2018 - 2019 Blues (Hockey) Season

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

Not to sound like a naysayer, I feel like the ray of sunshine around here, but the blues are dead. Sayanarah or whatever the word is.

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

at least kroenkes team didn't knowck the blues out, I guess.

[Popeye_Card]

Not to sound like a naysayer, I feel like the ray of sunshine around here, but the blues are dead. Sayanarah or whatever the word is.

I would only feel that way if the Blues played their best game and still got beat like this. They didn’t. Not to say the Sharks played their best game, but the Blues are certainly not outclassed by the Sharks.

Tighten up the turnovers. Play with a little more discipline. Win the next game and you’ve taken home ice away.

[JCShutout]

Its certainly not over. Its one game, but yeah, it sure seems like this won't go well. Even when it was 1-1, things just didn't sound good on the radio.

Either way. That was garbage. The Blues were spanked.

EDIT: Binington is kinda my guy with his "can't ruffle-me" attitude and good fundamentals, so here is another long post from the former goalie who can't seem to let it go.

Finally watched the recap. I'm surprised that I'm not as worried about Binny as I thought I would be after he allowed 5. The first one he had no chance. You can't cheat over early because then you open a hole for the shooter. The 2nd one he made an amazing save, then the rebound was batted out of mid air, and he almost stopped that one by lifting his skate.He played textbook goaltending on those two and you just tip your hat to the other team on those. Very good execution by SJ.

The next two weren't terrible, but I'm sure he would like them back, and on his best game, he stops at least one. The five hole one was through traffic. I know he wants that back, but I'll bet he didn't see the shot right away and was just a tick late on reacting. We've seen the Blues score a few this playoffs on those types of goals. The puck is small and moves quickly. If the goalie is screened and is a second late in his butterfly, that leaves a lot of holes. The turnover/sorta-breakaway one was just a hell of a move. Usually when a player goes one way and puts the puck another, too many things can go wrong. (loses balance, can't lift the puck, put the puck wide, dman gets back to lift the stick, etc) Again, he probably wants that one back because I know as a goalie that you feel like you should never be beaten 1-on-1, but if you can stop 75% of those, you are doing a good job.

The fifth went in off Dunn. Binny clearly saw that there was no Shark on that side of the net, and the Blues had a defender there, so it made sense to leave space and guard the other side more there as normally, a pass from the defended side behind the net leads to a shot on the side Binny was defending. (or the pass has further to go, so there is time to take away the angle) If there was a Shark there, I'll bet Binny is hugging that post instead. He played that one technically correct, just got unlucky, which is the Blues way. It isn't a playoff series against the Sharks if we don't put the puck in our own net. Thinking of you Marc Bergevin.

So yeah, goals 1 and 2, no chance, and even the Sharks don't execute those perfectly 60% of the time. Goals 3 and 4, would have been nice to stop one, but they weren't soft goals. (Screens are never soft. If you've never goaltended, screens and deflections are the worst. Goal 5, bad luck.

Not his best game, but he wasn't as bad as those stats look. Hopefully that means the Blues can easily clean that all up and do better.

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

There’s nothing worse than planning a Saturday around hockey, getting way drunkerer than intended, and waking up to a demoralizing loss. I want a do over.....as I imagine the blues do. Highlight of the game was blais not getting a game misconduct after trying to kill karlsson

[Popeye_Card]

Even on the stat sheet, the Blues were in the game. Out-shot the Sharks 31-25, despite the power play disparity. Lost the faceoff battle 42.5%-57.5%. Out-hit the Sharks 41-35. Blocked shots were close to even 12-14. Biggest flaw was the Blues lost the giveaway battle 12-7.

Looking at the goals specifically:

1: takeaway by the Sharks at the blueline (which I personally felt could have been called a penalty) led to an odd-man rush that they executed well. Petro should have protected the puck better.

2: 5-on-3 power play. You can’t give the Sharks that kind of advantage.

3: great wrist shot through traffic. Tip your cap.

4: Parayko doesn’t protect the puck well enough exiting the zone, and Jay-bo gets caught flat-footed. This was probably the worst goal given up, since the Blues had just gotten back in the game with O’Reilly’s slick goal to make it 3-2.

5: bad bounce fluke

6: empty net

That’s a lot of goals given up, but the story is pretty simple. Limit the turnovers and stay out of the box. The Blues have shown under Berube that they can make adjustments and correct these kind of flaws. They tightened up the discipline against the Stars when it was getting out of hand, and they stayed out of the box for over 6 periods to close out that series.

Like I said, I wanted to see how they came out of the locker room for the third after a sloppy second period. They responded with the best 5-on-5 play by either team during the game. They tallied a goal. They had good pressure after pulling the goalie. They out-shot the Sharks 12-5. If they take that momentum into game 2 and cut down on the penalties, they will win.

And like I said, Tarasenko has to step up. Really the top 2 lines need to step it up. Thomas has been the best forward for the Blues for the last 3 games, and I would say move him up but the third line is buzzing right now.

[JCShutout]

From what I've seen in the recaps Popeye, I agree totally. Seeing it (wel, the recap) was a different experience. Yeah, there were some giveaways to clean up, and that's not nothing, but the Blues have the ability to beat the Sharks..

The only part of the game that hasn't adjusted well is the power play. Man our PP is just a pile of garbage. I have no clue how to fix that. Offensive tactics aren't really my forte. I guess I could just yell "SHOOOOT" a lot like so many fans, lol.

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

Even on the stat sheet, the Blues were in the game. Out-shot the Sharks 31-25, despite the power play disparity. Lost the faceoff battle 42.5%-57.5%. Out-hit the Sharks 41-35. Blocked shots were close to even 12-14. Biggest flaw was the Blues lost the giveaway battle 12-7.

Looking at the goals specifically:

1: takeaway by the Sharks at the blueline (which I personally felt could have been called a penalty) led to an odd-man rush that they executed well. Petro should have protected the puck better.

2: 5-on-3 power play. You can’t give the Sharks that kind of advantage.

3: great wrist shot through traffic. Tip your cap.

4: Parayko doesn’t protect the puck well enough exiting the zone, and Jay-bo gets caught flat-footed. This was probably the worst goal given up, since the Blues had just gotten back in the game with O’Reilly’s slick goal to make it 3-2.

5: bad bounce fluke

6: empty net

That’s a lot of goals given up, but the story is pretty simple. Limit the turnovers and stay out of the box. The Blues have shown under Berube that they can make adjustments and correct these kind of flaws. They tightened up the discipline against the Stars when it was getting out of hand, and they stayed out of the box for over 6 periods to close out that series.

Like I said, I wanted to see how they came out of the locker room for the third after a sloppy second period. They responded with the best 5-on-5 play by either team during the game. They tallied a goal. They had good pressure after pulling the goalie. They out-shot the Sharks 12-5. If they take that momentum into game 2 and cut down on the penalties, they will win.

And like I said, Tarasenko has to step up. Really the top 2 lines need to step it up. Thomas has been the best forward for the Blues for the last 3 games, and I would say move him up but the third line is buzzing right now.

Well, if my aunt had balls she'd be my uncle.

My uneducated feeling is that, yeah, while they had stretches that looked good while down 3 goals, they were down 3 goals for a reason and only part of it is turnovers. The sharks have a lot of goalscorers. Maybe it was just a bad game, but I don't see much hope going forward. The sharks look too good, too fast, too skilled for the blues to keep up and I get the feeling this is going to be a short series. Maybe not a sweep, but 5 games wouldn't surprise me.

That said, if tarasenko remembers how to score goals, it would help. And, if they figure out a way to stop the sharks from scoring 6 goals a game, they should be able to score a few goals.

[tlombard]

I guess I could just yell "SHOOOOT" a lot like so many fans, lol.

The key to helping the Blues score is to yell that while they have the puck barely inside the blue line with a defender two feet in front of them ready to block it. Either then or when they are in the corner with no actual angle to the goal. Or at least that's when yelling "SHOOOT" is the most annoying to me, when there is no chance of a shot even getting near the net but people are yelling anyway.

Then again, the only shot that can never go in is the one you don't take right?

[tlombard]

I just got a call from one of our Regional Sales Managers who asked me to do him a favor and refresh a report for him. Normally he emails me and technically I'm not even the one he should be coming to since another guy in my group handles him and his people. It all made sense after I took the ten seconds to do what he needed. He wanted to talk to me about the Blues.

He said he was at his normal pub overlooking the ocean in San Diego where he's based and suddenly about 5pm local time this huge group of people crowded into the bar and took it over pleading to watch game 7 of the Blues vs. Dallas series. They felt bad for taking over his nice quiet bar since he was the only one in there and offered to pick up his tab as long as he was there for disrupting his quiet evening. Little did they know that it was right up his alley! He's not a hockey fan but he is an extremely laid back and social older gentleman who fits the San Diego stereotype perfectly. He watched the entire game with them and had a great time. It turns out the group was in town from St. Louis on business and had reserved the patio but there were no TVs on the patio so they had to pile into the bar.

Since that night he watched the Blues game Saturday night (ouch) and is planning on watching tonight (hopeful!) so maybe some random people from St. Louis combined with working with people based out of St. Louis for many years who he can then call and talk about the games with has finally converted him into a Blues fan!