GDT Game 2: 10/6/18 | 7:00 PM CT | vs Blackhawks | FSMW/KMOX

[evil roy]

Sucky. Among other things, this team needs Edmundson back.

And Allen gone.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[Robb_K]

A frustrating loss. Not happy with several of Yeo's decisions. I don't want them to get too far behind The Jets, Preds, and Wild while they're learning to play with their linemates and shiftmates. Looks like there will be a lot of anxious time in high-scoring games this season, as their team defence is not good at all, and their goaltending is still shakey.

[Robb_K]

Sucky. Among other things, this team needs Edmundson back.

That's an understatement!

[Robb_K]

Sucky. Among other things, this team needs Edmundson back.

And Allen gone.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

And Yeo, too. I didn't like what he was doing last season, and I don't like many of his decisions made in the 2 games, so far.

[theohall]

If folks want Allen gone, you should probably send Pietrangelo packing given his absolute inability to keep track of an opponent at the side of the net and defend them. Toews schooled Petro multiple times in this game. Petro is supposed to be the Blues best defender and looked nothing like it.

Dump Yeo and knock off this veterans first nonsense while benching faster more skilled players when the veterans are the ones who can't keep track of their assignments in their own zone.

Hey, you know what? Barbashev made one good play on the PK. Let's put him on the top line and see what he does. Hey, you know what? Thomas and Kyrou are rookies. Let's basically bench Thomas for the 2nd and 3rd periods and Kyrou for most of the 3rd when they've done nothing any more wrong than the veterans failing massively in their own end.

Q having the 'Hawks circle high in the offensive zone took advantage of the Blues defense which won't switch assignments and uses that to set picks to open shooting lanes. Not the illegal picks, but the kind where it causes defenders to track through each other essentially picking each other off to follow their assignment. No way Dunn should be tracking Kane from behind the net all the way out to the blue line, yet that happened multiple times in this game. The defensive system needs to be able to adjust to counter what the opposition is doing to beat it. Nope. Blues coaches just had them keep doing the same thing while Yeo and Berube stared at their tablets trying to figure out what happened. It's simple. Blues players in their own zone wouldn't switch assignments to counter what the 'Hawks were doing and the Blues coaching staff didn't try to fix it other than changing the lines around. You all know why. Yeo's strategies are always right. Just changing the players around will make them magically work. It's his go-to to fix things, instead of actually adjusting the team's strategy to counter what an opponent is doing.

The same old, same old from Mike Yeo. The talent on this team should dominate a one line, seriously aged defense, Blackhawks team.

I will say O'Reilly, Maroon, and Tarasenko looked really good offensively tonight. Pietrangelo looked awful. Dunn couldn't play defense. Bouwmeester looked better than both of them and he was average. At the same time, look at who was on the ice for the goals against in regulation - Steen/Bozak/Perron twice. Steen, thanks to the line changes was out there for 3 goals against. This is something Toronto fans mentioned about Bozak not being known for playing well in his own end. Pietrangelo for 3 of the 4. Dunn for 3 of the 4. Butler for 2 of the 4 and Bouwmeester for 2 of the 4. Parayko was only on for 1 and Bortuzzo for none. The 7/90/91 line for 1. O'Reilly again in the 3rd when Yeo's supposed brilliant line changes had 90/49/20 on the ice together. This is after Steen's line was the worst 5-on-5 line on the ice and he was part of the problem. So... all these veterans have problems defensively, so Yeo just mixes up their lines and benches the kids who weren't having issues defensively. BRILLIANT!!! When O'Reilly is winning 17 of 18 faceoffs, the puck shouldn't be in the Blues end and that's largely on the defense - Petro.

WTF was the staff thinking in the 3rd period of a tie game putting Petro and Bortuzzo on the ice together? For a coaching staff which uses analytics to justify benching players, are they completely unaware of the analytics of how great a defenseman has to be in order to be effective on his off-handed side?? FYI - we are talking Ray Bourque level great and the Blues don't have a defenseman that good.

Same team with different players still showing the same issues as last season - unable to win a game when trailing after 2 periods. Flat out unwillingness by the staff to modify their strategy and only trying to solve problems by benching rookies, regardless of which players are actually playing poorly, and moving players to different lines. What hasn't changed? The head coach. #YeoMustGo

[flyingnote38]

disappointing start.
Not sold on Allen, but can really blame him for any of the goals other than the first one.

Not impressed with Dunn.

And, hockey gods, how many times are we going to be subjected to Toews having an open breakaway because he's so far out of position when one of our shots gets blocked and deflects out of the zone?

That said, Dunn needed to, no had to, get that puck past the defender.

[theohall]

Not impressed with Dunn.

And, hockey gods, how many times are we going to be subjected to Toews having an open breakaway because he's so far out of position when one of our shots gets blocked and deflects out of the zone?

That said, Dunn needed to, no had to, get that puck past the defender.

Exactly. He didn't even try to move to the side to create a lane, but just tried to blast it through Toews. Granted, Dunn should be on the ice in 3-on-3 with his speed, but he needs to make smarter decisions. Dunn was making these same mistakes last season when he was the lone D on the power play and wound up generating at least 3 SHGs against trying to force pucks through.

[WaukeeBlues]

2 games in and the sky is falling. Guess I shouldn't have expected any different.

Am I thrilled? No. But hell, it's 2 games. And there are a lot of new faces. Blues came back last night. They lost, but it was on an OT breakaway which happen all the d*mn time. You guys are acting like we got blown out.

[theohall]

It's not that we got blown out...

It's the same systemic issues brought on by this head coach which haven't changed one iota, in spite of his rhetoric in the off-season to look at things and make changes to improve them.

2nd PP unit - same as 1st unit from last season only replacing 91 with 57. Do you really think that's a good idea given how bad that unit was last season?

Over-playing veterans even when they are playing poorly.

Benching rookies when they are actually playing well.

Not making any in-game adjustments to the defensive system (just moving players around but not having any do anything different), even though the opposing team is doing something specific to take advantage of that defensive system's weakness.

Seeing one player, specifically a defenseman, score a power play goal, then not give that same player any more power play time for the rest of the game, when there were plenty of power plays.

Watching Dunn continue to make the same mistakes trying to force pucks through players when there is no one behind him.

The one thing that's super positive - the 1st PP unit - with all the new players doing very well on it. Dunn on that unit. not so much. Parayko looked better there in his one opportunity moving the puck quickly, moving to get in a shooting lane and timing his shot with Maroon' screen. Dunn isn't doing any of that. Basically, Dunn is still showing the same limitations from last season. Where is the coaching to fix this??

None of this is new. It's the same issues this team had last season, even with the influx of new players.

And when Pietrangelo is playing poorly, which he did in this one, it emphasizes the weaknesses in the system.

I would be more positive and not having a "sky is falling" mentality if it actually looked like the coaching staff was really trying something different, instead of repeating the same crap from last season.

The only change to the system is trying to get the D up ice more quickly and that has burned them a couple of times already in two games with defenseman being caught way up ice when a forward behind them turns the puck over.

And Bozak is not a Brodziak replacement. He isn't close to as good defensively. Yes, he is a better offensive player. But the Blues have him lining up as more of a defensive center with Steen and Perron.

And sadly, for the most part, this team is hanging Allen out to dry on most of the goals against.

[cardsfan04]

I think it's too early to have any real strong feelings about this team. Decent amount of turnover this offseason. If you count Blais, 1/2 of our 12 forwards are new this year. There's going to be some growing pains.

1st game: Game was competitive until Allen melted down. Allen's my biggest concern this year, so that's not a great thing to see. But, I'm not going to go nuts over a bad period even though I do blame him for the game getting away.

2nd game: Was better than the first. That's the main criteria I'm judging them by on that game. Not saying they looked great or that there aren't valid criticisms. But, they were competitive against a good team start to finish. I wouldn't say I'm satisfied, but I'm optimistic.

[theohall]

One thing that absolutely needs to change...

The Steen/Bozak/Perron line can't handle defensive zone starts. They can't get out of their own end even with Bozak winning almost 60% of his faceoffs. Their inability to get out of their own end leads to a few things: not generating shots, giving up a ton of shots against, and goals against.

Just so one can see the stat that shows this:

Corsi For CF and Corsi Against CA Measures total shot attempts (Shots, blocks and misses) at even strength for compared to total shot attempts against.

Steen CF 11 CA 24
Bozak CF 12 CA 21
Perron CF 6 CA 22

Double the shots against this line than what they are generating, which is the consequence of starting more often in the defensive zone. But - the job is to get out of the zone and with Bozak winning faceoffs at a 60% rate, they should be getting out of the zone, but that's not happening.

Those three should not be the ones facing top opposing forwards on defensive zone draws. If Yeo keeps sticking with that line as his go-to defensive line, the Blues are going to lose more often than they win.

It should be noted Thomas excelled at defensive zone exits in juniors when taking d-zone draws, and he was almost as often the go-to center for important defensive zone draws as offensive ones. So there is a center on this team, granted he is a rookie, who is capable of doing what Bozak is not doing well. Babcock protected Bozak from defensive zone draws 2 of his last 3 seasons. Maybe benching Thomas isn't such a smart idea by the Blues brilliant head coach.

So, basically, Thomas needs to be bumped up and Bozak bumped down, so the Blues aren't facing an almost guaranteed 17+ minutes of playing in their own end. I'd bump Steen down, also. 4th line - Steen/Bozak/Barbashev playing 10 or less per night. 3rd line - Blais/Thomas/Perron. At least give them the minutes and see how they perform. What's the worst that could happen. It's already happening for the current 3rd line. But - Yeo will not ever give rookies more opportunity when the team has a glaring hole and the glaring hole is a line full of veterans not performing well.

Thomas in his meager 8 minutes average time on ice:

CF 16 CA 13

Yes, he managed more shot attempts than Steen, Bozak and Perron even though he's only played 17 minutes total over 2 games while that trio has played 35, 36, and 26 minutes, respectively. Yet, Thomas was inexplicably benched vs Chicago.

Had that 3rd line not been so awful vs Chicago, the Blues win that game handily. Don't think other teams won't be aware of this moving forward and will play the matchup game when the Blues are on the road to take advantage of them.

[Toasted Oates]

Haha this thread is awesome. Never change.