GDT: Game 3: Blues at Blackhawks 1/22/13 at 7:30 CST

[Mike Liut]

I hope they don't practice tomorrow. Hockey is strange that way. Morning skates on game days, practices on days you need rest. When I played football, we were given 3 days off after a game to recoup.

 

[Linus]

-- End the D'Agostini 4th line experiments. How many times does it need to be reiterated, he can't play an energy line role! He's useless there. I don't think Langenbrunner offers that much on the ice either but he's a better 4th-line fit than D'Ags. D'Ags really offers nothing there...

I agree with a lot of what you said, but this in particular. I'm a huge fan of him but he's useless on the 4th. If D'Ags is just going to get scratched or play on the 4th line, I'd rather see him traded for his sake. He's not a 4th line player. I love the depth that the Blues have, but I don't like the idea of keeping D'Agostini from a more significant scoring role just waiting for an injury to occur. If we traded D'Agostini and someone in the top 9 got injured, Sobotka can easily slide up and we could recall Porter. I don't think D'Agostini should take anyone in the current top 9's spot, but I just hate him on the 4th line.

The Blues just always play poorly in the United Center, for the past few years anyway. Crawford isn't the greatest goalie but he made good stops tonight. It's a shame the Blues can't put the pucks behind him that other teams seem to do so easily. After the first 10 minutes with all of those odd man rushes I thought this game was going to be a blowout. I was glad to see them make a game of it at the end, but it was too little too late. Elliott should've had the Stalberg goal but was really impressive otherwise.

If Redden plays on Thursday, who do you sit for him? Honestly, there's nobody in the current top 6 that I don't want to see play on Thursday. I guess I'd sit Cole, not because of poor play but just because he seems like the most easily replaceable.

 

[Alklha]

5 games in 7 days is brutal. I'll be interested to see how the guys look that have played in each game.

Start was always going to be the toughest, I said before the season that 9 points after the Minnesota game would be great. 5 more points off the Wild, Preds and Stars is a big ask though.

I hope they don't practice tomorrow. Hockey is strange that way. Morning skates on game days, practices on days you need rest. When I played football, we were given 3 days off after a game to recoup.

I suspect they will be, because they need to go over things. Nothing strenuous though and the evening off.

 

[542365]

If Redden plays on Thursday, who do you sit for him? Honestly, there's nobody in the current top 6 that I don't want to see play on Thursday. I guess I'd sit Cole, not because of poor play but just because he seems like the most easily replaceable.

Jax maybe? He has been good also, but he's getting up there in age a little bit. Might not hurt to give him an extra day's rest before the back-to-back on the weekend? I don't know. Could having pairings of Redden-Petro, Cole-Shatty, Russell-Polak? Cole and Jax play pretty similar games.

 

[BlueOil]

I agree with a lot of what you said, but this in particular. I'm a huge fan of him but he's useless on the 4th. If D'Ags is just going to get scratched or play on the 4th line, I'd rather see him traded for his sake. He's not a 4th line player. I love the depth that the Blues have, but I don't like the idea of keeping D'Agostini from a more significant scoring role just waiting for an injury to occur. If we traded D'Agostini and someone in the top 9 got injured, Sobotka can easily slide up and we could recall Porter. I don't think D'Agostini should take anyone in the current top 9's spot, but I just hate him on the 4th line.

The Blues just always play poorly in the United Center, for the past few years anyway. Crawford isn't the greatest goalie but he made good stops tonight. It's a shame the Blues can't put the pucks behind him that other teams seem to do so easily. After the first 10 minutes with all of those odd man rushes I thought this game was going to be a blowout. I was glad to see them make a game of it at the end, but it was too little too late. Elliott should've had the Stalberg goal but was really impressive otherwise.

If Redden plays on Thursday, who do you sit for him? Honestly, there's nobody in the current top 6 that I don't want to see play on Thursday. I guess I'd sit Cole, not because of poor play but just because he seems like the most easily replaceable.

I think if Redden is playing, Cole is sitting. Cole looked okay tonight, but you can see he's overthinking and relying less on instinct. It's a condensed schedule so he's gonna sit from time to time, but I'd expect it to light a fire under him. If he doesn't win the spot, I don't see Hitch handing it to him. Redden could be very good for Cole.

 

[TheOrganist]

The whole defense outside of Shattenkirk had a poor game. The Blues forwards were guilty of poor puck management in the first 10 minutes (and Berglund's failure to get the puck deep was phase 1 of the Kane goal) but for the most part they backchecked hard and did their jobs defensively.

The D on the other hand....holy indecisiveness Batman. The first period had to be the most odd-man the Blues have given up in a period since Hitchcock took over.

That's all a good offensive team needed to put the Blues on their heels early which was a recipe for trouble after expending a lot of energy to comeback against Nashville last night.

The sloppiness isn't unexpected but they really need to tighten it up defensively. Polak in particular made Harold Snepsts' puck "skills" look like Pietrangelo tonight.

I suppose the good news is that once the Blues check the way they're capable of they'll be able to couple that with an offense that's much more lethal this year.

 

[SirPaste]

Meh, we looked tired, Chitown was outskating us all night. It was bound to happen with guys who havent played during the lockout and us going to the shootout last night. We cant win em all, get fresh legs and lets worry about winning the next game.

 

[sh724]

Ok spoiler alert, I am going to say something bad about Tarasenko. You all have been warned so if you do not want to hear something negative about him do not read...

I think he is trying to hard to get points. There are several times I have seen both tonight and against Nashville that he was trying to get in a great spot to score when he should have gone some where else to help the puck carrier. While it is good to be going to the front of the net the Blues definitely need that but there are times to do it and times to be in more of a support role. On quick rushes when he is behind the play he always goes straight down the middle instead of going to the weak side to make sure we get the rebound. He will figure it out in time he just needs to come down a little bit and get used to how the NHL is played.

 

[PocketNines]

Watched the game, just got back. Honestly, it feels like we're not watching the real hockey yet, certainly not the way it's going to be played in the playoffs. The Blues will still make the playoffs and probably win the division (Chicago should struggle in our building the way we struggle in theirs which'll balance out), but a number of guys are off to weak or inconsistent starts.

For whatever reason when the Blues play in Chicago they seem to have great difficulty getting rebounds. One shot and done. Chicago D collapses in and clears or the goalie holds the puck.

Petro another poor game tonight, first goal on him. Blues would've tied it but started too late coming back. Good that they always believe they can come back and win.

Elliott made some great saves but goals 2 and 3 he probably wants back. Especially 2.

Stewart-Berglund-Schwartz kinda sucked.

 

[BDEuph]

Watched the game, just got back. Honestly, it feels like we're not watching the real hockey yet, certainly not the way it's going to be played in the playoffs. The Blues will still make the playoffs and probably win the division (Chicago should struggle in our building the way we struggle in theirs which'll balance out), but a number of guys are off to weak or inconsistent starts.

For whatever reason when the Blues play in Chicago they seem to have great difficulty getting rebounds. One shot and done. Chicago D collapses in and clears or the goalie holds the puck.

Petro another poor game tonight, first goal on him. Blues would've tied it but started too late coming back. Good that they always believe they can come back and win.

Elliott made some great saves but goals 2 and 3 he probably wants back. Especially 2.

Stewart-Berglund-Schwartz kinda sucked.

Dead on, that line was invisible and played poor especially on that 1st goal. I think Hitch saw that in the 3rd and swapped 21 for 17. I think Cole played a decent game and may have out played Petro a tad. Could it be fatigue or lack of conditioning? Possibly, but that cant be an excuse.

 

[frostyflo]

BDI think Cole played a decent game and may have out played Petro a tad. Could it be fatigue or lack of conditioning? Possibly, but that cant be an excuse.

That's exactly why I would not sit Cole for Redden for the next match.
He's one of few Dmen we have who are already top conditioned and ready for more. If they want to play Redden they should IMO sit Jax, not because of his play but he could need a little rest.

 

[Use the Schwartz*]

We were flat all game. Dissappointing but we just have too move on.

I hope we see the Reaves Nichol Sobo line next game.

 

[Frenzy31]

Perron

I wasn't able to record and watch the game last night, so maybe DP played better, but it seems to me that after the first two games that if I am going to sit anyone it is Perron.

He hasn't been worth a poop and his penalties are happening in the offensive zone. I think he had 3 against Detroit and another against Nashville. Just tick, tack stuff. Personally, I think he has held the 1st line back.

The reason I am bringing this up is D'Ago could fit into the first line for a game or two - where he would be more effective then on the 4th line. IMO, for the first two games, he couldn't have played worse the DP.

 

[Rizzo90]

I wasn't able to record and watch the game last night, so maybe DP played better, but it seems to me that after the first two games that if I am going to sit anyone it is Perron.

He hasn't been worth a poop and his penalties are happening in the offensive zone. I think he had 3 against Detroit and another against Nashville. Just tick, tack stuff. Personally, I think he has held the 1st line back.

The reason I am bringing this up is D'Ago could fit into the first line for a game or two - where he would be more effective then on the 4th line. IMO, for the first two games, he couldn't have played worse the DP.

Perron DID look much better lat night, actually he, was a beast. Outside of scoring I think it was one of the better games I've seen him play. He was really aggressive on the puck and the puck carrier when we didn't have the puck. His backcheck & defensive play topped backes & oshie last night....if I were to scratch any forward(s) now it would be dags & langs, like em both, but reaves & nichol look much better along side sobotka.

 

[Falco Lombardi]

See I didn't think Perron was all that much better. There were at least two occasions where knocked the puck away from both Backes and Oshie. He had moments and he didn't take an offensive zone penalty thankfully but I wasn't blown away by him.

While the overall line was pretty bad, I thought Chris Stewart looked decent. He tried to get momentum going with a solid effort against Bollig, he had two pretty good scoring chances. He was hustling out there.

One of the guys I'm fairly high on, Kris Russell, looked terrible. The d in general did not look solid, but Russell stood out to me.

 

[The Note]

I thought everyone on D looked pretty bad last night aside from Cole. I'll chalk it up to fatigue but hopefully we see some better play tomorrow

 

[Mike Liut]

I am sure all the players read how they great they are during the lockout expanded their heads. It's good to lose a game here and there.

 

[Lord Helix]

Oshie was working and driving hard to the net. Tarasenko still managed to be decently effective and threw his body around quite a bit. Russell fell off a cliff compared to his last 2 games where he looked amazing.

And like I said before...Petro is not playing HIS game. It's like he's trying to be Doughty or the good Phaneuf to prove he can be aggressive on offence and physical in the neutral zone, but he doesn't need to be. We need him to play his game to be successful. He's at his best when he's reading the play instead of trying to force everything, especially in transition offence and defence.

 

[542365]

I thought Cole and Shattenkirk played solid games for the defense. Perron was better than his first two games, but I wasn't blown away with him. He still held the puck too long at points, and was out of position in the offensive zone a couple of times. He'll turn it around, and I echo the sentiment that Petro looks like he's trying to play like Phaneuf. He's gotten in trouble a couple of times when he's tried to light somebody up in the neutral zone. I don't understand why he's trying to do this.

 

[TheOrganist]

As for Berglund, there are times when he struggles against skating teams like Chicago and Vancouver while he's more effective against bigger, plodding teams like Nashville and San Jose who have big bodies and like to play a more territorial, below-the-goal-line game.

Much like in the playoffs.

Great series against the Sharks, struggled against the Kings.

 

[bluesman11]

I think the biggest difference in the early part of the game was The Hawks superior team defense. I was in awe of how well they were taking away space then controlling the puck, they were playing very well.

With it being so early in the season and The Blues playing with no rest, I wasn't concerned, but was pleased how they responded to the in game circumstances. Overall a very good learning experience and I look forward to when they meet again.

 

[JustOneB4IDie]

I recorded the game, just watched it. That 3 man breakaway cost us at least a point last night. But the 'note dug in and made a game of it. Next.

 

[ExJbeck]

Oshie was working and driving hard to the net. Tarasenko still managed to be decently effective and threw his body around quite a bit. Russell fell off a cliff compared to his last 2 games where he looked amazing.

And like I said before...Petro is not playing HIS game. It's like he's trying to be Doughty or the good Phaneuf to prove he can be aggressive on offence and physical in the neutral zone, but he doesn't need to be. We need him to play his game to be successful. He's at his best when he's reading the play instead of trying to force everything, especially in transition offence and defence.

I was going to type exactly this in your other thread. most of his problem is timing but I dont understand why all of the sudden he is trying to step up. Hopefully he figures that out.

I doubt many people thin Perron has played good at all. I know it sounds cliche but to me his problem is that he is skating to the other team and not through the other team. Also not moving his feet, he has to find another gear. Sometimes he is skating hard other times just waiting for the puck to come to him instead of working hard for the puck.

 

[PocketNines]

If Pietrangelo and Perron and others who seem to be struggling out of the gate (and who didn't play anywhere during the lockout) are still playing this way in about three weeks I'll get worried. But for now, I'm not finding huge value in worrying about their play. We know they're very skilled and have performed very well before. As long as the team gets through its first 10 games something like 7-3-0 or 6-2-1 I'll be pretty happy.

 

[bluemandan]

See I didn't think Perron was all that much better. There were at least two occasions where knocked the puck away from both Backes and Oshie. He had moments and he didn't take an offensive zone penalty thankfully but I wasn't blown away by him.

While the overall line was pretty bad, I thought Chris Stewart looked decent. He tried to get momentum going with a solid effort against Bollig, he had two pretty good scoring chances. He was hustling out there.

One of the guys I'm fairly high on, Kris Russell, looked terrible. The d in general did not look solid, but Russell stood out to me.

See, I thought the Bollig v. Stewart fight was a textbook example of instigation. There was no incident that either player was responding to. Bollig stepped onto the ice, skated to Stewart, and dropped the gloves. How is that not an extra penalty for instigation?