GDT: Game #3 | St. Louis Blues vs Calgary Flames | "Team Defense gone Missing Edition"

[Xerloris]

I sincerely hope Yeo gets canned. I hope we get that guy that coached the Sedins ( LOL I cant spell it his name ). He took 2 teams with very talented offenses to the cup final.

 

[67Blues]

The defense will straighten itself out, it has only been 2 games and this team has a ton of new folks up front who the defense has to get used to from an assignment and responsibility standpoint.

What I'm watching very closely is how our young core (Thomas, Kyrou, Dunn, Blais, and to some extent, Mikkola and Walman) progress. If it appears they are relegated to Jaskin/Barbashev 2.0 trajectories, then Yeo needs to absolutely go. That is too much talent to piss away because you are repeating the mistakes you made in Minny.

 

[Bendak]

Battery life at full

Fingers fully stretched and limber

 

[Brockon]

I have Smith, Bobrovsky, and Allen in my fantasy league. I'm starting Smith and Bob. If the Blues hang a big number on Smith and still lose I'm going to be extra pissed.

I have Quick (IR), Gibson and Allen... Cringing about having to start Allen at least once to get the required minimum starts with how the defence played the first few games in front of Allen - compounded by Allen's lack of consistency through 60 minutes in his first few starts.

Allen played a fantastic first 45 minutes vs Winnipeg, and was less impressive vs Chicago.

 

[TheBluePenguin]

I wouldn't throw such a fit over this if Dunn was the isolated problem. Watching the entire tire fire and him being isolated is my problem. You take that with Yeo historically being terrible with youth, it's not hard to understand people already jumping off of a cliff. As for Jerebek, why should I be excited to see what we have in him other then the shiney new toy excuse.

Yeah it really is a stupid play, and you know who it is not fair for....... Jerebek. If he came into the lineup because a player got hurt, then we would all let him try his best to hold the fort. Now this guy has to come in and play way better then Dunn is capable of playing. We all know how stupid Blues fans can be, hes going to be hated because Yeo cant seem to handle young players. I remember people booing Pronger because they love Shanahan so much. That is Chris freaking Pronger, arguably the best defenseman ever to play for the franchise..... Jerebek has no chance

 

[EastonBlues22]

I'm not expecting a particularly good game from the Blues tonight. Edmundson will be rusty, Bouwmeester is playing like trash, it is Jerabek's first game, and the rest of the defense (not to mention the team defense and Allen) are not exactly on fire at the moment.

Combine that with coming off a long layoff (makes it harder to get into the flow of the game early), and lots of pressure on the Blues to win, and I expect a slow start with nervous play early. If Calgary can hold the Blues off the board for a little while or get a quick lead, it could get ugly.

On the other hand, an early goal for the Blues would likely do wonders for them. This feels like one of those games where that first goal is really going to be magnified in importance in terms of setting the tone for the game.

 

[EastonBlues22]

I don't really get the concern for Jerabek. He's 27 and he couldn't really establish himself in the NHL last year, and he was going to be waived out of camp this year by Edmonton of all teams. The Blues were the high (and probably only) bidder for him with a 6th round pick two years from now.

I hope he does well now that he's here, but realistically this is not a player who we should have high expectations for, or that we should be particularly excited about seeing in the Blues lineup. If he's in there, it probably means something is going wrong.

 

[blueper]

It's pretty hard to get excited about the 27 year old Jerebek who was not drafted ... Has been traded for a 5th rounder and later a 6th rounder which was sandwiched around not being re-signed by the Caps after losing out to a rookie after playing in 11 games. What are we really hoping to see in him that Montreal, Washington, and Edmonton didn't notice?
If he ends up being here for more than a couple months, something went wrong for other Blues dmen like major regression or serious injury. His presence on the Blues roster is puzzling. Somebody apparently saw something?
Hey Jakub, shock the world!
I hope the Blues play a really solid game tonight. Let's see the real Schwartz/Schenn, and Petro. And let's see Kyrou and Thomas do something that causes a double take or a DVR rewind.

 

[Dbrownss]

Yeah it really is a stupid play, and you know who it is not fair for....... Jerebek. If he came into the lineup because a player got hurt, then we would all let him try his best to hold the fort. Now this guy has to come in and play way better then Dunn is capable of playing. We all know how stupid Blues fans can be, hes going to be hated because Yeo cant seem to handle young players. I remember people booing Pronger because they love Shanahan so much. That is Chris freaking Pronger, arguably the best defenseman ever to play for the franchise..... Jerebek has no chance

Very good point. The guy is set up to fail in the eyes of irrational fans(me) lol.

 

[simon IC]

According to King's fans I have conversed with, Sutter is not necessarily a defense only coach. I also posted an article in another thread that dispelled the same notion about Tippet. Calling them either of them a "defensive dinosaur" or "Hitchcock 2.0" seems like hivemind to me.

 

[Evocable Manager]

Based on Hitchcock's level of success with the team, I'll gladly take "Hitch 2.0" over the shortsighted and contradicting coach we currently have.

So if that's what Sutter, Tippet or AV will turn out to be, sign me up.

 

[KirkOut]

I think we win big!

Al Hrabosky assured me that we are due

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

We are going the right direction with coaching in San Antonio by hiring Bannister. Hire a young guy who has started coaching in the new era, and not a relic who has to change his game to fit with where the game is going. Fans who play the "who should we get as coach" game, only stick to the list of former NHL coaches. Its like fans posted an ad on Career Builder "NHL head coach wanted, those without NHL head-coaching experience need not apply". Almost everybody that has head coaching experience is only available because someone else fired them, for probably a pretty good reason. And nobody else wanted them, also probably for a good reason. It's true that good coaches can get fired from one team and come back to win with another. But we are considerably narrowing our pool by only looking at those. Let's find the guy who we like his philosophy, has success t lower levels and just needs a shot at the NHL.

I agree with this. The problem is that most of us are far too ignorant of the up and coming options to really throw credible names out. Frankly Yeo is closer to the 'new generation' of coaches than an old retread. He happened to have had prior NHL head coaching experience, but his resume looks closer to a young guy.

Who is the next Mike Sullivan? (Maybe that's what the Blues need, mid-season firing and then the Cup.)

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

Yeah it really is a stupid play, and you know who it is not fair for....... Jerebek. If he came into the lineup because a player got hurt, then we would all let him try his best to hold the fort. Now this guy has to come in and play way better then Dunn is capable of playing. We all know how stupid Blues fans can be, hes going to be hated because Yeo cant seem to handle young players. I remember people booing Pronger because they love Shanahan so much. That is Chris freaking Pronger, arguably the best defenseman ever to play for the franchise..... Jerebek has no chance

And so begins the many career parallels of Jerabek with Chris Pronger. Eventually Jerabek is known as a beloved HOF Blues alumnus who was once booed for bumping Vince Dunn from the line-up. Later, he'll be traded for Eric Brewer.

 

[67Blues]

And so begins the many career parallels of Jerabek with Chris Pronger. Eventually Jerabek is known as a beloved HOF Blues alumnus who was once booed for bumping Vince Dunn from the line-up. Later, he'll be traded for Eric Brewer.

I hope JJ takes a high enough number that we don't have to rearrange the banners in the rafters.

 

[Reality Czech]

Not that I blame anyone -as I obviously share the sentiment- but it’s remarkable how quickly this team has ruined all the goodwill they built up over the offseason.

When you have a bunch of fickle fans with unrealistic opinions, what do you expect? How about not overreacting based on 2 games?

The Blues started off last year great and ended up missing the playoffs, so maybe the first couple of games don't really mean very much.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!

For the love of all things holy, let Jordan Schmaltz start a game! Eh?

 

[m1a2lt]

It's not that simple though. Good coaches teach the players when is the right time to push it going forward, and how to do it. Every time this club has tried to be aggressive offensively in recent times, it's led to disasters. That's an issue with Hitch's and Yeo's systems.

No argument here and that was the point; the current system has them being aggressive constantly without considering the second and third order effects...

 

[The Note]

When you have a bunch of fickle fans with unrealistic opinions, what do you expect? How about not overreacting based on 2 games?

The Blues started off last year great and ended up missing the playoffs, so maybe the first couple of games don't really mean very much.

I’d be inclined to agree more if the team wasn’t making all of the same mistakes that plagued the team last year. All the games count for 2 points. I’m not saying the year is over but it’s not like these games don’t matter.

 

[bleedblue1223]

No argument here and that was the point; the current system has them being aggressive constantly without considering the second and third order effects...

What I'm saying though is, you can be just as aggressive, you just need to be smart about. We don't just need to simply pull-back. Maybe I'm just misinterpreting the article though.

Point is, I don't want us to be any less aggressive, just smarter about when we push it forward.

 

[Itsnotatrap]

I think we win big!

Al Hrabosky assured me that we are due

Fabbri coming back will be like making a big trade without having to give anything up.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

No argument here and that was the point; the current system has them being aggressive constantly without considering the second and third order effects...

Does it? How do we know this? I took Yeo's 'shinny hockey' comment as the opposite. He feels players are not making intelligent choices about when to push it and when not to.

If it comes down to it, I'd rather err on the side of being offensively aggressive now, and then tighten up the play as we go along, rather than starting too conservatively and then trying to find offense.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

Fabbri coming back will be like making a big trade without having to give anything up.

Wrong thread. You're looking for last year's training camp thread.

I can't wait until we're talking about stuff Fabbri is doing in real games, and it matters. I want him to have some positive feedback for all this hard work, blood, sweat and frustration. But if I'm honest, anything he provides this season is just bonus in my eyes.

 

[m1a2lt]

What I'm saying though is, you can be just as aggressive, you just need to be smart about. We don't just need to simply pull-back. Maybe I'm just misinterpreting the article though.

Point is, I don't want us to be any less aggressive, just smarter about when we push it forward.

I guess I read the article differently. I read it as being systemic which, to me, is more on the coach, not the players. I also read the article as saying the Blues need to be smarter when being aggressive and more situationally aware instead of just pushing aggressiveness blindly in every situation, aka "wash-rinse-repeat".

 

[bleedblue1223]

I guess I read the article differently. I read it as being systemic which, to me, is more on the coach, not the players. I also read the article as saying the Blues need to be smarter when being aggressive and more situationally aware instead of just pushing aggressiveness blindly in every situation, aka "wash-rinse-repeat".

My concern is that Yeo will just revert back, play more turtle hockey, and kill creativity.