Join Blues beat writer Tom Timmermann for his live chat at 1 p.m. Wednesday
Get your questions ready and join in at 1 p.m. Wednesday for our weekly Blues chat.
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This was my first time watching Colorado play. Is this the new paradigm for hockey. At times, I thought they had 11 men on the ice. It was as though they had jets on their skates and the Blues were skating thru 6 inches of mud. It seems the only hope is to knock them on their butts or hope they get tired. -
Have you watched Florida? (Though not yesterday.) If you didn't have a rooting interest, a Colorado-Florida final would be a whole lot of fun to watch. Colorado is a really good team. It will be very difficult for the Blues to advance. It will be impossible if there are more games than like Game 1. But remember, Game 3 of the Wild series looked bad and the Blues responded nicely. But beating Colorado is going to be tough.
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When Kyrou scored didn't you think it was in the stars for the Blues to steal last night's game? Especially after surviving the questionable Schenn penalty? I really just wanted those first 41 seconds to go by to start OT because I was almost sure the Blues would then win. What were you thinking after the Blues tied the game?
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The longer that game dragged on at 2-1, the Blues were alive because it takes just one shot, and it's hockey, where anything can happen and once the game goes to OT, you get a bad line change or a broken stick and all of a sudden, someone has a very good scoring chance. So as badly as the Blues were outplayed in that game, the hockey stars easily could have aligned and yes, you had to think that was possible after Kyrou's goal. Though I also wouldn't have been surprised to see Colorado score at the end of regulation because, well, they almost scored so many other times.
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I know it won't happen, but Berube should bag skate ## 18, 20, 49, 21, and 91 for indifferent play. That loss was totally on the forwards, not the D, and the Thomas line apparently missed the flight to Denver. I know the Avs are a better team, but not THAT better. Last night was a collective le down by most of the forwards.
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Yeah, that's not happening and I think there are a lot of ways to get that message across to the players that doesn't involve a bag skate six months into the season. The Thomas line got matched up with defensemen Girard and Manson and forwards Landeskog, Kadri and Lehkonen, though the Thomas line may have done the heavy work themselves on taking themselves out of the action. Maybe I noticed Thomas more because he had the puck more as the center, but Tarasenko was hardly around it seemed. These guys have turned it around before, and they'll get a chance tomorrow.
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I would suspect it would be extremely disheartening. I think Kroenke would be the first to do that, especially this close together. It would be his second trophy in five months. But there is some worthy competition coming out of the East, and the Blues aren't done yet. They got a very good wakeup call on Tuesday.
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Any old timers will reminisce after last nights game to the Blues 1968 finals series vs the vaunted Canadians when the ice was tilted and Glenn Hall stood on his head and played 4 games similar to Binnington's game to earn the Conn Smyth trophy despite the team losing all 4 games. They were all one goal loses w two being in OT.
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To that end, there's a solid case for Dallas goalie Jake Oettinger winning the Smythe even with his team going out in the first round. He may end up being the leader in goals below expected just on that Calgary series alone. His play in Game 7 was thrilling to watch.
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Take aways from game one. Binnington was awesome and the Blues wasted a huge chance at stealing a game. ROR, Saad and maybe Toropchenko played confidently but the rest of the forwards seemed unsteady. The Avs targeted Kyrou and Tarasenko physically to take them out of the game. Perunovich had little ice time after the first Avs goal that went thru him and w few PP probably need to go back to 12-6 and add the speed of Walker and play a true 4th line at least for game 2. Leddy and Faulk are capable of running the PP in his absence. The team as a whole needs to calm down and play more aggressively because playing scared led to a terrible performance in game 1. A few line tweaks and if Binnington can stay hot along w continued post luck should produce a better game. If not, tip your hat as this might end up like last year. I thought w Perron and a healthy Tarasenko back, the additions of Saad and Buchnevich, the maturation of Thomas, Kyrou, Barby and Leddy joining a healthy Faulk and Paranko on the back line should have made us a formidable opponent compared to last year? It sure didn't show last night. At least the Binnington's contract now looks good moving forward. Aren't you really looking forward to a different outcome in game #2?
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It was definitely a chance for a steal of a game wasted. That game could have easily gotten ugly very fast if Avalanche shots were bouncing in off posts rather than off, and it that had happened, we well could have seen Husso come in to play for Binnington rather than leaving Binnington out there to give up six goals. The Blues didn't skate today, so Berube hasn't tipped his hand on what he might do differently for Game 2, other than to hold out the possibility of going back to 12-6. It's something how the fate of Binnington has changed so drastically in the past month. Now, people seem fine with him.But a different outcome in Game 2? The Blues are going to win in Denver at some point and the earlier they do it the better. Colorado is the favorite in this series for a reason. I can see the Blues playing better in Game 2, but it will have to be a big difference to switch results. Which is possible.
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The simplest switch would be Rosen out and Brown or Walker in. I think they had some uncertainty in the early stages about what they could get from Perunovich coming off surgery but I think his play since he's back should have satisfied the Blues that the injury won't be a problem. Plus I think they like what he's doing on the power play, so as long as Krug isn't playing, I think Perunovich will be in.Every time I see Rosen on the ice or hear his name called on a broadcast, I think how amazing it is that Calle Rosen is playing for the Blues in the playoffs. I would not have envisioned that. Yet here we are. But really, if you're keeping in Perunovich, he's the only candidate.Brown has been taking warmups every night. In the early stages, I think he was on standby in case an injured D wasn't able to go. I think they've been keeping him out there to round out the numbers in warmups and to throw a little bit of uncertainty into the Wild or Avs, but I would expect him to play, unless they see some benefit to Walker going in. My theory going in was that at some point, they'd want to give Bozak a break and then Brown would step in.
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Brown for Bozak could happen, though it may be Brown for Rosen. Reuniting the Russians could happen, and if it doesn't happen in Game 2, would likely happen in Game 3 if nothing changes. I'd be reluctant to not have Thomas playing center because, well, he's a really good center and putting him on the wing would require him to rethink a whole lot of things, like shooting. Berube has been adept at making the right moves this postseason. Saad has a good game last night, so the question might be how best to deploy him, Putting him back with O'Reilly and Perron could be an option.
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It wasn't a perfect game for Binnington, but it was a very good one and it wouldn't have taken a whole lot to change him into a winner last night. I'd say he deserved a better fate, but the only better fate available was a Blues win and Colorado as a team deserved to win that game.However, hockey is not decided on style points but on goals scored, so the Blues very nearly grabbed home-ice advantage.
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Let's not overlook the fact that you have to have skill, and a lot of it. But once you have that skill, you have to be confident, because you have to know when to be aggressive, when to come out and challenge a shooter rather than sitting back and waiting. It's the case with Binnington, and probably for most goalies, that if you see him sitting deep in the cage, that's a bad sign. He needs to be more than a backstop. Coming out of your net is an indicator of being a confident goalie.
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I wouldn't say light years. Montreal, Arizona, Seattle and Philadelphia are light years away. I would say this year, the Blues aren't a favorite, they can be loose defensively and give the other team a lot of scoring chances, but the events that would have to happen for them to win are not totally outlandish.That said, a sweep would also not be totally outlandish. The Blues had a chance on Tuesday and didn't grab it. There's no guarantee they get that chance again.
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Did anyone talk to Schenn to see why he was so upset. The Hockey Night in Canada panel said that the penalty was legitimate because you have to control your stick at all times. Was he upset about the stick infraction or the fact that he seemed to be tied up on the play?
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Schenn said today: "He draws some interference to me, chasing down (Toews). I probably wasn't going to get the puck anyways and he falls and I hit him in the face. It's interference but it's also high-stick. It is what it is, Steve (Kozari) made the call."The fact that it was a very bad time to take a penalty no doubt contributed to his reaction at the time.
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Let's say the Blues fall to the Avs in 6, would you call this season a success? (I haven't given up all hope of the Blues advancing, but I think it's obvious if they do that the season will be an unqualified success no matter what happens after that.) My view is that, even if the Blues lose, the positives from this season - 91's return to prominence, emergence of Thomas and Kyrou, 109 points, among others - significantly outnumber the negatives.
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I guess it depends on how you define success. I was looking at an NHL graphic of second round pairings the other day and with just eight teams left, you think, you know, that's fairly exclusive company. There are not many teams left. So that's good.Doug Armstrong and Craig Berube probably would not view the season as a success, but certainly not as a failure either. There were a lot of good things, some bad things, and if they lose in this round, they could be eliminated by the eventual Stanley Cup champion. But it's also one of those seasons where you have so many guys have their best season that it would be nice to take advantage of that, because the Blues are unlikely to have so many guys have career highs next season.They certainly had a better season than a whole lot of teams in the NHL, including the Wild.
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He has seemed happy to be here this season, but he has not definitively said he doesn't want out and his underlying concerns were not related to the team's on-ice play to begin with. If nothing else, he has been good for the Blues and has certainly enhanced his potential trade market if he still wanted to be elsewhere. And it's possible he could be on the trade market anyway just because he's entering the last year of his contract and the team is going to be tight against the cap.
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A bit disappointed at the team for last night's outing. It could have been 5 -1 at the blink of an eye. Not sure what happened on the Thomas line. Were they so worried about defensive play that they forgot about the offensive game? Was the line that was on them a checking line? A little bit speechless about the performance.
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Bad nights are had, and they are magnified when they're in the playoffs. Lessons were learned last night; they didn't all of a sudden become bad. They were doing the wrong things, for whatever the reason. Colorado did the right things, except for finishing, and the Blues didn't. They got the Landeskog line, which in the playoffs so far has been a very good line.
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The axiom in sports writing is you can root for two things: Deadline and an angle. So in a case like last night, you would want the game to end in regulation because if it goes to OT, your game story isn't making the paper. This is slightly less of an issue in a world where many people read stories online, and you can always update that, but back before that, no one ever liked having to write a story where the game wasn't over yet. It's seldom good.And you can root for an angle, where you've got something brilliant to say and if the wrong thing happens, what you have is wasted.I would add in the playoffs, a third thing you can root for might be convenience. As much fun as it can be to watch Calgary, if I'm booking flights in the next round, it would have been easier to go to Dallas or Los Angeles than Calgary or Edmonton. But so it goes.
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There seems to be a lot of Blues colored glasses in regards to Binnington's play. I certainly agree with you that he played well enough to have gotten the W given the number of shots he faced. However, the first goal was the result of a juicy rebound and the second was though maybe not soft, but stoppable. He has and can play better. Lastly, if the Blues don't see more man advantages, they have little chance in this series.
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Yeah, I keep meaning to mention that the Blues need power plays. They could have used a few more last night. They get goals and momentum there. And so they have to do things to draw penalties, which means moving their feet and having extended zone time that tires Colorado out and makes them commit penalties. they didn't do that. The Blues need to keep the game at five on five, except for when they're on the power play. So if nothing else, they need to stay out of the box.Holding Colorado to two goals in regulation, especially considering the chances they had, was no small feat. And the reality is that for a matter of an inch or so, the Avalanche could have scored several more goals. On the whole, it was a good game for Binnington. Not a perfect game, but a very good game.
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