GDT: WCSF Game 4: Blues @ Stars | 8:30pm CT (NBCSN) | Under The Sea

[TheBluePenguin]

These forums are not a platform for discussing the anatomy of fans. It's OT at best, and offensive at worst. If you feel compelled to comment on how others look, there are other corners of the internet for that sort of thing. It will not be tolerated here.

Also, do not bypass the swear filter, as I'm tired of wasting my time editing posts for that reason when I have bigger problems to deal with. We can all tell what you're ****ing saying by the context. (See?) Just type the word and let the filter do its work. That's why it's there.

Even though I do not always agree with the mods here, Easton you sir are my hero!

 

[hullderko]

Back to hockey...
Some of the Dallas plays made it look like we weren't skating, but after a closer look, the root cause appears to be confusion or disorganized thinking...

So Gunnarson decides to take the point even when his winger is in the proper position to take the point. How can Gunnarson let this play get behind him like this? This play made the Blues look REALLY BAD.

Now Gunnarson is left in no mans land, what is he cherry picking for a break away? What will happen Gunnarson? BINNY SAVE that's what. But mostly a swing of momentum to Dallas who ran plays like this all night, skating past the Blues straight to the damn net. Kendall called this an "elite" play. Not too difficult imho when the Blues are puck chasing and not defending the PLAY.

Following Binny's save, Bozak gets the puck at the side of the net with Gunnarson at the half wall. NO. Luckily Dallas was at the end of the shift at the end of that "elite play" according to Kendall.

 

[mw2noobbuster]

ROR getting destroyed game in and game out in the faceoff dot just proves to me that he's nursing an injury. That's a damn shame, would have loved to see him healthy in his first career second round.

 

[Brian39]

I'd like to see an overhead shot of the ROR bank attempt, but there is no doubt in my mind that Toronto looked at it. Toronto doesn't wait for a stoppage to review stuff like that and there was a pretty long stretch without a whistle after that. There was then a slightly longer-than-usual stoppage. They had at least a couple of minutes to review it. I'd bet good money that they reviewed it and determined it was either inconclusive or clearly still on the line before play was even stopped. Again, I'd like to see the overhead shot that NBC declined to show, but NBC's incompetence doesn't mean Toronto didn't do their job.

 

[Note Worthy]

I'd like to see an overhead shot of the ROR bank attempt, but there is no doubt in my mind that Toronto looked at it. Toronto doesn't wait for a stoppage to review stuff like that and there was a pretty long stretch without a whistle after that. There was then a slightly longer-than-usual stoppage. They had at least a couple of minutes to review it. I'd bet good money that they reviewed it and determined it was either inconclusive or clearly still on the line before play was even stopped. Again, I'd like to see the overhead shot that NBC declined to show, but NBC's incompetence doesn't mean Toronto didn't do their job.

JR said Toronto looked at for 2 minutes during play and took another look at it during a stoppage in play but didn't have a conclusive view of it crossing the line so they didn't blow the horn.

 

[Brian39]

As to the game, we looked bad for long stretches. I'm so tired of us trying to back off the Dallas D by flying our zone on what should be easy breakouts. There were way too many turnovers where our D had no passing options anywhere on camera even though they were below our faceoff dots. This led to the D trying to curl back and buy time/space, panicked D to D passes and turnovers. Our D share some blame for poor decisionmaking, but the 'stretch the neutral zone' philosophy was putting way too much pressure on them. Our forwards were doing a better job getting down low for a 10 foot breakout pass in the 3rd and suddenly we were able to connect passes. Part of that is a decrease in forechecking by Dallas, but giving our D 10 foot pass options instead of 50 foot options is huge. We're not going to beat this team if we're so concerned with Dallas' offensive D men that we force our D to break out 2 vs 2 all game.

I didn't see a lack of effort, heart, will, etc. I thought we got out-coached and were losing 1 on 1 battles because we were starting most of them behind the 8 ball and in a bad spot. We were skating, but we were starting every race out-positioned.

I'd swap Perron and Thomas for game 5. Perron was incredibly lucky not to get called for that slash and I think he would have been had Bishop not flopped earlier in the series. Other than his shot off the post, I though Perron was fairly invisible for long stretches and Thomas' offensive play the last 2 games merits more time. He looks dangerous every time he has the puck in the offensive zone and I want to see him get more 5 on 5 minutes with a more skilled line mate. On the flip side of that coin, I think Perron is a good replacement on that 3rd line stylistically.

For as bad as we looked for 70% of the night, that game wasn't out of reach. Perron had Bishop beat when he hit the post and ROR's bank attempt was damn close to being in. I feel surprisingly good about game 5 tomorrow considering how poorly we played last night.