Post-Game Talk: GM 43: Blues def. Canucks - 2-1 (Shootout)

[Canucker]

Was a good game to watch.. Definitely had the playoff animosity but I felt the Blues were allowed to get away with a couple too many penalties that should've been called.

The Canucks got away with a number of penalties themselves...it was poorly officiated but it was pretty fair.

 

[BrandonL]

yup, I played both online and with my friend.

Lost my online bets, but won my friends one

Where do you bet online that would grade your St. Louis bet as a loss for a shootout victory?

 

[LiquidSnake]

wow Backes states the obvious.

Easy comeback that Kassian needs to learn.

"Your girl likes it".

 

[ProstheticConscience]

Missed what Shattenkirk said can someone fill me in?

"Boo hoo hoo, waah waah waah...they say nasty things on the ice, so I'll moan to a tv camera after the game when I don't have to worry about getting my head kicked in. It's the Canucks, so it's okay."

Paraphrasing, but you get the idea.

The fact that you wrote a multi-paragraph post because you're so convinced that your hockey team couldn't POSSIBLY trash talk is absurd and delusional. You don't have to irrationally jump into a Johnnie Cochran impression every time someone possibly implies your team isn't the most stoic force in the universe. Guys chirp, they did it all game, it continued into a shootout. You don't need to enlist Gil Grissom to do a frame by frame analysis and DNA testing to conclude who chirped first.

Everyone trash-talks. Whoop-de-do. Welcome to the NHL. Thanks for stopping by.

------------------------------------------------------------

Well, that was not encouraging. I realize we're missing important pieces and our idiot coach refuses to put the lines together in a sensible way, but I did NOT like that one. Scratch me off the list of people who want a Canucks/Blues playoff series. Every bloody game will be 1-0, 2-1, overtime periods all over the place, and even assuming the Canucks come out on top half the team will be so banged up they would barely be able to move.

+ Special teams. PP finally reappearing despite AV refusing to bow to the obvious and PUT GARRISON ON THE FIRST UNIT!!! PK streak now up to...25 was it?

+ Alberts and Ballard. Both stepped up big-time. No idea why Burrows jumped on Backes when he and Ballard we ready to drop the gloves and go. Stupid, stupid move.

+ Edler actually threw a few tiny little hits! My God! Is the old Edler still in there somewhere? He reminds me of an amnesia victim who still gets puzzling flashes of his former instincts and starts doing things without realizing why.

+ Schneider. Game's over long before the SO without him.

+ Kesler. Massive plus for the battle level, but I'm really getting sick of the extracurriculars. Just bloody play...

- Barker. I thought Bieksa was having trouble in his own zone. How little did I know. Get better soon, Kev. And Tanev.

- Raymond, Weise, Sestito (did he even play?). Obvious. Weren't Raymond and Weise supposed to be fast? Like they were playing in quicksand all night.

- PLAY IN OWN END FOR THE MILLIONTH TIME. Granted, the Blues were great on the forecheck and playing the full tenacious Hitchcock hockey, but c'mon. When every bloody team you play gives you the same problems, it means YOU are the problem.

- Ebbett. Not as bad as some seem to think, but still not good.

- Roy and Kesler on the same line. We got another centre for a reason AV, you idiot.

Meh. Here's to hoping the Hawks draw them first.

 

[Apple Juice]

In overtime i forget who for the blues just nudged him and he went flying into the boards, and they casually skated away with the puck.

It was Roman Polak.... That looked like a hit you would see on NHL 13 hah

 

[RobertKron]

At two minute mark, backes asks if he's ----ing going bald.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=MMFJ8-2GSHM#!

Which is funny since Backes' hairline is making a strategic retreat of its own.

 

[Free Edler]

Which is funny since Backes' hairline is making a strategic retreat of its own.

I'm sure Kelly won't mind. I hear she's a great girl. Probably stick by her man through thick and thin-ning hair.

 

[biturbo19]

In overtime i forget who for the blues just nudged him and he went flying into the boards, and they casually skated away with the puck.

I lol'd pretty hard at that. My first thought was...'why on earth is Ebbett out there in OT?' He then skates right toward the boards, picks up the puck, and is promptly brushed aside with a casual shove. Poor guy, have to admire the effort and he just pops right back up time and again. But he really needs to not be on this team come playoffs, or in a minimal 4th line role at most.

That's a pretty shocking comment 2bh, Kassian was absolutely invisible tonight, even with that small scrum, he had ONE hit no shots in 12 min of ice time, in a Playoff style physical game.

He is not getting the message right now.

Yeah, a game like this, is exactly the sort of time where we need Kassian to step up and be a physical force for us. Didn't really see it tonight, and Raymond was the only player on that line who managed to be even remotely effective in clearing the puck out of our own zone. Kassian was running around like an idiot, and Ebbett was getting shoved out of the way constantly.

Backes on being taken down by third-man burrows: "It seems like an injustice to me. I wasn't real happy with that play.

That was a stupendously stupid play by Burrows. I have no clue what he was even trying to do there, but it was just stupid. Let Ballard and Backes go, take Backes off the ice for 5 mins. Don't jump in like a chicken**** from behind and put us down an extra man.

"Boo hoo hoo, waah waah waah...they say nasty things on the ice, so I'll moan to a tv camera after the game when I don't have to worry about getting my head kicked in. It's the Canucks, so it's okay."

Paraphrasing, but you get the idea.



Everyone trash-talks. Whoop-de-do. Welcome to the NHL. Thanks for stopping by.

------------------------------------------------------------

Well, that was not encouraging. I realize we're missing important pieces and our idiot coach refuses to put the lines together in a sensible way, but I did NOT like that one. Scratch me off the list of people who want a Canucks/Blues playoff series. Every bloody game will be 1-0, 2-1, overtime periods all over the place, and even assuming the Canucks come out on top half the team will be so banged up they would barely be able to move.

+ Special teams. PP finally reappearing despite AV refusing to bow to the obvious and PUT GARRISON ON THE FIRST UNIT!!! PK streak now up to...25 was it?

+ Alberts and Ballard. Both stepped up big-time. No idea why Burrows jumped on Backes when he and Ballard we ready to drop the gloves and go. Stupid, stupid move.

+ Edler actually threw a few tiny little hits! My God! Is the old Edler still in there somewhere? He reminds me of an amnesia victim who still gets puzzling flashes of his former instincts and starts doing things without realizing why.

+ Schneider. Game's over long before the SO without him.

+ Kesler. Massive plus for the battle level, but I'm really getting sick of the extracurriculars. Just bloody play...

- Barker. I thought Bieksa was having trouble in his own zone. How little did I know. Get better soon, Kev. And Tanev.

- Raymond, Weise, Sestito (did he even play?). Obvious. Weren't Raymond and Weise supposed to be fast? Like they were playing in quicksand all night.

- PLAY IN OWN END FOR THE MILLIONTH TIME. Granted, the Blues were great on the forecheck and playing the full tenacious Hitchcock hockey, but c'mon. When every bloody team you play gives you the same problems, it means YOU are the problem.

- Ebbett. Not as bad as some seem to think, but still not good.

- Roy and Kesler on the same line. We got another centre for a reason AV, you idiot.

Meh. Here's to hoping the Hawks draw them first.

Good summary. Agree on pretty much everything. Especially:

-That stupid play with Burrows jumping Backes while he was ready to drop 'em with Ballard. Just really bad. I was honestly embarrassed for Burrows there, not to mention it put us a man down, instead of taking Backes off for 5 mins.

-Barker. What a clueless defender all around. If he's in the lineup come playoff time, we're going to have serious problems.

-Edler actually showing some flashes of the good Edler we've been waiting for!

-On Roy+Kesler on the same line...yeah. It's one step forward, two steps back sort of thing really. Ebbett (or even Schroeder) centering the 3rd line negates any small advantage to having Roy out there with Kesler. Just not at all worth it.


Disagree on a few things though. In particular:

-Thought Raymond actually had a decent game all things considered. He was consistently the only guy on that line who looked like he had the slightest clue how to get the puck out of zone. Skated the puck from deep in our end out of a firedrill to the offensive zone multiple times, after Ebbett and Kassian generated all kinds of trainwreck defensively. And actually made a few nice plays on top of that...though completely wasted on his linemates.

-re: AV not 'doing the obvious' and putting Garrison on the 1st unit. He's been tried there, it doesn't work. It's largely a waste of his abilities. Works much better on the 2nd unit where he can be the focal point, rather than the Twins and Kesler. You also don't have him firing pucks indiscriminately towards our 3 most important players around the net.

 

[Vankiller Whale]

Tanev needs to get healthy and Schroeder should replace Ebbett.

 

[Jyrki]

-re: AV not 'doing the obvious' and putting Garrison on the 1st unit. He's been tried there, it doesn't work. It's largely a waste of his abilities. Works much better on the 2nd unit where he can be the focal point, rather than the Twins and Kesler. You also don't have him firing pucks indiscriminately towards our 3 most important players around the net.

Agreed so much. We should deploy JG with the Twins + Kesler on a 5 on 3, though.

 

[604]

The Canucks got away with a number of penalties themselves...it was poorly officiated but it was pretty fair.

I hope we adjust to the reffing level fast, it's pretty clear you can hit a guy hard up to 3 second after they release the puck so we need our bangers taking runs regardless of if we get there in time.

I think a big problem last year is the refs put their whistles away and we complained rather than took advantage of it.

 

[pahlsson]

yeah wtf was burrows thinking there, all of a sudden decided to play linesman

 

[Canucks LB]

Where do you bet online that would grade your St. Louis bet as a loss for a shootout victory?

huh?

 

[604]

interesting considering no bookie gives out 'wins' on shoot outs. It would be considered a tie. I guess it was a private bet?

That's not true at all.

 

[mizzoublues29]

I'm going to disagree with this. Why the **** would canucks players be chirping the shootout shooters on the other team after they just scored? No, it makes much more sense sense for the person to score to be the one that chirps a bench to rub salt in the wound. I also say this because I haven't really seen any games where the canucks were involved in things like this in other shootouts. Players generally keep their mouths shut after a team scores on them in the shootout. Much more likely to be started by the blues players after they scored their shootout goals.

I could see the canucks mouthing off to blues shootout players if they did a really embarrassing shootout moved and messed up, but not after a blues' player scored. I'm just saying that during the shootout that the blues probably started it. I'm not saying that the canucks wouldn't respond though.

He has to skate by that bench, and I'm sure he gave them a look...and all it takes is one "**** you" or "**** off" to set everything off and it just goes from there. Again, I'm not claiming that McDonald or Steen are totally innocent...but it's damn near impossible that the 'Nucks bench was silent as he skates by. It's irrelevant who 'started' it...it goes on throughout the game so much that it doesn't even matter.

I'm not sure how much time you've spent in a rink, but it's the nature of the game and it never goes away...even in defeat. It's the "we're not going away" message. And with as physical and intense as that game was, there's no doubt that some of it was going on. I have nothing against it, personally...I'm a fan of it.

What I'm getting at, is that it should be a non-issue. I didn't come in here to rant about how the Blues are innocent and would never dare engage in such behavior, because like the 29 other NHL teams, that's not the case. I'm just trying to point out that both parties are probably just as guilty as one another. It's what makes rivalries and emotional games more entertaining.

 

[LiquidSnake]

I feel Kassian is just petrified to make a hit or take a chance because he risks getting benched or scratched. There's plenty of times he's passed on the hit and just skated hard back down the ice.

I think the older he gets, the more AV (if he's around) will let him play his game.

I feel a guy like Babcock would optimize this guys' potential.

 

[Free Edler]

I feel Kassian is just petrified to make a hit or take a chance because he risks getting benched or scratched. There's plenty of times he's passed on the hit and just skated hard back down the ice.

I think the older he gets, the more AV (if he's around) will let him play his game.

I feel a guy like Babcock would optimize this guys' potential.

Yup. With how AV structures his icetime, if Kassian screws up, his butt is welded to the bench. Not really the best way for a young player to develop, but I'm sure I'm in the wrong here, as many have pointed out, AV has helped develop so many good young players while coaching this team.

 

[jigsaw99]

I feel Kassian is just petrified to make a hit or take a chance because he risks getting benched or scratched. There's plenty of times he's passed on the hit and just skated hard back down the ice.

I think the older he gets, the more AV (if he's around) will let him play his game.

I feel a guy like Babcock would optimize this guys' potential.

I actually perfer that he plays smart with his hits. lots of player just do the Darcy Hordichuk and go and hit everything even and put themselves too far away from the play just to collect hit stats. Kassian hits when the opportunity is there and back check hard instead of putting himself out of the play.

 

[EpochLink]

No barker in the playoffs

I beg of you

 

[jigsaw99]

No barker in the playoffs

I beg of you

but he gives us the "best chance to win" according to AV.

 

[604]

There is also a reason why no one outside of Vancouver thinks this team is going to do anything in the playoffs.

Well, to be fair, were 3rd favorites in the West, 6th overall on most being sites. Which isn't bad.

Personally I have us at 4th in my capping (ahead of ANA + MTL who are generally ranked higher than us) with no team having even a 20% chance of winning...so we are pretty much as valid a choice as anyone except a healthy PIT (who still only have a 20% chance IMO).

 

[biturbo19]

I feel Kassian is just petrified to make a hit or take a chance because he risks getting benched or scratched. There's plenty of times he's passed on the hit and just skated hard back down the ice.

I think the older he gets, the more AV (if he's around) will let him play his game.

I feel a guy like Babcock would optimize this guys' potential.

Much of the time, the Wings have preached passing up the 'big hit' when it takes you out of 'position'. I really like Babcock as a coach, but i doubt he'd magically be able to flip some switch with Kassian.

I think that kind of 'killer instinct' is something that some players have, others don't. It can be emphasized at times, with proper coaching and situation. But i'm really starting to wonder if Kassian has it...or if he's more of a Dustin Penner type, who needs constant prodding and reminders that he's huge, and he needs to use his size out on the ice to be effective.

It's like, when Kassian goes through outbursts of physical play...it's as though he's doing it because that's what coach told him to do or yelled at him about.

A guy like Backes tonight...? You get the sense he does it just because he wants to. That's how he likes to play the game.

 

[StringerBell]

Yup. With how AV structures his icetime, if Kassian screws up, his butt is welded to the bench. Not really the best way for a young player to develop, but I'm sure I'm in the wrong here, as many have pointed out, AV has helped develop so many good young players while coaching this team.

I don't doubt AV's ability to develop players, but I doubt his ability to develop power forwards.

 

[Nuck Bonino]

Kassian may still be battling that back injury

 

[Lundface*]

Much of the time, the Wings have preached passing up the 'big hit' when it takes you out of 'position'. I really like Babcock as a coach, but i doubt he'd magically be able to flip some switch with Kassian.

I think that kind of 'killer instinct' is something that some players have, others don't. It can be emphasized at times, with proper coaching and situation. But i'm really starting to wonder if Kassian has it...or if he's more of a Dustin Penner type, who needs constant prodding and reminders that he's huge, and he needs to use his size out on the ice to be effective.

It's like, when Kassian goes through outbursts of physical play...it's as though he's doing it because that's what coach told him to do or yelled at him about.

A guy like Backes tonight...? You get the sense he does it just because he wants to. That's how he likes to play the game.

Have you watched Kassian throughout his junior career???? He is being neutered here for whatever reason. Wait till Kassian is a man and not some kid, see how many of these guys want to mess with him.