GDT: WCQF - Game 5 : Blues @ Wild

[BlueDream]

Imagine an LA-Dallas 2nd round though….that would be f***ing brutal.

 

[TheDizee]

Imagine an LA-Dallas 2nd round though….that would be f***ing brutal.

thats why i wanted to play in the pacific bracket. if you get past cgy, its a second round matchup where you wont have home ice but are still a massive favorite. nashville has to really be kicking themselves now.

the playoff format used now is stupid and punishes teams in good divisions and rewards shitty teams in shitty divisions.

 

[Reality Czech]

Hell of a win. Going on the road with so many injuries, the Blues had to be considered a big underdog going into Minnesota but our boys played a nearly perfect game. Shows the character and leadership of this group to respond in such a definitive way. A few shout outs:

Kyrou: He can be frustrating at times, but his talent has kept us alive in this series. Great stuff from the kid these past two games and he even made at least one great defensive play that I can recall offhand.

Perron/ROR: Kept the team afloat while the other lines struggled to score. These guys have brought it every night and reminding people what true playoff performers look like.

Faulk/Parayko: What can really be said? Co-MVPs of the series so far considering the heavy load they are taking on.

Perunovich: Came out looking sharper than last game and was very assertive on that first PP. He's got a good head on his shoulders and is showing me a lot with his play.

Tarasenko: Better late than never! We cannot win this series getting all of our offense from 3 guys, but Vladi came up big when we needed him most.

Binner: Looks like he is locked in and as confident as can be. Ya love to see it.

The Blues better not relax even a little bit because the Wild will be pushing hard next game and will be pissed off. I expect we will finally see Talbot for similar reasons the Blues went to Binner in Game 4, and I don't read much into his recent stats against the Blues. If we can beat them 5-on-5 like we did last night, then we should be able to close it out in 6 but no way in hell I wanna go back to Minny for Game 7. Get er done, boys!

 

[execwrite1]

Brilliant the way they are using Perunovich. Not sold yet on his whole game but he's great on the PP. He's stepped right in to Krug's spot on the point.

Fantastic win by the boys. One for the books.

Let's Go Blues!!

 

[execwrite1]

Key to victory - Chief's blue and gold tie.

 

[Zezel’s Pretzels]

Perron game 1, Kyrou game 4, Vladi game 5.

Game 6 offense is going to come from Buch and/or Thomas. It’s going to be their turn to pick up their games.

 

[Linkens Mastery]

I want to go to game 6 so bad lol

I want to go to game 6 so bad lol

 

[Chet Manly]

I did not see the Oilers imploding to the Kings of all teams

Kempe with the troll celly.

Loved it.

 

[Eldon Reid]

Hell of a win. Going on the road with so many injuries, the Blues had to be considered a big underdog going into Minnesota but our boys played a nearly perfect game. Shows the character and leadership of this group to respond in such a definitive way. A few shout outs:

Kyrou: He can be frustrating at times, but his talent has kept us alive in this series. Great stuff from the kid these past two games and he even made at least one great defensive play that I can recall offhand.

Perron/ROR: Kept the team afloat while the other lines struggled to score. These guys have brought it every night and reminding people what true playoff performers look like.

Faulk/Parayko: What can really be said? Co-MVPs of the series so far considering the heavy load they are taking on.

Perunovich: Came out looking sharper than last game and was very assertive on that first PP. He's got a good head on his shoulders and is showing me a lot with his play.

Tarasenko: Better late than never! We cannot win this series getting all of our offense from 3 guys, but Vladi came up big when we needed him most.

Binner: Looks like he is locked in and as confident as can be. Ya love to see it.

The Blues better not relax even a little bit because the Wild will be pushing hard next game and will be pissed off. I expect we will finally see Talbot for similar reasons the Blues went to Binner in Game 4, and I don't read much into his recent stats against the Blues. If we can beat them 5-on-5 like we did last night, then we should be able to close it out in 6 but no way in hell I wanna go back to Minny for Game 7. Get er done, boys!

Brilliant the way they are using Perunovich. Not sold yet on his whole game but he's great on the PP. He's stepped right in to Krug's spot on the point.

Fantastic win by the boys. One for the books.

Let's Go Blues!!

Honestly I'm happy playing 11/7 with Perunovich out there. He is good enough on the PP to take some of those minutes off of Faulk/Leddy. I've been happy with that move since they have done it.

 

[Sgt Schultz]

I watched this game, but had a "computer off" night. I agree with almost everything I read in the last 3 pages of this thread (not reading all 34).

I was almost smelling a loss after the first. It was not that we played all that poorly, but it just did not seem to be our night and the Wild were locked in on being physical.

Things were looking up after the second. Obviously, the Saad tip-in helped, but even so the physical stuff was not having much of an impact. The ESPN announcers were talking about the impact of Binner playing the puck behind the net vs. Fleury not, and giving up the usual rebounds. I was still uneasy because we needed to neutralize Kaprizov.

OK, I picked the wrong Russian to focus on! Tank became what I worried Kaprizov might be in the third. A natural hat trick on his three consecutive shots.

Equally important was the way the team guarded their own zone. Nothing fancy, but when they got possession of a puck in their zone, they got it out of the zone. Push it to the neutral zone or beyond, and they did not ice the puck in the process. They did not turtle in the process, either. It was like watching the second half of game 7 of the finals in 2019 again. Everybody did their part.

Heading into game 6, the Wild have more than Kaprizov, but they become a lot less dangerous if he is not getting open looks. They can't get so focused on him that they overlook Eriksson Ek or Zuccarello, but downshifting Kaprizov from great to good will go a long way. Stay out of the box, maybe goad the Wild to going to the box, and when they get nasty, smile, nod, wave, and skate off to Denver.

Great win on the road, their second one of this series. Now they need to finish this in six. Colorado looked like they were toying with Nashville in their series, and I would like to see the team get an extra day off or two before locking horns with the Avs.

 

[542365]

They mentioned it briefly on the telecast, but it’s worth touching on again, 16 out of our 17 goals have been scored by 4 guys(Perron, Vladi, ROR, and Kyrou). We’ve been carried by balanced scoring all year, but we’re not really getting that right now. Going to need Buch, Thomas, Schenn, and the Dmen to come alive if we’re going to close this one out and give any kind of a scare to Colorado.

 

[Joshuar56]

I want to go to game 6 so bad lol

I want to go to game 6 so bad lol

You can get nose bleed seats for less than $100

 

[joe galiba]

They mentioned it briefly on the telecast, but it’s worth touching on again, 16 out of our 17 goals have been scored by 4 guys(Perron, Vladi, ROR, and Kyrou). We’ve been carried by balanced scoring all year, but we’re not really getting that right now. Going to need Buch, Thomas, Schenn, and the Dmen to come alive if we’re going to close this one out and give any kind of a scare to Colorado.

Over just a 5 game sample size you would expect the scoring to be tilted to just a few guys

 

[MissouriMook]

Over just a 5 game sample size you would expect the scoring to be tilted to just a few guys

They have more guys that have scored, but two guys (Kaprizov and JEE) have 2/3 of their goals. And 3 of Kaprizov's 7 have come on the PP. Stay out of the box and shut down the Kaprizov-Hartman-Zucc line and I'm pretty confident about closing this out. Their 2nd-4th lines haven't been scary at all. While Wild fans can point to the "myth" about our scoring depth, they were all-in on their "GREEF" line that gave up just 5 goals 5-on-5 the entire season and we've scored 3 on them in the last 2 games. I'll take our current position over theirs all day long for a multitude of reasons beyond the 3-2 series edge.

 

[Brian39]

We relied on 7 D a lot in the middle of the season when we were battling injuries to forwards and had limited call up options. We had decent success with it and we've looked great going 11/7 in the playoffs. With how deep the forward group is, I think we should commit to 11/7 the rest of the way. None of the forwards had crazy ice time in either of the last 2 games. Having such a strong top 9 means that you plug and play multiple guys into the 4th line to prevent any 1-2 guys getting gassed. ROR and Perron are averaging 20:34 and 20:14 in the 2 games where we have gone to 7 D. Thomas is at 19:35 and every other forward is below 19. We can still attack in waves with 11 forwards without worrying about fatigue.

Having Bortz back allowed us to keep Faulk and Parayko under 26 minutes last night. Being able to split up the left side between 4 guys with varied skillsets is very helpful and offers insurance against a mid-game injury. I'm more comfortable going down to 10 forwards than I am 5 D. I don't think we should even consider going back to 6 D unless we get everyone back (and they aren't hobbled and at risk of re-aggravating something).

 

[PJJJP]

We just need to limit the amount of Damage Kaprizov can do. He has nearly half of his teams goals. Our leading scoring Perron only has 5/17 of the goals we scored. So while the Wild have had more people score goals it's basically the Kaprizov show.

 

[Punished ROR]

Yeah, it'd be a really neat story if that forward depth allowed us to have success with 11/7. Maybe it's not how we envisioned our forward depth benefiting us in the playoffs; but with a weaker D core, it actually makes a lot of sense. Spread that depth out to shore up the glaring team weakness.

If the team really buys in, this could become a big part of their identity -- which is an important for a team hoping to make a deep run.

 

[Cotton McKnight]

I was pretty nervous until that Saad goal in the second. It felt like the Blues versus Jets in the '19 playoffs when they started to take control of the series.

Game six, I figured they could win it in six—time to play our hard playoff hockey.

 

[ArenaRat]

I think the point about buy-in is really a key distinction between the Blues and Wild. Many teams think they are bought in, or are close to being bought in, but any less than 100% bought in is a weakness that's bound to be exposed. Throughout this series I have felt that if the Blues could simply get to their team game, we'd have the upper hand. When we play as 5 man units in waves, we can beat anyone (someone earlier said our style is "drowning" the other team -- I love that as it perfectly describes the nature of losing to the Blues when we are on our game). The Wild are good and a dangerous team, but it appears they might not have learned yet what that level of buy-in really means.

Credit Berube and the rest of the staff for achieving that -- it's awesome that the Blues show up this way in big games, fear no team, and understand that by buying in they don't have to be perfect, just relentless.

 

[Brian39]

They mentioned it briefly on the telecast, but it’s worth touching on again, 16 out of our 17 goals have been scored by 4 guys(Perron, Vladi, ROR, and Kyrou). We’ve been carried by balanced scoring all year, but we’re not really getting that right now. Going to need Buch, Thomas, Schenn, and the Dmen to come alive if we’re going to close this one out and give any kind of a scare to Colorado.

I'm not too worried about the 'lack' of balanced scoring. We've had guys scoring in bunches and taking turns carrying the offense all year. A balanced attack doesn't mean that in a 5 game sample you will consistently get goals from 8 or more guys. It means that they are all threats to score and each line can take advantage of a favorable matchup and win the game. The scoring is concentrated into 4 players, but they represent 3 lines. ROR/Perron are basically attached at the hip. Tarasenko and Kyrou don't play with them at 5 on 5. Tarasenko and Kyrou also don't play together. We've relied on 1 line to take charge and exploit matchups all year. Then teams start focusing on that line and another line takes over.

Last night we saw multiple lines play well. The 3rd goal was a finish by Tarasenko, but that was a team goal. ROR beat a forechecker and skated the puck out of the zone so that our entire group had speed through the neutral zone after a change. He moved the puck to Faulk, who got it in deep to beat their neutral zone trap. Because of the great zone exit, we then had 2 forecheckers coming with speed. Buch won a race and then made a gorgeous pass to Tarasenko for the finish. 4 guys made very good plays on that goal, with Buch's pass being the biggest contributing factor.

Tarasenko's 2nd goal was much more a result of him just beating Fleury clean. But that chance is the result of 3 good passes. Faulk made a nice outlet pass to beat 2 attacking Wild players and move the puck north to Tarasenko instead of retreating back with a D to D pass. Tarasenko then made a good pass to Barby to get him attacking the zone with speed. Barby is going 1 on 3 against Minnesota's D, but made a good decision to pull up and wait for Tarasenko. The speed of the entry caused the Wild to back up and Barby timed the pass so that he could set a pick on the Wild player best positioned to challenge Tarasenko. Hell of a shot by Tarasenko, but it was a really good play by Barbie to create something out of nothing and the entire play starts by Faulk making a great pass under pressure. Turning screenshot 1 into screenshot 2 is the result of multiple guys making good offensive plays:

Again, fantastic shot by Tarasenko. But it is the result of multiple skilled puck plays to create space for him. Having Rosen driving into the slot with an open passing lane also prevents Fleury from getting another foot or so out to cut off the shooting angle.

ROR's goal sees him bury a rebound that is sitting there because Schenn is battling in front and preventing 2 guys from clearing the rebound. Good finish by ROR to bring the puck to the side and create an open net, but 75% of that goal is the lead up to him picking up the rebound.

The Saad goal is a pure cycle goal.

10 Blues had a point last night. We don't have any goals from the D, but they've combined for 11 assists. We're getting contributions from plenty more than the 4 guys doing all the scoring. There have been a few individual efforts, but most of our goals have been team plays where the finish has been a rebound or a play that moved Fleury side-to-side.

 

[The Note]

The Wild's biggest problem is that outside of Kaprizov (who is electric, no doubt) they are not getting much from any of their other forwards. I know the Blues goals have mostly come from a handful of guys having big nights, but at least it's a different guy each time. Right now for the Wild you are counting on Kaprizov getting at least one and hoping someone else helps out. Their center depth is also being exposed.

 

[TheDizee]

We relied on 7 D a lot in the middle of the season when we were battling injuries to forwards and had limited call up options. We had decent success with it and we've looked great going 11/7 in the playoffs. With how deep the forward group is, I think we should commit to 11/7 the rest of the way. None of the forwards had crazy ice time in either of the last 2 games. Having such a strong top 9 means that you plug and play multiple guys into the 4th line to prevent any 1-2 guys getting gassed. ROR and Perron are averaging 20:34 and 20:14 in the 2 games where we have gone to 7 D. Thomas is at 19:35 and every other forward is below 19. We can still attack in waves with 11 forwards without worrying about fatigue.

Having Bortz back allowed us to keep Faulk and Parayko under 26 minutes last night. Being able to split up the left side between 4 guys with varied skillsets is very helpful and offers insurance against a mid-game injury. I'm more comfortable going down to 10 forwards than I am 5 D. I don't think we should even consider going back to 6 D unless we get everyone back (and they aren't hobbled and at risk of re-aggravating something).

best part of 11/7 is also it can create a severe mismatch on 4th line pairings. Putting Bozak out there with someone like 91 or 25 is a big advantage. 91 second goal last night came on a 4th line shift that had Barbie out there also.

 

[Linkens Mastery]

You can get nose bleed seats for less than $100

I've been debating it.

 

[AjaxManifesto]

Nothing won yet.

I'm reminded of Game 6 at home against Boston. The town was stacked to turn 50 years of sorrow into joy. We got smoked at home. Had to go to Boston for Game 7.

Attitudes on both sides will do a 180 if we go back to Minny.

 

[Allens Five Hole]

Nothing won yet.

I'm reminded of Game 6 at home against Boston. The town was stacked to turn 50 years of sorrow into joy. We got smoked at home. Had to go to Boston for Game 7.

Attitudes on both sides will do a 180 if we go back to Minny.

I prefer to think back to Winnipeg round 1