GDT: IT IS YOUR SAINT LOUIS BLUES HOME OPENER!!! (Ok, so there's a little amount of train.)

[ezcreepin]

It's sort of hard to explain the defense after these two games. They are doing a good job in the new structure and keeping those blatant back door passes/goals away, but they are still giving up some juicy chances. There were times today where the Seattle player had a wide open lane to the slot uncontested, but Binnington came up big. I worry about this trend continuing because at some point one or both of the goalies will get shelled and the team will crumble.

I feel like they are still getting hemmed in their own zone far too often because of bad breakouts, but I'm at least encouraged to see the new system is rectifying SOME problems (at least for now). It's pretty obvious though that this team is at least 2 pieces away defensively from being a problem in the playoffs. The forwards are a whole other story that we can touch on once we've played 10 games. It's gonna be a tough year if we are back to Hitchcock style games (without the great defense).

 

[Thallis]

It's sort of hard to explain the defense after these two games. They are doing a good job in the new structure and keeping those blatant back door passes/goals away, but they are still giving up some juicy chances. There were times today where the Seattle player had a wide open lane to the slot uncontested, but Binnington came up big. I worry about this trend continuing because at some point one or both of the goalies will get shelled and the team will crumble.

I feel like they are still getting hemmed in their own zone far too often because of bad breakouts, but I'm at least encouraged to see the new system is rectifying SOME problems (at least for now). It's pretty obvious though that this team is at least 2 pieces away defensively from being a problem in the playoffs. The forwards are a whole other story that we can touch on once we've played 10 games. It's gonna be a tough year if we are back to Hitchcock style games (without the great defense).

Yeah I noticed the same. The shot charts show that we're really not stopping dangerous chances in tight, we're just getting bailed out by Binnington. We're also getting forechecked forever and coughing up pucks in the corners which is leading to getting hemmed in for long periods and preventing our transition game from doing anything. Rivers keeps trying to spin this as a positive, but we're going to break down if this is the what successful hockey is supposed to look like for this team.

 

[Majorityof1]

Just finished watching. Good, bad and ugly again...

Good
- Binnington - Not much to say here. He was solid both games. Rest him this season. Even if it costs us points when he's on the bench, he can win us points when rested.
- Bounce back game from Scandella. He was a bad last game. I thought he looked good out there this game. Nothing special, but that's what you want out of him
- Blais looking good. Those moves were awesome on that one play in the third, More importantly he is hitting people, recovering pucks, winning battles, just good hard noised hockey. I want him on the top line if Buch is out. Give them someone to create some space and retrieve some pucks.
- Overall, I think we looked better than last game.
- O-zone time - We actually had o-zone time and sustained pressure....

Bad
-That we did nothing with. Skating around the perimiter with the puck on your back-hand isn't pressure. It's just killing time.
- PP - Aren't we supposed to benefit from having PP specialist and #1 PP QB in the history of all mankind Tory Krug on our team. Why does our PP look like trash?
- 4th line - Sunny can't carry those two waste of spaces on his wings. They are big and Sunny is old. Give Alexandrov a try.

Ugly
3v3 OT- Shouldn't we eventually get an exciting play after you reset the zone 27 times. It was literally watching people slowly skate in circles for 90+ seconds. Oh my was that boring.

 

[ezcreepin]

Yeah I noticed the same. The shot charts show that we're really not stopping dangerous chances in tight, we're just getting bailed out by Binnington. We're also getting forechecked forever and coughing up pucks in the corners which is leading to getting hemmed in for long periods and preventing our transition game from doing anything. Rivers keeps trying to spin this as a positive, but we're going to break down if this is the what successful hockey is supposed to look like for this team.

Like you can see some structure to what's going on, but the same problems we had last year are happening again this year, except we aren't scoring like we did (it's only 2 games). I really don't know what needs to happen for this team to be able to break up forechecking plays from the opposition, I just know they need to start doing that otherwise this team is going to break down hard.

 

[Thallis]

Like you can see some structure to what's going on, but the same problems we had last year are happening again this year, except we aren't scoring like we did (it's only 2 games). I really don't know what needs to happen for this team to be able to break up forechecking plays from the opposition, I just know they need to start doing that otherwise this team is going to break down hard.

Part of this issue is the box + 1 lets that happen by design. Your players aren't supposed to be chasing behind the net or too far out since that's what leaves gaps. We need our defenders to retrieve the puck and beat forecheckers basically on their own. It works for Vegas because they have the personnel. Our bottom 3 specifically have been eaten alive in these two games because they can't do that.

 

[GoldenSeal]

D and Binny are carrying the team nicely. Not perfect but we’re going somewhere. Binny’s bringing his A game for sure.

Offense needs to start bringing daggers and making their opponent pay dearly for any opportunity. Like to see Kyrou - Vrana- Thomas on a line together. When we break through, we need to kill. Stronger D groups are going to take advantage of us and we need to make every opportunity count.

 

[BuLLeT1291]

Every year… never seems to fail..

Why I get on here and read the scorched earth hot takes after 120 minutes of regular season hockey is beyond me. It’s been 2 games…

 

[Majorityof1]

Every year… never seems to fail..

Why I get on here and read the scorched earth hot takes after 120 minutes of regular season hockey is beyond me. It’s been 2 games…

Where are the scorched earth hot takes? Can't people discuss the team and areas where we might need to improve? We all know its been 2 games. You can still discuss how the team has looked after 2 games, and that discussion can have critiques. Unless few posters I have on ignore are being very negative, I am not seeing the scorched earth hot takes.

 

[BlueDream]

Wow.
And here I am somewhat encouraged by this. Dallas and Seattle aren't pushovers. They were both 100 point teams last year. Both had top 10 offenses and top 12 defenses.

And we hung with them. Wasn't pretty, but we weren't outclassed. And we're a team with no confidence after last year's debacle still trying to establish our chemistry and identity.

The big thing for me is that we held last years #6 and #7 offenses to 1 goal each. That is a huge improvement for our defense.

Given how last season went, I'll take it. Give the team some time to gel and I think we're pretty clearly a PO team(not a contender, but we should definitely get in). Provided the wheels don't fall off.

The defense absolutely did NOT hold them to one goal. Binnington did.

The defensive structure is better than last season but to be fair, it couldn’t have gotten worse.

We’re 0-2 if Binnington wasn’t standing on his head.

I don’t think Seattle is even good. Yeah they made the playoffs last season but they’re one of my picks to regress and miss the playoffs this year.

I’m just tired of getting continuously outshot and outplayed. If we can’t outplay Seattle at home then this team isn’t very good. They’re a first round exit if they happen to make the playoffs. I find it hard to be encouraged about mediocrity. I know it’s 2 games but they are not going to be that much better than last season given the personnel we have.

 

[BleedBlue14]

Pros in my mind is it looks like to a degree Kyrou and Thomas are focusing on playing in their own end better.

I know the season is young, but man we have got to clean up the passing. Seems like most breakouts are not clean and then the whole play gets jumbled up. Especially on the powerplay. Usually a sign of a bad team, but I’ll reserve hope it’s just knocking the rust off.

 

[Reality Czech]

Maybe build some Binnington Trade value.

Why would you want to trade Binnington? So we can maybe save a million or so for someone who's probably not even an upgrade? He's been our best player the first two games easily. Zero chance Binner is traded any time soon.

Every year… never seems to fail..

Why I get on here and read the scorched earth hot takes after 120 minutes of regular season hockey is beyond me. It’s been 2 games…

Yep, the players are still rusty but complaining fans are in midseason form.

 

[Frenzy31]

Just finished watching. Good, bad and ugly again...

Good
- Binnington - Not much to say here. He was solid both games. Rest him this season. Even if it costs us points when he's on the bench, he can win us points when rested.
- Bounce back game from Scandella. He was a bad last game. I thought he looked good out there this game. Nothing special, but that's what you want out of him
- Blais looking good. Those moves were awesome on that one play in the third, More importantly he is hitting people, recovering pucks, winning battles, just good hard noised hockey. I want him on the top line if Buch is out. Give them someone to create some space and retrieve some pucks.
- Overall, I think we looked better than last game.
- O-zone time - We actually had o-zone time and sustained pressure....

Bad
-That we did nothing with. Skating around the perimiter with the puck on your back-hand isn't pressure. It's just killing time.
- PP - Aren't we supposed to benefit from having PP specialist and #1 PP QB in the history of all mankind Tory Krug on our team. Why does our PP look like trash?
- 4th line - Sunny can't carry those two waste of spaces on his wings. They are big and Sunny is old. Give Alexandrov a try.

Ugly
3v3 OT- Shouldn't we eventually get an exciting play after you reset the zone 27 times. It was literally watching people slowly skate in circles for 90+ seconds. Oh my was that boring.

I would put the PP as ugly. But I disagree with your 4th line take completely. Neighbors has been fine and so has Topo. Sunny is the one that doeasn‘t look like he should be on the ice. Sunny has looked like complete garbage.

That line gets pinned in their own zone because those two have to carry around a corpse.

 

[Moose and Squirrel]

Seattles GDT thread had 15 whole posts lol

 

[542365]

Shot attempts against our 4th line are 24-3 in favor of the opposition in the first two games. Alexandrov needs to play next game for one of those three. Vrana-Hayes-Blais, on the other hand, has out attempted opponents 16-3 the first two games.

 

[Moose and Squirrel]

Shot attempts against our 4th line are 24-3 in favor of the opposition in the first two games. Alexandrov needs to play next game for one of those three. Vrana-Hayes-Blais, on the other hand, has out attempted opponents 16-3 the first two games.

that line has been surprisingly effective

 

[TheDizee]

Shot attempts against our 4th line are 24-3 in favor of the opposition in the first two games. Alexandrov needs to play next game for one of those three. Vrana-Hayes-Blais, on the other hand, has out attempted opponents 16-3 the first two games.

neighbors needs to go to the AHL where he can get more and quality minutes.

Pros in my mind is it looks like to a degree Kyrou and Thomas are focusing on playing in their own end better.

I know the season is young, but man we have got to clean up the passing. Seems like most breakouts are not clean and then the whole play gets jumbled up. Especially on the powerplay. Usually a sign of a bad team, but I’ll reserve hope it’s just knocking the rust off.

Kyrou had a excellent game last night. He used his speed to defend and it paid off on their goal. If Kyrou plays like he did last night, I will stop ripping him every night.

 

[Majorityof1]

I would put the PP as ugly. But I disagree with your 4th line take completely. Neighbors has been fine and so has Topo. Sunny is the one that doeasn‘t look like he should be on the ice. Sunny has looked like complete garbage.

That line gets pinned in their own zone because those two have to carry around a corpse.

Sunny looked noticeably worse last game, but I thought he was effective in the first game. Torop looked better in the 2nd game, but was bad in the first. You could convince me I am just being hard on Toropchenko because of how much I dislike him. But Neighbours is by far the worst forward on the team after 2 games, and its not even close.

Based on the eye test, he has been awful. He hasn't had a good shot attempt, not helped create one. He hasn't won board battles and retrieved loose pucks. On defense he is noticeably behind the play. IF you want to know where Neighbours is on the ice, look where the puck was 5 seconds ago.

His advanced stats are worst on the team among forwards. CF% dead last. xGF% last except for Buchnevich who missed almost all of the 2nd game where the team had better xGF%. Scoring chances for % he is 13.3%. 2nd worst is over double that at 30%. His iCF/60 he is dead last and second worst is double him. His individual scoring chances are dead last as well, because he has 0. Only player not to have one. Shots against per 60, worse only to Sunny who was put out in a lot more defensive situations in the 2nd game when they shuffled the lines without Buch.

Sunny's stats as a team are pretty bad too. But he has individual scoring chances, he PKs, and he has won some battles and made some good D plays. I can't say the same about Neighbours. The big take away is that they are awful together. Their WoWy stats have both much, much better when away from each other. Which makes sense because they by definition have to be playing with better players.

 

[TheDizee]

Sunny looked noticeably worse last game, but I thought he was effective in the first game. Torop looked better in the 2nd game, but was bad in the first. You could convince me I am just being hard on Toropchenko because of how much I dislike him. But Neighbours is by far the worst forward on the team after 2 games, and its not even close.

Based on the eye test, he has been awful. He hasn't had a good shot attempt, not helped create one. He hasn't won board battles and retrieved loose pucks. On defense he is noticeably behind the play. IF you want to know where Neighbours is on the ice, look where the puck was 5 seconds ago.

His advanced stats are worst on the team among forwards. CF% dead last. xGF% last except for Buchnevich who missed almost all of the 2nd game where the team had better xGF%. Scoring chances for % he is 13.3%. 2nd worst is over double that at 30%. His iCF/60 he is dead last and second worst is double him. His individual scoring chances are dead last as well, because he has 0. Only player not to have one. Shots against per 60, worse only to Sunny who was put out in a lot more defensive situations in the 2nd game when they shuffled the lines without Buch.

Sunny's stats as a team are pretty bad too. But he has individual scoring chances, he PKs, and he has won some battles and made some good D plays. I can't say the same about Neighbours. The big take away is that they are awful together. Their WoWy stats have both much, much better when away from each other. Which makes sense because they by definition have to be playing with better players.

Neighbors is not even close to being a NHL player atm. Hopefully he turns it around somehow,

 

[BadgersandBlues]

The NHL needs to implement a lacrosse style rule where once you carry the puck into the offensive zone, you can't bring it back out again or they blow the whistle and have a faceoff in your teams defensive zone (As in the faceoff is at the other end of the rink). 3v3 was incredible when it first started, but now teams just do that bullshit regroup (Blues included) and it's painful to watch.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

It just occurred to me that this season could get really fun for me if Binnington was a serious Vezina contender all year, out of the blue. It would bug some people around the league like nothing else. If the Blues aren't going to be a contender, and they don't have any exciting young players cracking the line-up yet, I'd love to see Jordan upset the apple cart with a magical season.

The NHL needs to implement a lacrosse style rule where once you carry the puck into the offensive zone, you can't bring it back out again or they blow the whistle and have a faceoff in your teams defensive zone (As in the faceoff is at the other end of the rink). 3v3 was incredible when it first started, but now teams just do that bullshit regroup (Blues included) and it's painful to watch.

This is a good idea.

 

[Blueston]

Part of this issue is the box + 1 lets that happen by design. Your players aren't supposed to be chasing behind the net or too far out since that's what leaves gaps. We need our defenders to retrieve the puck and beat forecheckers basically on their own. It works for Vegas because they have the personnel. Our bottom 3 specifically have been eaten alive in these two games because they can't do that.

That is key to defense in todays nhl. Need to be able to if you are gonna prosper.

 

[MissouriMook]

The NHL needs to implement a lacrosse style rule where once you carry the puck into the offensive zone, you can't bring it back out again or they blow the whistle and have a faceoff in your teams defensive zone (As in the faceoff is at the other end of the rink). 3v3 was incredible when it first started, but now teams just do that bullshit regroup (Blues included) and it's painful to watch.

I want as much chaos as possible, so I would suggest that the rule should be that if the attacking team carries or plays the puck out of the offensive zone, they should be unable to return to the offensive zone until their goalie has played the puck. Treat it as an intentional offside (with the faceoff in the defensive zone as you suggested) if they fail to do so.

At that point, the strategy forces the decision to either (1) do a full reset in their end and allow the other team to change and face their forecheck, or (2) have the goalie stray far from the net to play the puck to keep the pressure on the other team. It would certainly provide an advantage for teams whose goalies are good at handling the puck.

 

[finnishflash13]

Neighbors is not even close to being a NHL player atm. Hopefully he turns it around somehow,

part of the problem is that they don't have anyone else who can be that last 4th liner forward. walker isn't any better. prob time to see what alexandrov can do on that line.

 

[Brian39]

Binner was once again very good, but I don't agree with the notion that he stole 2 points or was the only reason we won. The D did a pretty pretty good job limiting chances and all in all this was a fairly evenly played game. I'd give the edge to Seattle, but not by a wide margin. Single-game advanced stats are far from perfect, but Natural Stat Trick had xGF% as basically dead even at both 5 on 5 and all situations. We held them to 2.06 xGF per 60 at both 5 on 5 and even strength, which was their lowest of the season.

Binner bailed out our offense that only managed 1 goal, but he didn't bail out the defense. That was a good defensive effort. Not great, but absolutely good. Daccord had a nice night for Seattle, although he wasn't tested quite as much as Binner.

I want to see Vrana on the top PP unit instead of Schenn. I think Vrana is a much bigger threat to score on a quick shot from the hash marks than Schenn is. I think swapping them makes the PP more dangerous. I also think that plunking Vrana on the right wall and giving Buch the net front presence currently occupied by Schenn would increase the danger of our PP. Right now our only clear one-time threat when Krug has the puck on the blue line is Kyrou to his left. Having a one-time threat in both directions would keep teams a bit more honest and hopefully open up some room for Thomas and Buch to find space in the center of the ice. I understand wanting to have a 2nd center on the ice in case Thomas gets tossed, but Schenn isn't great on the dot and his 45% or so at the circle the handful of times Thomas gets tossed isn't worth what his presence on the unit does to the rest of the group. Obviously we're talking about a very small sample, but 0 for 7 on the PP to start the year is far from ideal.

 

[Xerloris]

Binner was once again very good, but I don't agree with the notion that he stole 2 points or was the only reason we won. The D did a pretty pretty good job limiting chances and all in all this was a fairly evenly played game. I'd give the edge to Seattle, but not by a wide margin. Single-game advanced stats are far from perfect, but Natural Stat Trick had xGF% as basically dead even at both 5 on 5 and all situations. We held them to 2.06 xGF per 60 at both 5 on 5 and even strength, which was their lowest of the season.

Binner bailed out our offense that only managed 1 goal, but he didn't bail out the defense. That was a good defensive effort. Not great, but absolutely good. Daccord had a nice night for Seattle, although he wasn't tested quite as much as Binner.

I want to see Vrana on the top PP unit instead of Schenn. I think Vrana is a much bigger threat to score on a quick shot from the hash marks than Schenn is. I think swapping them makes the PP more dangerous. I also think that plunking Vrana on the right wall and giving Buch the net front presence currently occupied by Schenn would increase the danger of our PP. Right now our only clear one-time threat when Krug has the puck on the blue line is Kyrou to his left. Having a one-time threat in both directions would keep teams a bit more honest and hopefully open up some room for Thomas and Buch to find space in the center of the ice. I understand wanting to have a 2nd center on the ice in case Thomas gets tossed, but Schenn isn't great on the dot and his 45% or so at the circle the handful of times Thomas gets tossed isn't worth what his presence on the unit does to the rest of the group. Obviously we're talking about a very small sample, but 0 for 7 on the PP to start the year is far from ideal.

Excuse me but Schenn is a PP specialist or haven't you heard?