GDT: Game #19 St. Louis Blues @ Washington Capitals

[Mike Liut]

If Corey friggin Crawford is good enough to win a cup, then Halak is capable of doing the same.

Their top 5 players are better than anyone on our roster

 

[LGB51]

If Corey friggin Crawford is good enough to win a cup, then Halak is capable of doing the same.

Don't agree at all.

 

[Vladys Gumption]

Their top 5 players are better than anyone on our roster

Don't agree at all.

The point is clearly that you don't need an all-world goalie to win the cup. This team has the defense necessary to win. What we need is a game breaker on the offensive end. Corey Crawford isn't any better than Halak and yet he still won a cup.

 

[Captain Creampuff]

If Corey friggin Crawford is good enough to win a cup, then Halak is capable of doing the same.

I agree but you need the team in front of him to carry and can't fully rely on Halak. I would rather offer up some assets to get a goaltender that we can fully rely on and if we really want to upgrade our offense we are going to have to use roster players anyways due to salary cap issues. We can upgrade both forward and goaltending positions without destroying our current roster or future. Seriously compare our prospect pool to that of other contenders, we are in a good position and can afford to move some assets and still have plenty of time to replenish any pieces we lose.

 

[Vladys Gumption]

I agree but you need the team in front of him to carry and can't fully rely on Halak. I would rather offer up some assets to get a goaltender that we can fully rely on and if we really want to upgrade our offense we are going to have to use roster players anyways due to salary cap issues. We can upgrade both forward and goaltending positions without destroying our current roster or future. Seriously compare our prospect pool to that of other contenders, we are in a good position and can afford to move some assets and still have plenty of time to replenish any pieces we lose.

That's fair enough. But if we really don't believe Halak is the answer, I'd rather them make that decision sooner rather than later, and give Allen a chance.

 

[BlueDream]

Halak allows 3 goals on 6 shots, getting pulled at 15:41 of the 1st. Blues come out and out-shoot the Caps 37-12 the rest of the way and still find a way to lose. Awesome display of suckage there and showcases both of this teams main flaws in one evening.

Read through some of the posts and I can't believe there are still Blues fans that want to go forward with Halak/Elliott as the tandem. Nothing against you guys, but I already didn't trust Elliott to be the starter and I have zero faith left in Halak to both remain healthy and play well. Quite frankly, I've had this opinion for a while and have held off voicing it until now. I completely understand if you think scoring is the bigger issue, but both are problems that need to be addressed. I just feel like we'll be missing a great opportunity(maybe the best we've ever had) to win a Cup if we don't get a better starter in here. PO games are high intensity and typically low scoring. So if the games are going to be tight most of the time anyway, I'd feel better spending assets to get a guy that can do his part to hold us in those games. Please understand, I'd like a scoring and/or center upgrade as well, just feel Halak isn't the guy to get us that Cup.

Great post.

Neither guy has ever been the answer. Halak, after his first 15 games, has a .900 save% while supposedly being "in the best shape of his life." And before anyone says "one bad game", it was .907% before tonight. Still not where you want your goalie to be at. The dude is completely mediocre.

 

[LGB51]

That's fair enough. But if we really don't believe Halak is the answer, I'd rather them make that decision sooner rather than later, and give Allen a chance.

Whatever fine, just get Halak the hell out of there, I'm telling you he isn't the answer. You say give Allen a chance, I say call him up, but get Halak out of their.

Do you think we could use Halak as part of a package, to get that goal scorer you're always harping about?

 

[Vladys Gumption]

Whatever fine, just get Halak the hell out of there, I'm telling you he isn't the answer. You say give Allen a chance, I say call him up, but get Halak out of their.

Do you think we could use Halak as part of a package, to get that goal scorer you're always harping about?

You have to be the most negative person I've ever seen when it comes to Halak. If Miller, who you think is so great, is not even going to get a roster player, how do you supposed Halak has much trade value?

 

[LGB51]

Great post.

Neither guy has ever been the answer. Halak, after his first 15 games, has a .900 save% while supposedly being "in the best shape of his life." And before anyone says "one bad game", it was .907% before tonight. Still not where you want your goalie to be at. The dude is completely mediocre.

Yes he is, lowfat vanilla. This latest downturn has been alarming, he's just down right not good, and this month he's been awful.

 

[Captain Creampuff]

That's fair enough. But if we really don't believe Halak is the answer, I'd rather them make that decision sooner rather than later, and give Allen a chance.

I also think we should sooner than later, which is the point of the posts. I'd rather have Miller get some significant time with the team over the year than just awhile after the deadline. I'm not worried about missing the playoffs but rather what Halak will be playing this year as a whole because it seems the organization is really pushing for him to be the #1 judging by the ice time he is getting but he really hasn't done anything special so far this season.

 

[LGB51]

You have to be the most negative person I've ever seen when it comes to Halak. If Miller, who you think is so great, is not even going to get a roster player, how do you supposed Halak has much trade value?

You're not exactly mister sunshine yourself, when it comes to talking about moving anybody with a note on their chest. It was a simple question, stated to try and establish a rapport after being so adamant, that it became nothing but a negative them against us conversation.

I'll take your usual sarcastic response as a no.

 

[Vladys Gumption]

You're not exactly mister sunshine yourself, when it comes to talking about moving anybody with a note on their chest. It was a simple question, stated to try and establish a rapport after being so adamant, that it became nothing but a negative them against us conversation.

I'll take your usual sarcastic response as a no.

I'm not mister sunshine because I'm not willing to move our young players? I just see no point in moving them unless it's absolutely the right deal. You asked me if I thought Halak could bring back a game breaker. And I answered it. If Miller can't bring one, then there's no way Halak does.

 

[Vladys Gumption]

I also think we should sooner than later, which is the point of the posts. I'd rather have Miller get some significant time with the team over the year than just awhile after the deadline. I'm not worried about missing the playoffs but rather what Halak will be playing this year as a whole because it seems the organization is really pushing for him to be the #1 judging by the ice time he is getting but he really hasn't done anything special so far this season.

I get what you're saying. I just don't think we should be so quick to give up significant assets for Miller right now when it's still so early. Plus, I really do believe Allen is ready right now. Kind of why I was frustrated from the beginning of the season that we didn't move one of our goalies.

 

[LGB51]

I'm not mister sunshine because I'm not willing to move our young players? I just see no point in moving them unless it's absolutely the right deal. You asked me if I thought Halak could bring back a game breaker. And I answered it. If Miller can't bring one, then there's no way Halak does.

The right deal is the one that the outcome gets us our best chance at the cup, Miller would do that.

It was a peace offering question, to hopefully open another line of conversation. Contrary to what some other posters might come here for, I don't enjoy arguing with folks on the internet. I thought by taking the conversation in another direction the dialog might start to get friendlier. So I wasn't expecting the "that's a stupid question, genius" response lol.

 

[Vladys Gumption]

The right deal is the one that the outcome gets us our best chance at the cup, Miller would do that.

It was a peace offering question, to hopefully open another line of conversation. Contrary to what some other posters might come here for, I don't enjoy arguing with folks on the internet. I thought by taking the conversation in another direction the dialog might start to get friendlier. So I wasn't expecting the "that's a stupid question, genius" response lol.

I didn't say it was a stupid question. I just don't really see how one could think Halak has a lot of value. Goalies in general don't have much value at all. I agree that the right deal is the one that helps bring us a cup. Would Miller make us better? Absolutely. But I highly doubt that the difference between Halak and Miller is what puts us over the hump to the cup. We're scoring right now, but that will most likely change. The same thing happened last year. The offense started off hot and then cooled off. There's no doubt that a scoring by committee strategy can be effective during the regular seiason, but during the playoffs you need that go to offensive player. Every team that has won a cup recently has had at least one, if not more go to guys. We're lacking that. So for me, it's not that I don't want Miller, it's that if we are going to give assets up, I feel like that one missing piece up front is more needed.

 

[Captain Creampuff]

I didn't say it was a stupid question. I just don't really see how one could think Halak has a lot of value. Goalies in general don't have much value at all. I agree that the right deal is the one that helps bring us a cup. Would Miller make us better? Absolutely. But I highly doubt that the difference between Halak and Miller is what puts us over the hump to the cup. We're scoring right now, but that will most likely change. The same thing happened last year. The offense started off hot and then cooled off. There's no doubt that a scoring by committee strategy can be effective during the regular seiason, but during the playoffs you need that go to offensive player. Every team that has won a cup recently has had at least one, if not more go to guys. We're lacking that. So for me, it's not that I don't want Miller, it's that if we are going to give assets up, I feel like that one missing piece up front is more needed.

We were scoring so much because we were sacrificing defense for offense. The goaltending was awful as well during that time and Petro looked pretty bad as well. I think Miller is certainly be a piece to putting us over the hump. I think we have enough assets available to upgrade both in goal and up front. Realistically Miller at 50% is only going to cost Halak+Veilleiux+1st+2nd conditional on Miller resigning. Now if we were going to upgrade up front we would need to unload salary and the most expendable pieces we have are Stewart, Berglund, Pajaarvi, and Roy. These guys can be packaged away with our other 2nd and a prospect for an upgrade.

 

[LGB51]

I didn't say it was a stupid question. I just don't really see how one could think Halak has a lot of value. Goalies in general don't have much value at all. I agree that the right deal is the one that helps bring us a cup. Would Miller make us better? Absolutely. But I highly doubt that the difference between Halak and Miller is what puts us over the hump to the cup. We're scoring right now, but that will most likely change. The same thing happened last year. The offense started off hot and then cooled off. There's no doubt that a scoring by committee strategy can be effective during the regular seiason, but during the playoffs you need that go to offensive player. Every team that has won a cup recently has had at least one, if not more go to guys. We're lacking that. So for me, it's not that I don't want Miller, it's that if we are going to give assets up, I feel like that one missing piece up front is more needed.

I understand that, and it makes perfect sense, but we do have Steen and Backes who have been pretty reliable, and Stewart who could get hot at anytime. Hell tonight was the first time we didn't at least score 2 goals in a game, and we still got one. I guess I'm just not worried about scoring like I am about our #1 goaltender. Who is giving up 3 goals a game, despite only having to stop a average of 20 shots a game, in his last 6 starts.

 

[TimtheDJ84*]

So,completely OT,but has anyone seen the Tommy Vannelli video on YouTube of him making pancakes? That kid needs to eat a lot of them,skinny as a rail!

 

[JustOneB4IDie]

If that is the price they are asking and they don't come down to earth, then they will loose Miller to UFA and not get any picks to help their rebuild. I cannot see that happening.

This.

There's no way Buffalo gets 2 1st round picks for Miller. The longer they wait the lower value they get in return for the pending UFA Miller. Now to last night's game.

I wasn't expecting much with the Blues being the tired team ( but Halak was rested don't get me started about him thank you .500 save % says it all before getting yanked.) and playing their 3rd game in 4 nights, they manage to get off 47 shots on goal and no traffic in front of Holtby? C'mon man, even I would have made those saves. Brutal. And just who makes out the schedule for the NHL anyways? But of course this is the NHL.

Looking forward to the Buffalo game Tuesday night, I hope Miller plays for the Sabres, somehow I have a feeling that by February he will be our #1 Goalie.

 

[Captain Creampuff]

If we were in the playoffs and were outmatched, do you think Halak could ever be truly relied on to steal a game for us? Because that's the type of goaltending you need in the playoffs and he hasn't really seen playoff hockey in 4 years and that was the whole reason we traded to get him in the first place, he's been a huge disappointment for what people labeled him as. All people have to look back on in his career is the one run he had in Montreal and hasn't played like that for a stretch of games since.

 

[tattoo01]

I think you guys are too critical on Halak. Before these 3 bad games many of you praised him. Now after 3 bad games (some of you even claimed game vs PHX wasn't his fault) he is mediocre according to you. You've changed your opinion very quickly. His stats dropped significantly after these games, but it's partly due to low amount of shots he's facing all the season. On Nov 9 his save % was .913, which is not so bad.

Sorry for my bad English.

 

[erderuft]

I think you guys are too critical on Halak. Before these 3 bad games many of you praised him. Now after 3 bad games (some of you even claimed game vs PHX wasn't his fault) he is mediocre according to you. You've changed your opinion very quickly. His stats dropped significantly after these games, but it's partly due to low amount of shots he's facing all the season. On Nov 9 his save % was .913, which is not so bad.

Sorry for my bad English.

Agree. While I'm also disappointed in his latest games, I do think it's way to early to start talking about trading him off. I'm sure he's disgusted of himself for last nights game. Give him a chance to redeem himself.

But if Halak is still sucking it up by mid-december or so, I'll gladly join the Halak for Miller crowd.

 

[The Note in MI]

It's games like this that I fully expect halak to respond by pitching a shutout. Anything less than a great game is a disappointment and only solidifies our need for a #1. If he plays well against buffalo and puts last night behind him it would be a step in the right direction.

OTOH, if he plays like crap then we're in a position to find a way to bring in miller. Halak is shortening his own leash with every subpar performance.

 

[ChicagoBlues]

I think you guys are too critical on Halak. Before these 3 bad games many of you praised him. Now after 3 bad games (some of you even claimed game vs PHX wasn't his fault) he is mediocre according to you. You've changed your opinion very quickly. His stats dropped significantly after these games, but it's partly due to low amount of shots he's facing all the season. On Nov 9 his save % was .913, which is not so bad.

Sorry for my bad English.

That's what happens in Bellevue.

 

[bluesman11]

It seems that when The Blues take advantage of poor defense, they played a great game. But, if The Blues play poor defense then it's all Halak's fault for not stealing a win.

I agree he could have been better, but, why does the poor defense get a pass?