Let's Go Blues

dmiles2186 wrote:One thing I'm sick of is hearing teams compliment on how hard we made it for them. I don't know if we just get bad draws every year? Is it just bad luck?

On the plus side, this Gif is going around with most people believing Seabrook apologized to Backes in the handshake line. If so, that's a classy move.

I do think there is an element of bad luck to it, but at some point the other team needs to feel they had bad luck drawing us.

That was what I thought he as I watched it too. That is classy of him. Backes' reaction is also classy.

It's still way too fresh, but every freakin' year it's some combination of bad bounces, injuries, or a tough draw. At some point there needs to be a combination of all the right things working.

Portland Blues wrote:

cardsfan04 wrote:

Portland Blues wrote:Now for the annual ritual of picking a new team to root for the rest of the playoffs.

I won't be rooting for another team. I'll just be rooting for the playoffs to end. My hopes for this year were too high to get any enjoyment out of watching future rounds.

Sometimes it's nice to watch good hockey with no emotional attachment. I've developed the ritual over the past 15 years of being crushed in the early rounds every year and bouncing back in time to enjoy the Finals.

I might be there in a few weeks. I dunno. Blackhawks have to be out first though. That's really my only rooting interest right now.

Oh Captain, my Captain.

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dmiles2186 wrote:Oh Captain, my Captain.

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I hear the excuse train pulling into the station. ALL ABOARD!!!!!


(Just kidding, Backes was a trooper)

Let this one sink in again, from Ryan Miller: "I guess I’m free to go to my sister in law’s wedding, so that’s about it."

What a colossal, colossal loser.

Just got back from the game - raining hard here now. Here's my thoughts on the game today and series.

1) While I still stand behind Miller playing well the first 5 games, he was not good today I will admit. But having said that he was hung out to dry on too many chances in the third. (Sharp 1-on-1 against Miller, Shaw and Keith 2-on-1 breakaway against Miller, etc). The D let him down today as well. Yes Miller is accountable and needed to play better in the 3rd.
2) Not being able to convert on all those PPs you guys had today was a killer for your team and kept us in it. And you guys dominated the second period today outshooting us 17-3. We were very lucky to come out of that period with a 1-1 tie still.
3) I'm still scratching my head on how you guys lost momentum after game 2 - we could not have been at a lower point and this looked like a quick series. Plus the whole "win it for Backes" theme was a rally point for your team. I'm not gonna kick a gift horse in the mouth but you guys should not have surrended that momentum. Even after game 3 you guys still had it. After game 4 I felt we had our confidence back. The game 5 OT Toews breakaway loss was a backbreaker for you guys and swung momentum to our side. I thought you guys had a great chance to steal it back today with all the PPs and take it to game 7.
4) Oshie missed a lot of open nets this series. The guy is talented with stick moves but I saw him miss quite a few open nets where he should have buried the shot - even one today was evident when I was there.
5) Tarasenko was a pain in the butt to us - the guy made a name for himself this series. He's one to watch and for us to keep the puck away from.
6) I wonder if the series would have been different if Halak was kept.
7) There were very few Blues shirts and St. Louis fans at today's game which was surprising since it was a day game and on a Sunday. There was a much bigger presence for games 3 and 4 and it's only 4 hours away. Not sure why that was but I noticed it.
8 ) You don't need to blow up your team as some have said here. All 6 games were incredibly close and even today's game was 1-1 until we broke out in the 3rd so really other than one period the whole series this thing was a nail biter.

Nyghtewynd wrote:Let this one sink in again, from Ryan Miller: "I guess I’m free to go to my sister in law’s wedding, so that’s about it."

What a colossal, colossal loser.

I completely understand why people are upset with that quote. It was the wrong thing to say at the wrong time. But, I don't think this is THAT big of a deal. To me, it just sounds like he's dejected, a little shocked to be out in the first round. I'm gonna cut him some slack on this one. Still was a dumb thing to say though.

cardsfan04 wrote:

Nyghtewynd wrote:Let this one sink in again, from Ryan Miller: "I guess I’m free to go to my sister in law’s wedding, so that’s about it."

What a colossal, colossal loser.

I completely understand why people are upset with that quote. It was the wrong thing to say at the wrong time. But, I don't think this is THAT big of a deal. To me, it just sounds like he's dejected, a little shocked to be out in the first round. I'm gonna cut him some slack on this one. Still was a dumb thing to say though.

Yea I don't see that as a massive negative thing to say, really. It's the equivalent of saying "Well I guess I'll go home and take a nap." The series is over, what are you going to do about it now?

WaukeeBlues wrote:

cardsfan04 wrote:

Nyghtewynd wrote:Let this one sink in again, from Ryan Miller: "I guess I’m free to go to my sister in law’s wedding, so that’s about it."

What a colossal, colossal loser.

I completely understand why people are upset with that quote. It was the wrong thing to say at the wrong time. But, I don't think this is THAT big of a deal. To me, it just sounds like he's dejected, a little shocked to be out in the first round. I'm gonna cut him some slack on this one. Still was a dumb thing to say though.

Yea I don't see that as a massive negative thing to say, really. It's the equivalent of saying "Well I guess I'll go home and take a nap." The series is over, what are you going to do about it now?

It also reads to me as a very dry sense of humor. You think this guy would rather be at his sister in law's wedding as opposed to playing for the Stanley Cup? C'mon.

At this point, what difference does it make what former Blues goalie Ryan Miller said?

I'm watching Hitch on his interview on NHL channel and he feels strongly that the 3rd goal (Sharp breakaway) was the back breaker today. He said the air went out of the team on the bench at that point. I agree as it seemed your guys stopped pressing and full court attack seemed to be scaled back from that point. Interesting question posed to him was whether he thought Miller should have stopped that one and he didn't want to answer it.

Kerfuffle wrote:I'm watching Hitch on his interview on NHL channel and he feels strongly that the 3rd goal (Sharp breakaway) was the back breaker today. He said the air went out of the team on the bench at that point. I agree as it seemed your guys stopped pressing and full court attack seemed to be scaled back from that point. Interesting question posed to him was whether he thought Miller should have stopped that one and he didn't want to answer it.

It was.
It did (and the fans too -- season was over after we lost game five, but that was when the fat lady sung her song)
He should have.
What would it benefit Hitch to answer that question? Alot of jobs on the line because of the Blues performance in April 2014 and Hitch's is one of them.

As for your insistence that Miller played really well. Here's his line. An .897 save percentage is not elite, great, good or even acceptable


# GOALIE GPI GS MIN GAA W L OT SO SA GA SV%
39 RYAN MILLER 6 6 422 2.70 2 4 2 0 185 19 .897

worst playoff performance by a Blues goalie in over a decade.

flyingnote38 wrote: As for your insistence that Miller played really well. Here's his line. An .897 save percentage is not elite, great, good or even acceptable

He did not play well today - I stated that in an above post. His save percentage today was like .800 - terrible. If you remove today's game and that stat the numbers are pretty good. So yes he did play well in games 1-5. You guys got shutout in game 3 - hard to blame your goalie if you don't score a single goal. Games 4 and 5 went to OT and anyone could have won. Game 6 he was good until the third period today and then fell apart. Remove that one period in the series and he did well.

Kerfuffle wrote:

flyingnote38 wrote: As for your insistence that Miller played really well. Here's his line. An .897 save percentage is not elite, great, good or even acceptable

He did not play well today - I stated that in an above post. His save percentage today was like .800 - terrible. If you remove today's game and that stat the numbers are pretty good. So yes he did play well in games 1-5. You guys got shutout in game 3 - hard to blame your goalie if you don't score a single goal. Games 4 and 5 went to OT and anyone could have won. Game 6 he was good until the third period today and then fell apart. Remove that one period in the series and he did well.

Agreed. Showing an .897 save percentage is a bit misleading. Miller didn't live up to the hype, but he wasn't bad either, until today anyway.

dmiles2186 wrote:

WaukeeBlues wrote:

cardsfan04 wrote:

Nyghtewynd wrote:Let this one sink in again, from Ryan Miller: "I guess I’m free to go to my sister in law’s wedding, so that’s about it."

What a colossal, colossal loser.

I completely understand why people are upset with that quote. It was the wrong thing to say at the wrong time. But, I don't think this is THAT big of a deal. To me, it just sounds like he's dejected, a little shocked to be out in the first round. I'm gonna cut him some slack on this one. Still was a dumb thing to say though.

Yea I don't see that as a massive negative thing to say, really. It's the equivalent of saying "Well I guess I'll go home and take a nap." The series is over, what are you going to do about it now?

It also reads to me as a very dry sense of humor. You think this guy would rather be at his sister in law's wedding as opposed to playing for the Stanley Cup? C'mon.

Yeah, that's a good way of putting it.

Three happiest guys over the Blues flaming out: Perron, Stewart, Halak.

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Hard to blame them. The trades that got rid of all three were busts.

Kerfuffle wrote:

flyingnote38 wrote: As for your insistence that Miller played really well. Here's his line. An .897 save percentage is not elite, great, good or even acceptable

He did not play well today - I stated that in an above post. His save percentage today was like .800 - terrible. If you remove today's game and that stat the numbers are pretty good. So yes he did play well in games 1-5. You guys got shutout in game 3 - hard to blame your goalie if you don't score a single goal. Games 4 and 5 went to OT and anyone could have won. Game 6 he was good until the third period today and then fell apart. Remove that one period in the series and he did well.

No, if you remove today and period one of game 1, his numbers we're 'pretty good.' Even before today his save percentage was .911 which is not great.

Game one we lose if the offense doesn't bail him out and Lapierre doesn't make that save in the second OT
game 3 was stolen by one of the goalies -- and if the only goal scored in the game is soft as butter, the goalie gets the bulk of the blame. plenty of blame to go around of course.

another way to look at it, 4 games went to OT. In the other two, Miller gave up soft goals.

dmiles2186 wrote:Three happiest guys over the Blues flaming out: Perron, Stewart, Halak.

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Yeah I was thinking that Halak is probably the happiest guy in the room today. That guy seemed ticked (and I would be too) when he got dealt - cause he led you guys all season and kept winning and then for some reason upper mgmt decides that the goalie position is the problem and deal him away. Sometimes the deals you DON"T make are the best ones. Miller's stock is still high because of the 2010 Olympics and that gold medal game which American fell in love with him for. But I think if something isn't broke (Halak) you don't fix it.