GDT: Defending Stanley Cup Champions St. Louis Blues vs. Washington Capitals -- Flags Fly Forever

[Bendak]

Well being there for all the pregame stuff and seeing the banner get raised was great!

81 more games to go!

On my way home now, night everyone

 

[Robb_K]

That ice was trash though, I tell you that

What do you expect. They reported it was 92 degrees F. in St. Louis today. In October! Who says there's no Global Warming?

 

[Blanick]

What do you expect. They reported it was 92 degrees F. in St. Louis today. In October! Who says there's no Global Warming?

Without getting too political?? Lets just say far too many "world leaders"

 

[Spektre]

Pietrangelo on the left side trying to hold the puck in the zone is hard to watch. I’m not blaming him but it’s ugly. The same problem comes up in the defensive zone. I don’t see that working long term.

Tarasenko can be dominant when he’s aggressive. I wish he had Ovi’s aggressiveness. Thomas looked good. I was surprised Berube didn’t play the Sundqvist line more after getting the 2-0 lead. Perron is still good for a bad penalty but he’s never been more confident with the puck.

No surprise the Caps are a good team. Onto the next one.

Edit: Faulk looks good with the puck but his lack of speed is noticeable.

 

[bishop12]

Parayko screened him, poor defense by bouw, fabbri loafing on the back check (though I think there were plenty enough blue sweaters without him already)

you mean the dman got deked out...

 

[Davimir Tarablad]

We lost the home opener last year, and we won the Cup. I'm not worried at all, in fact, we've never won the Cup after winning our home opener.

 

[Blueston]

Not really, and even if he was I think he's earned a longer leash than that.

He has to play smarter. They went with guys who gave them better chance. Not like he was sent to SA.

 

[Robb_K]

Without getting too political?? Lets just say far too many "world leaders"

Anyway, we can't blame The Blues' ownership for putting in inadequate cooling equipment. 92 in October??? This is only a couple of weeks before I used to lay down the ice layers of our backyard ice rink! But I know what you St. Louisans go through in summer, late spring and early fall. I worked in the Middle East and Africa for 20 years.

 

[blues hillbilly]

I did like Faulk's play.

Power play looked better in the offensive zone, but inattention, lackadaisical handling of the puck in our end baffles me.

I'm having my doubts about Dunn and Barby again. Unforced turnovers waiting to happen. Unforced errors in our own end after others work hard to get the puck is unforgiveable. If you can't pass worth a shit or don't have the hockey sense to know what to do, skate the puck out. Not moving their feet, standing around. They both need to be riding the pine. Berube needs to be real loud and up close with both. They don't seem to get it and both have talent.

3rd and 4th lines were manhandled, outhustled and generally ineffective.

 

[Robb_K]

We lost the home opener last year, and we won the Cup. I'm not worried at all, in fact, we've never won the Cup after winning our home opener.

Aren't you Mr. Logic! That reminds me of a poster we used to have on The Asylum, and also the old Official NHL St. Louis Blues' Forum, back near the beginning of the 2000s.

 

[TheFountainhead]

Congrats again on the Cup, and you guys had an amazing ceremony. That was a very fun game to watch, and it was obviously tremendously competitive. Good luck the rest of the way.

Binnington is the goods btw. Super impressed by him.

 

[LetsGoBooze]

Got a point, im happy cause i coulda seen a blow-out in either direction with the talent on both teams and it being game 1. We'll get better.

 

[CraftyVeteran]

we're now using the gLoBaL wArMiNg argument. Good lord grow up.

 

[stl76]

Thomas played 9:45 tonight.... wtf

Thomas' ice time got cut because he kept turning the puck over at the opponents blue line instead of getting the puck deep and getting on the forecheck. After about the 3rd time he did this in the first ~30 minutes of the game, he started riding the pine. Personally, I had zero issue with the call to sit him. He needed to be more responsible with the puck and play within the system.

All-in-all, a bit disappointing to not take care of business, but that was a pretty good opening game against an very tough opponent. Gotta give some credit to the caps, even without Kuznetsov, they are still a very dangerous team. That Vrana kid is the real deal, he is fun to watch.

Hope Blais is alright, it was great seeing him score that first goal. He has worked so hard to get to this point, I'm rooting for him to hold down that spot in the top 6 with ROR and Perron. Watching the replay of his head whiplashing back and forth after those two hits, and then him taking so long to get up, I couldn't help but worry about a concussion. Wouldn't be surprised if he got pulled by the concussion spotter and that's why he didn't return.

 

[mk80]

Well here are my thoughts on tonight:

1. The pregame was great! That banner is just so sexy and beautiful and will be there forever!
2. The first period was good, Blais with ROR and Perron could work well going forward.
3. 2nd period was horrible, 3rd period was slightly better, but not good, OT was more of the 3rd.
4. I thought Faulk made some great defensive plays all night (note my bias as a Faulk fan from his Canes days)

And finally 5. While I would've liked the win, and am a bit disappointed Cup Hangover hit us hard tonight. We will win some games, I mean we played extremely Mike Yeo era esque tonight and still took a very good Caps team to OT. So we'll shake off some rust, and with some 60 minute Berube style efforts we'll win some games.

 

[Blanick]

In retrospect I blame the patches.

 

[Boyesfan]

I’m sure it won’t happen but I do really hope the NHL looks at the hit on Blais. There is no reason for Oshie to explode upward with that hit.

 

[Blueston]

Felt like Blues drew off energy from banner raising to get off to great start but then kinda crashed as you can only ride that wave so long. Not worried. Teams seem to always lose when they raise banner or retire number or anything of that ilk.

 

[mk80]

Felt like Blues drew off energy from banner raising to get off to great start but then kinda crashed as you can only ride that wave so long. Not worried. Teams seem to always lose when they raise banner or retire number or anything of that ilk.

Those types of pregame ceremonies really throw off players game day routines.

 

[A Real Barn Burner]

I’m sure it won’t happen but I do really hope the NHL looks at the hit on Blais. There is no reason for Oshie to explode upward with that hit.

I doubt it. Oshie was going for a hit when Blias was already hit and losing balance. It was high but unintentional imho. You can see Oshie’s concern right away

 

[67Blues]

I’m sure it won’t happen but I do really hope the NHL looks at the hit on Blais. There is no reason for Oshie to explode upward with that hit.

Oshie is a dirty player. I witnessed him single handedly ruin Rick Nash

 

[AjaxManifesto]

Good 1st
Crap 2nd (13 minutes without a shot?)
Adequate 3rd
Crap OT (no shots)

 

[DoubleK81]

Some takeaways from being at the game tonight

Stillman got such a huge applause, the TV feed didn't even come close to how it sounded in person. The loudest game I've been to was the 3/OT win against Chicago a few years ago and the applause was right there with it.

The banner raising was perfect. Not over the top, not understated. I thought them skating the the cup around the ice by the Captains was great considering it was the first time it was on our ice at gametime. This was the first time it really hit me that we actually won, something that I've been waiting for and not sure would ever happen since I remember watching hockey.

Petro made a number of questionable decisions throughout the game. I'll chalk that up to growing pains playing the off-side with a partner he isn't really familiar with yet.

Outside of the goal by Petro in the 1st, the PP didn't look much better than usual.

The 4th line looked like garbage for most of the game. Maybe they were more noticeable to me because they were on when OV's line were out, but I wasn't thrilled with any of their game.

I really like Blais in the top 6. He throws the body (maybe a little too much at times), and has the skill to be a mainstay up top. I think he will spend time with both top lines throughout the season as they shift players around from time to time.

Whether it was an emotional adrenaline dump or not, the 1st period was what I expect of this team. The 2nd and 3rd, not so much. Someone posted earlier in the thread that the 1st was the 2019 Blues, and the 2nd/3rd were the 2018 Blues and I completely agree.

Dunn had a few mistakes that I wasn't expecting, as did Parayko. Bouw seemed out of mid-late season form from last year. Tarasenko didn't seem to be very engaged most of the game, but I've come to expect that (unfortunately).

Carrying over from last season, the officiating is f***ing terrible. This really needs to be fixed, an absolute priority for the league.

Binnington was good. The OT goal should have been saved, but it is what it is, the first two he couldn't do much about.

OT was disappointing, obviously. As expected, coaches have found a way to make 3v3 boring. Stagnant puck movement, circling around until some kind of gap is found. Whats next, 2v2?

I didn't expect for us to win this game, and i'm happy to have gotten the loser point, but I was hoping for better as everyone else was.

 

[GoldenSeal]

We got some work to do but we took it to OT. A lot to like and a little to work out.

 

[BlueDream]

My thoughts on the game:

1. Every player on the ice for both teams is rusty so it's impossible to judge anything

2.