Half-Assed GDT: Blues @ Bruins| Probably starts at 6pm|

[TheDizee]

i can't believe you lied to me like this

this is what happens when i dont create the GDT

if i make it tmrw, i guarantee a win.

 

[Bye Bye Blueston]

Just gonna point that out Mikkola's stupid interference penalty gave Boston its first powerplay, which they scored on. Then later, he was way out of position on Boston's subsequent powerplay goal with Bergeron wide open in the high slot.

He's gotta go at this point. He can't transition the puck when there's no pressure, he has no control over his stick, and he's got no spatial awareness whatsoever.

My expectations for him are low so his crappiness doesn’t bother me so much anymore. Faulk and Parayko and Leddy and Krug were fairly crappy too and they actually have take to.

 

[Spektre]

U G LY the Blues ain’t got no alibi,, it’s ugly,, ya ya it’s ugly…


Not good… it’s an interesting time

 

[AjaxManifesto]

U G LY the Blues ain’t got no alibi,, it’s ugly,, ya ya it’s ugly…


Not good… it’s an interesting time

They had 3 PPs early and couldn't get jack shit done. What a garbage team.

I don't like Kyrou.

Sell, sell, sell

 

[Reality Czech]

They had chances to win last night, but failed yet again. I feel so bad for Binner, who is playing great. He deserves so much better.

And anyone who pretended that Scandella was the problem with our defense last year is obviously clueless. I got so sick of hearing people complain about Scandy last year and at least we can now definitively say those people were wrong. Mikkola isn't half the d-man that Scandella is.

 

[LogosBlue]

Binner played a great game. He held the boys in there for a long time and deserved the W.

This entire team is lost. Anyone think the loss of Montgomery & Perron in combination could have led to this?
We can harp on individual players all we want but its a team wide problem. That stems directly from leadership. Montgomery and Perron were definitely big voices in that room and on the ice. Powerplay looks feeble and wasn't that Montgomery too?

 

[Drubilly]

we have a great radio duo .. love kerbs call

great play from the kid in front of our net

He is an extremely good coach, he did great things with Dallas too. I think he was a big part of our play last year.

This is correct. He ran the Blues’ special teams last year. It definitely showed last night. Lol

 

[BlueDream]

They had chances to win last night, but failed yet again. I feel so bad for Binner, who is playing great. He deserves so much better.

And anyone who pretended that Scandella was the problem with our defense last year is obviously clueless. I got so sick of hearing people complain about Scandy last year and at least we can now definitively say those people were wrong. Mikkola isn't half the d-man that Scandella is.

Did anyone ACTUALLY think Scandella was the only reason for our poor defensive play?

Like they looked at our putrid defensive stats and thought “this will all turn around once Scandella is gone?” No, I don’t think I’ve ever seen that. I think you just made that up.

People wanted Scandella gone because of his contract. Which is fair.

And FWIW, no. If you replaced Mikkola with Scandella in every game this year, we would still be 3-7. He wouldn't change anything because he’s not an impactful player. A lot of you love using revisionist history. You all think mediocre players like Scandella and Gunnarsson would do these great things for us once they’re gone. They really wouldn’t make any difference.

 

[Reality Czech]

Did anyone ACTUALLY think Scandella was the only reason for our poor defensive play?

Like they looked at our putrid defensive stats and thought “this will all turn around once Scandella is gone?” No, I don’t think I’ve ever seen that. I think you just made that up.

People wanted Scandella gone because of his contract. Which is fair.

And FWIW, no. If you replaced Mikkola with Scandella in every game this year, we would still be 3-7. He wouldn't change anything because he’s not an impactful player. A lot of you love using revisionist history. You all think mediocre players like Scandella and Gunnarsson would do these great things for us once they’re gone. They really wouldn’t make any difference.

No, but he was attacked far more than anyone else on the team. And considering he was our 2nd best defensive defenseman, those criticisms were dumb. People kept talking about how we needed to get rid of him, yes. Some even suggested that Mikkola could easily replace him for a lower cost.

How about you stop putting words in my mouth and focus on what I actually said. Scandella wasn't the negative that many fans believed him to be and we would be better off with him right now than without him. That is all.

 

[Snubbed4Vezina]

Another big L but Blues looked light-years better than they have all year.

I agree. Had a chance to win against the best team in the NHL so far. The second period was probably the best period we've played in two weeks.

Hopefully it's a sign of things turning around. Today's game is going to tell us a lot about whether or not they're going to be competitive this season. Another poor effort and a L, or do they grind out a B2B win?

 

[Brian39]

Losing 7 straight sucks and is in no way enjoyable. But last night's game was the first one in the streak that I haven't actively hated watching. If that game took place in the midst of a 3-2-2 stretch I wouldn't be upset about it at all. Frustrated about losing the special teams battle 2-0, but not upset with the underlying play of the team.

I thought Schenn and Kyrou had a really good night together. Kyrou is still way too indecisive when he's stickhandling the puck without pressure, but his passing was crisp, he made good shooting decisions in traffic, and he made a number of good plays in the neutral and defensive zones last night. That give-and-go between Kyrou and Schenn was gorgeous and I loved the set play off the faceoff to spring Kyrou for a breakaway. Run that once or twice a game to keep the other team's D on their toes with Kyrou's speed. There are very few D man in the NHL that can catch Kyrou on that if they are creeping forward in hopes of a faceoff win.

Another brutal game by ROR. The lack of offense isn't bothering me too much, but it felt like he was behind the play and turning the puck over in our own zone all night. I'm at a complete loss trying to figure out what's going on with him.

Binner was once again our best player.

No time to rest and we can't afford to simply bank a moral victory and mail it in tonight. We need a similar effort, but I think we beat Philly if we play like that again.

 

[Oberyn]

Schenn is probably the best fit for Kyrou as he can do a lot of the dirty work along the boards but still has the offensive capability to keep up with Kyrou. I'd like to see more of them together.

Seven losses in a row however some signs of life were shown last night.

 

[Brian39]

Did anyone ACTUALLY think Scandella was the only reason for our poor defensive play?

Like they looked at our putrid defensive stats and thought “this will all turn around once Scandella is gone?” No, I don’t think I’ve ever seen that. I think you just made that up.

People wanted Scandella gone because of his contract. Which is fair.

And FWIW, no. If you replaced Mikkola with Scandella in every game this year, we would still be 3-7. He wouldn't change anything because he’s not an impactful player. A lot of you love using revisionist history. You all think mediocre players like Scandella and Gunnarsson would do these great things for us once they’re gone. They really wouldn’t make any difference.

I don't think anyone thought he was the only reason for the poor defensive play, but there was definitely a good amount of 'addition by subtraction' opinions about him. The notion that he was easily replaceable for half the money or less was a popular one.

I disagree that you can comfortably say that we'd still be 3-7 with Scandella instead of Mikkola. The PK is 63% during the 7 game losing streak, allowing 7 goals on 19 opportunities. Those 7 goals against are tied for 6th most in the league during that 7 game stretch despite the fact that we've taken the 6th fewest penalties in that stretch. Montreal scoring on back-to-back PP opportunities late in the 2nd was the turning point in that game. We tied Boston 1-1 at 5 on 5 last night, with their first two goals both coming on the PP and their lone even strength goal coming shortly after the PP scored the go-ahead goal with 7 minutes left. That's 2 of the 7 losses that very easily could have been wins or OT points with a good PK. Scandella was our top penalty killing D man last year and the group was 5th in the league (84.1%). It's absurd to declare that he couldn't have impacted those games.

At 5 on 5, one of our biggest issues has been allowing cross crease passes and back door tap ins. Scandella's game has a lot of holes, but he's easily one of the top 3 D men we have at taking care of those areas. He's not so good at it that the issue would be non-existent, but he would be an upgrade in an area we have mightily struggled at. He's not an elite defender at 5 on 5, but he's solid and I'm not sure any of our D have been solid at defending this year. Would that upgrade have led to points? I don't know. But I'm confident that none of us can say he wouldn't have made any impact.

 

[Cotton McKnight]

Weird couldn't watch this one on ESPN+ last night or today. Didn't miss much.

I will try again with tonight's game.

 

[BlueDream]

I don't think anyone thought he was the only reason for the poor defensive play, but there was definitely a good amount of 'addition by subtraction' opinions about him. The notion that he was easily replaceable for half the money or less was a popular one.

I disagree that you can comfortably say that we'd still be 3-7 with Scandella instead of Mikkola. The PK is 63% during the 7 game losing streak, allowing 7 goals on 19 opportunities. Those 7 goals against are tied for 6th most in the league during that 7 game stretch despite the fact that we've taken the 6th fewest penalties in that stretch. Montreal scoring on back-to-back PP opportunities late in the 2nd was the turning point in that game. We tied Boston 1-1 at 5 on 5 last night, with their first two goals both coming on the PP and their lone even strength goal coming shortly after the PP scored the go-ahead goal with 7 minutes left. That's 2 of the 7 losses that very easily could have been wins or OT points with a good PK. Scandella was our top penalty killing D man last year and the group was 5th in the league (84.1%). It's absurd to declare that he couldn't have impacted those games.

At 5 on 5, one of our biggest issues has been allowing cross crease passes and back door tap ins. Scandella's game has a lot of holes, but he's easily one of the top 3 D men we have at taking care of those areas. He's not so good at it that the issue would be non-existent, but he would be an upgrade in an area we have mightily struggled at. He's not an elite defender at 5 on 5, but he's solid and I'm not sure any of our D have been solid at defending this year. Would that upgrade have led to points? I don't know. But I'm confident that none of us can say he wouldn't have made any impact.

1. The PK literally has a new coach running it. Craig MacTavish.

2. Our forwards are much different. Acciari, Toropchenko and Walker are killing penalties when we didn’t have any of them there last season. We also have a new version of ROR, who apparently isn’t good anymore. Also Buchnevich and Saad missed time.

I’d say those are the two main factors at play here. So yes, what’s actually absurd is to think the difference in the PK is Marco Scandella. It’s not like Niko Mikkola is a stranger to the PK. He played a lot of PK for us last year and can do it just fine.

And I can confidently say we would still be awful if Scandella was playing because our defense sucks both with and without him. Not sure why this is even being debated. He’s a mostly irrelevant player. Notice how our defense has been crap for basically his entire tenure here, and now we are supposed to miss him? Come on. We know for a fact he won’t change anything.

Seriously watch our defense. None of Leddy, Parayko and Krug have been good enough. If our top guys aren’t performing, it doesn’t matter which of Mikkola or Scandella are on the bottom pair. That isn’t rocket science, but people sure do love to blame Mikkola for lots of shit on this board.

 

[Brian39]

1. The PK literally has a new coach running it. Craig MacTavish.

2. Our forwards are much different. Acciari, Toropchenko and Walker are killing penalties when we didn’t have any of them there last season. We also have a new version of ROR, who apparently isn’t good anymore. Also Buchnevich and Saad missed time.

I’d say those are the two main factors at play here. So yes, what’s actually absurd is to think the difference in the PK is Marco Scandella. It’s not like Niko Mikkola is a stranger to the PK. He played a lot of PK for us last year and can do it just fine.

And I can confidently say we would still be awful if Scandella was playing because our defense sucks both with and without him. Not sure why this is even being debated. He’s a mostly irrelevant player. Notice how our defense has been crap for basically his entire tenure here, and now we are supposed to miss him? Come on. We know for a fact he won’t change anything.

Seriously watch our defense. None of Leddy, Parayko and Krug have been good enough. If our top guys aren’t performing, it doesn’t matter which of Mikkola or Scandella are on the bottom pair. That isn’t rocket science, but people sure do love to blame Mikkola for lots of shit on this board.

I'm not even remotely saying that the team goes from bad to good just with swapping in Scandella. And I'm not saying that Scandella's absence is the sole driver of the PK struggling. I'm not at all saying that we'd for sure have 3-4 more wins than we have now.

I certainly don't think we'd be 4-2-1 in those games and I'm far from believing that Mikkola is even in the top half of this team's concerns at the moment. I'd be shocked if we were any better than 1-5-1 in those 7 games and realistically we're probably talking about whether we could have gotten one of the games to OT and then hoped to win a 3 on 3 coinflip. Still a very bad stretch of play and a record that puts us squarely in the basement. But slightly better than 3-7. I have watched the D.

They've been terrible. And every time Berube has tried to slide Mikkola up into the top 4 to shelter Krug/Leddy, it has been pretty tough to watch. Having a better defender than Mikkola would be helpful.

 

[Xerloris]

Binner played a great game. He held the boys in there for a long time and deserved the W.

This entire team is lost. Anyone think the loss of Montgomery & Perron in combination could have led to this?
We can harp on individual players all we want but its a team wide problem. That stems directly from leadership. Montgomery and Perron were definitely big voices in that room and on the ice. Powerplay looks feeble and wasn't that Montgomery too?

If we were super lucky last year, we're being very unlucky this year. Add to that we have some Oilers bad lucky juice now thanks to Mactavish.