and with Vladi getting off to a slow start...I wonder if Berube would swap up the lines a little bit when Thomas gets back. You could run the top 9 equally in minutes, with the top players obviously getting the special teams minutes as well. Plus I’m sure Berube will want to limit everyone’s minutes this year anyways...so I’m thinking something like this

Blais-O’Reilly-Perron
Schwartz-Schenn-Thomas
Fabbri-Bozak-Tarasenko
Barbashev-Sundqvist-Steen

Gunnarsson-Pietrangelo
Bouwmeester-Parayko
Dunn-Faulk


That’s 4 lines and 3 pairings that you feel comfortable with on the ice pretty much no matter what. The third line would get heavy O-zone starts though obviously, but you’d also probably put Vladi with 10/17 for some shifts to get him a few more minutes a game.

Interesting idea. But I doubt Berube does that. He likes to leave lines alone as much as he can. I think he would want to give the Schenn line more time to gel.

But thank goodness for Blais, for that ROR line and for the 4th line coming ready to play every night.

 

[Meatball]

With how not very good the third line has been, and with Vladi getting off to a slow start...I wonder if Berube would swap up the lines a little bit when Thomas gets back. You could run the top 9 equally in minutes, with the top players obviously getting the special teams minutes as well. Plus I’m sure Berube will want to limit everyone’s minutes this year anyways...so I’m thinking something like this

Blais-O’Reilly-Perron
Schwartz-Schenn-Thomas
Fabbri-Bozak-Tarasenko
Barbashev-Sundqvist-Steen

Gunnarsson-Pietrangelo
Bouwmeester-Parayko
Dunn-Faulk


That’s 4 lines and 3 pairings that you feel comfortable with on the ice pretty much no matter what. The third line would get heavy O-zone starts though obviously, but you’d also probably put Vladi with 10/17 for some shifts to get him a few more minutes a game.

So much depth.

 

[67Blues]

Neither goalie played well.

Allen played well for Allen. It typically is a really out of position goal allowed, a goal that goes 5 hole because he won't keep his stick on the ice, a few spectacular saves, all finishing with a GAA above 3 and a save percentage in the upper .800s. That is a good game for Jake. Was pretty much expecting what we got from him last night. 2 points was a bonus.

 

[Brian39]

Man, reading through this thread it certainly doesn't sound like the fanbase of the defending Champs who are one of the five remaining teams without a regulation loss.

They played an uninspired game against the NHL's worst team in a building that had less energy than I've seen for years in the NHL. Anyone who doesn't think that is a completely normal thing just flat out doesn't watch much hockey around the league. Both teams' backup goalies played poorly in their first starts of the year and ours played slightly less poorly than theirs by making a couple big stops and the save of the game. The team as a whole put in just enough effort to take 2 points from a bad team in mid October. It was absolutely ugly, but long term this is nothing negative to take away from this game.