GDT: Defending Stanley Cup Champs St. Louis Blues vs. Calgary| Let's Try This Again |

[The Note]

When: Tuesday, Jan. 27 at 8 p.m. CT
Watch: FOX Sports Midwest, FOX Sports GO
Listen: 101 ESPN, NHL App

Projected Lineups
Sanford - O'Reilly - Perron
Schwartz - Schenn - Kyrou
Steen - Thomas - Bozak
Barbashev - de la Rose - Sundqvist

Faulk - Pietrangelo
Bouwmeester - Parayko
Dunn - Bortuzzo

Binnington

VS.



Matthew Tkachuk - Elias Lindholm - Andrew Mangiapane
Johnny Gaudreau - Derek Ryan - Sean Monahan
Milan Lucic - Mikael Backlund - Dillon Dube
Sam Bennett - Mark Jankowski - Tobias Rieder

Mark Giordano - TJ Brodie
Noah Hanifin - Travis Hamonic
Oliver Kylington - Rasmus Andersson

Rittich​

Click to read more...

 

[AjaxManifesto]

Let's get it done tonight.

 

[Oberyn]

Will be attending this game, hope the boys don't stink it up.

 

[AjaxManifesto]

They are on a 3 game losing streak. It happens. They just need to fix little things. The effort is there, just not the execution.

 

[AjaxManifesto]

I hope they work on shooting pre game. I'm tired of hearing about all the wide and high shots. Get on net.

 

[President Skroob]

Do the Blues extend their losing streak against playoff teams to 7?

 

[AjaxManifesto]

Do the Blues extend their losing streak against playoff teams to 7?

Maybe.

I could see us losing again tonight.

Need a wake-up call.

 

[Ginger Papa]

They are on a 3 game losing streak. It happens. They just need to fix little things. The effort is there, just not the execution.

Many of the Members from the Canucks Board, including myself, thought we stole one last night due to our Goaltending. Even though Thatcher is a back-up, he’s had a solid record with his Home Starts. Only because of his play, we get out of that game with any points, let alone a win.

On a related note, many of us commented on Jake’s play. It was a mix of feeling good for the guy having a great game while wishing he’d have it against someone else.

When your boys were imposing their Will we were hemmed in our zone long enough that you were able to perform partial shift changes. It was pretty impressive and most of us were commenting about your team being on another tier entirely.

Good luck tonight and here’s hoping you can get back in the Win column.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

Many of the Members from the Canucks Board, including myself, thought we stole one last night due to our Goaltending. Even though Thatcher is a back-up, he’s had a solid record with his Home Starts. Only because of his play, we get out of that game with any points, let alone a win.

On a related note, many of us commented on Jake’s play. It was a mix of feeling good for the guy having a great game while wishing he’d have it against someone else.

When your boys were imposing their Will we were hemmed in our zone long enough that you were able to perform partial shift changes. It was pretty impressive and most of us were commenting about your team being on another tier entirely.

Good luck tonight and here’s hoping you can get back in the Win column.

I am disappointed the Blues lost, but it’s not surprising the little extra bit of ‘finish’ was lacking after the layoff. Your goalie stole the game though, and made some big saves. You could see his confidence grow through the game and literally see him settle into The Zone. Good for him.

But I came away feeling good about the Blues’ ability to control play. In a 7 game series the Blues would win more than they lose with that kind of output from the skaters. In fact, a 1st round matchup with Vancouver is a reasonable possibility.

 

[Note Worthy]

Hey, at least this one starts an hour earlier!

 

[TheGoldenGod]

Many of the Members from the Canucks Board, including myself, thought we stole one last night due to our Goaltending. Even though Thatcher is a back-up, he’s had a solid record with his Home Starts. Only because of his play, we get out of that game with any points, let alone a win.

On a related note, many of us commented on Jake’s play. It was a mix of feeling good for the guy having a great game while wishing he’d have it against someone else.

When your boys were imposing their Will we were hemmed in our zone long enough that you were able to perform partial shift changes. It was pretty impressive and most of us were commenting about your team being on another tier entirely.

Good luck tonight and here’s hoping you can get back in the Win column.

I'm sorry I called EP alien head - I shouldn't of went there and I had trouble sleeping last night. Good to see the Nucks back on top of the Pacific. Ya'll have a bright future.

 

[BlueKnight]

I had plans to attend this one but I got called into work instead. It's probably just as well that I don't go everytime I've been to the Blues end up stinking.

 

[Ginger Papa]

.....
But I came away feeling good about the Blues’ ability to control play. In a 7 game series the Blues would win more than they lose with that kind of output from the skaters. In fact, a 1st round matchup with Vancouver is a reasonable possibility.

Ironic that you mentioned this, as there were a number of Posts in our GDT which referenced our fear of this match-up. Again, most of us feel like we just beat our older brother in a game of 1-on-1 but it was due to luck and the possibility that he was distracted by the hot chicks driving by in a convertible.

That said, we’d be more than happy to be back in the playoffs and get some good natured chirping going back & forth.

I'm sorry I called EP alien head - I shouldn't of went there and I had trouble sleeping last night. Good to see the Nucks back on top of the Pacific. Ya'll have a bright future.

No harm done. EP was sleeping soundly when I checked in while I was doing my rounds last night.

​

As for being in 1st, it’s a tight Division with lots of games to play, but hopefully we can keep it rolling. Many are predicting a collapse.

Back to your boys & the game tonight, Chief used to play for my hometown Williams Lake Mustangs and this GIF reminds me of the landscape in the nearby Chilcotin area. As a metaphor, I can picture Chief driving this river boat to extinguish the Flames.

​

Edit:

Stats courtesy of "The Score" App

 

[AjaxManifesto]

The word for tonight is "finish". As in....

Finish your shot
Finish your check
Finish your opponent

 

[TK 421]

Calgary, or as Kelly Chase calls it Cal-Gary. I always get the feeling he's talking about a friend or something. Like "This is my friend Cal, Cal Gary."

Hey maybe we can even score 2 goals or more tonight since our arch-nemesis Thatcher Demko isn't in net.

 

[BlueDream]

Really hoping for a win tonight. This isn’t an easy road trip but we need to at least split it and win 2 out of 4.

 

[Note Worthy]

 

[Three On Zero]

Let’s go blues! I’ll be cheering for you guys tonight. Such a fun team to watch

 

[Brian39]

I hope they work on shooting pre game. I'm tired of hearing about all the wide and high shots. Get on net.

This criticism that we miss the net an inordinate amount is not based in reality.

We are 4th best in the percentage of unblocked shot attempts that are put on goal (75.65% of our unblocked shot attempts hit the net).

We are 2nd best in the percentage of all shot attempts that are put on goal (57.98% of our shot attempts hit the net).

We are 4th in the percentage of all unblocked shots that score (7.92% of our unblocked shot attempts go in).

We are 5th in the percentage of all shot attempts that score (6.07% of our shot attempts go in).

We are 10th in the percentage of shots on goal that score (10.47% of our shots on goal go in).

We are hitting the net AND converting our attempts into goals at an elite rate. There is no evidence that we shoot the puck high and wide too often. It is a completely false narrative driven by an eye test that is literally impossible to compare to the rates other teams shoot high and wide.

Edit: Here is a google sheet with the data. All raw numbers taken from Natural Stat Trick on 1/28/20 filtered for all situations. Columns F-J created by me in excel. You can sort each column using the "data" tab within google sheets.

 

[CaliforniaBlues310]

With Blais returning, what’s the guess on new lines? I’m hoping

Sanford-O’Reilly-Perron
Schwartz-Schenn-Kyrou
Blais-Thomas-Bozak
Barbashev-Sundqvist-Steen

Sanford is on one of his streaks, so I’d keep him with 90/57 for now.

 

[BlueDream]

With Blais returning, what’s the guess on new lines? I’m hoping

Sanford-O’Reilly-Perron
Schwartz-Schenn-Kyrou
Blais-Thomas-Bozak
Barbashev-Sundqvist-Steen

Sanford is on one of his streaks, so I’d keep him with 90/57 for now.

Yeah, DLR is the weak link. He should sit.

I love those lines. Seems like Blais is back about a week ahead of schedule but hey, I’ll take it!

 

[MissouriMook]

With Blais returning, what’s the guess on new lines? I’m hoping

Sanford-O’Reilly-Perron
Schwartz-Schenn-Kyrou
Blais-Thomas-Bozak
Barbashev-Sundqvist-Steen

Sanford is on one of his streaks, so I’d keep him with 90/57 for now.

I like the idea of getting back to Barby-Sunny-Steen on the 4th line, I'm just not sure Berube is ready to take Steen off the 3rd line. I could certainly see Kyrou drawing out for Blais and keeping DLR in the lineup, but I think they need to give Kyrou 10-15 games without worrying if he's going to be healthy scratched to develop more of a feel for the NHL game. I don't see anything lacking in his play that is going to get significantly better in practice, he needs the game situation physicality and urgency to clean up the things he needs to work on.

 

[HighNote]

My man

 

[CaliforniaBlues310]

I like the idea of getting back to Barby-Sunny-Steen on the 4th line, I'm just not sure Berube is ready to take Steen off the 3rd line. I could certainly see Kyrou drawing out for Blais and keeping DLR in the lineup, but I think they need to give Kyrou 10-15 games without worrying if he's going to be healthy scratched to develop more of a feel for the NHL game. I don't see anything lacking in his play that is going to get significantly better in practice, he needs the game situation physicality and urgency to clean up the things he needs to work on.

I absolutely agree with all of this. Kyrou definitely needs a chance to play without the fear of getting taken out after making one mistake.

While Mac is out, we really should bring back 20/49/70. It’s our best defensive line by far.

 

[Brian39]

I like the idea of getting back to Barby-Sunny-Steen on the 4th line, I'm just not sure Berube is ready to take Steen off the 3rd line. I could certainly see Kyrou drawing out for Blais and keeping DLR in the lineup, but I think they need to give Kyrou 10-15 games without worrying if he's going to be healthy scratched to develop more of a feel for the NHL game. I don't see anything lacking in his play that is going to get significantly better in practice, he needs the game situation physicality and urgency to clean up the things he needs to work on.

I thought Kyrou was fine last night, but it probably didn't help his cause that the line had its best chance of the night immediately after Sunny slid in for Kyrou. I hope that doesn't put him back into the press box.

Count me as someone who doesn't want Steen pushed off the 3rd line. I have really liked that line the last few weeks and think they deserve to stay together. If I were coach, here is what I would start with tonight:

Schwartz-Schenn-Kyrou
Blais-ROR-Perron
Steen-Thomas-Bozak
Pick your combo of Barby/Sunny/DLR/Sanford. Add Mac to that mix if he is ready.

Barby and Sunny should be locks to stay in the lineup, we now have multiple guys fighting for one spot in my lineup of choice.