Pre-Game Talk: Blues vs. Canucks — Is there a switch to flick?

[ort]

Not sure why, but I’m just not very excited anymore about the playoffs.

I can think of 4 reasons why the playoffs seem less interesting...

 

[execwrite1]

Feels like old times around here, people pushing each other out of the way to jump off the ledge ...

Didn't these guys win a Stanley Cup last year or has the global pandemic scrambled my feeble old brains?

I remain optimistic - Blues in 6.

 

[BlueOil]

Feels like old times around here, people pushing each other out of the way to jump off the ledge ...

Didn't these guys win a Stanley Cup last year or has the global pandemic scrambled my feeble old brains?

I remain optimistic - Blues in 6.

everything that happens is a sign that everything is happening completely wrong...unless it goes right, in which, case merely doubt how long it will continue happening...until it goes wrong again.

rinse, repeat, seethe, and predict sweeps.

 

[Mike Liut]

I can think of 4 reasons why the playoffs seem less interesting...

I hope me and the Blues both have a switch to turn on

 

[Robb_K]

No way to predict any outcome for The Blues through this series OR the entire playoffs. I could see them getting swept in 4 by The Canucks, or going all the way to winning The Cup playing only 16 games. If I had a gun to my head, I'd guess they'd squeeze past The Canucks in a hard-fought series, but lose to The Avs whenever they meet them (2nd or 3rd series). If I remember correctly, I think there is a reasonably good chance that, unfortunately, they'll meet The Avs in the 2nd series, because The Avs finished first in the round robin, and The Blues ended 4th in the seeding. I think we'd need an upset of VGK, IF The Avs win their 1st series, to avoid meeting them in The 2nd. Am I right, or wrong?

 

[ort]

Nothing that happens in this series will surprise me.

Canucks sweep Blues? I can see it.
Blues sweep Canucks? I can see it.
A long competitive series? I can see it.
Anything and everything in between those extremes? Sure, why not.

Nothing will surprise me. I'm just gonna relax and try to enjoy whatever Blues hockey we can get in during the s***show that we are currently living through.

 

[joe galiba]

It sure looks to me like there are multiple players that need to be switched

 

[ort]

No way to predict any outcome for The Blues through this series OR the entire playoffs. I could see them getting swept in 4 by The Canucks, or going all the way to winning The Cup playing only 16 games. If I had a gun to my head, I'd guess they'd squeeze past The Canucks in a hard-fought series, but lose to The Avs whenever they meet them (2nd or 3rd series). If I remember correctly, I think there is a reasonably good chance that, unfortunately, they'll meet The Avs in the 2nd series, because The Avs finished first in the round robin, and The Blues ended 4th in the seeding. I think we'd need an upset of VGK, IF The Avs win their 1st series, to avoid meeting them in The 2nd. Am I right, or wrong?

Vegas won the round robin.

It was...
Vegas
Colorado
Dallas
St Louis

Still a decent chance of playing Colorado in round 2. There is likely to be at least one upset in round one... hopefully not against the Blues but we'll see. Speculating on how round 2 will end up is a bit premature, let's worry about that in 2 weeks.

 

[BlueDream]

It’s gonna be a close series. I see it going at least 6. Unless the Blues don’t show up, then it could be over quicker.

Vancouver is a good team and while their youth and skill is their bread and butter, I also think some people are overlooking them if they think we can just grind them down that easily. Minnesota tried that and it worked very well in game 1 where Vancouver looked a little lost. But they rebounded and controlled the rest of the series after that.

They have a lot of young guys but they also have a lot of veterans that have been through this before. Tyler Myers, Alex Edler, Chris Tanev, Brandon Sutter, Jay Beagle, Loui Eriksson, and most notably Toffoli and Pearson who won cups in LA...so there’s a lot of veteran leadership still. And they also have guys that can play a heavy physical game including Miller, Horvat and Virtanen on top of that list. They can win in different ways, even in low scoring affairs, meaning while the Blues need to stick to what makes us successful, our skill is going to have to come through and be the deciding factor. Minnesota, as usual, doesn’t have enough top end talent to ever win anything. So we need our best players - guys like Tarasenko, Schenn, Pietrangelo - to really step up because they were complete nonfactors in the round robin.

Bottom line is we won’t run Vancouver out of the building. It will be a tough, physical battle. They’re not soft. We have to be firing on all cylinders to win this thing.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

No way to predict any outcome for The Blues through this series OR the entire playoffs. I could see them getting swept in 4 by The Canucks, or going all the way to winning The Cup playing only 16 games. If I had a gun to my head, I'd guess they'd squeeze past The Canucks in a hard-fought series, but lose to The Avs whenever they meet them (2nd or 3rd series). If I remember correctly, I think there is a reasonably good chance that, unfortunately, they'll meet The Avs in the 2nd series, because The Avs finished first in the round robin, and The Blues ended 4th in the seeding. I think we'd need an upset of VGK, IF The Avs win their 1st series, to avoid meeting them in The 2nd. Am I right, or wrong?

If all the higher seeds win, the Blues will face Vegas 2nd round. If Dallas or Vegas is upset, the Blues would face Colorado. Vegas would always face the 4th lowest remaining seed.

I would argue that Calgary should be favored over Dallas, is facing Colorado is likely in the 2nd round. I think the Blues will beat Vancouver, but probably waste more energy than necessary and might not have the wherewithal to overcome Colorado.

 

[ort]

I'm curious to see how much moment carries over for the teams that had to get through the play-in round.

It's possible we could see a lot of upsets. I think this is a year where all bets are off the table. It's going to be hard to predict things.

 

[67Blues]

 

[mk80]

The Canucks young guys have no concept of the physical toll a 7 game series takes, let alone 3 or 4 series in a row. No offense toward Minnesota, but this will be different.

I won’t be surprised if the Blues have an ugly blow-out loss in one game, maybe even the first game, and then grind the Canucks to powder over the course of the next several. I’m starting to get more optimistic. I like St Louis’ chances of winning the series. Also, either way, this isn’t going to be a physically punishing series like it would have been against some other opponents.

If last year is any indication, we seemed to have a bad blow-out loss once every round. One reason I preferred the Canucks over Calgary was with the way we've looked so far I think avoid the physicality of the Flames would be beneficial to us. As well as the fact that we avoid Tkachuk being the pest he is as well. A skillful and inexperienced (playoff wise) Canucks team may be just the opponent we need to be able to find our game against provided we can limit their offensive threat while we are doing so.

 

[Robb_K]

If last year is any indication, we seemed to have a bad blow-out loss once every round. One reason I preferred the Canucks over Calgary was with the way we've looked so far I think avoid the physicality of the Flames would be beneficial to us. As well as the fact that we avoid Tkachuk being the pest he is as well. A skillful and inexperienced (playoff wise) Canucks team may be just the opponent we need to be able to find our game against provided we can limit their offensive threat while we are doing so.

THAT will be a MUST, considering how very rusty The Blues are! They haven't been able to keep the puck on their sticks for 2 straight seconds, or make an accurate pass (other than Thomas). So, we can't expect them to score much, at all, for at least the first 3-4 games, until the linemates start playing together. They'll need to be physical with The Canucks, but also be able to keep up with them while trying to defend. They've got to get their skating legs and timing back. That will not happen immediately after one practice. By the last half of The series, I expect The Blues to be the better playing team. I just don't want them to fall into a hole, by losing 2 games early.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

If all the higher seeds win, the Blues will face Vegas 2nd round. If Dallas or Vegas is upset, the Blues would face Colorado. Vegas would always face the 4th lowest remaining seed.

I would argue that Calgary should be favored over Dallas, is facing Colorado is likely in the 2nd round. I think the Blues will beat Vancouver, but probably waste more energy than necessary and might not have the wherewithal to overcome Colorado.

I just reread what I said. It’s not right.

If Vegas gets eliminated the Blues would NOT play Colorado. That would make Colorado the new top remaining seed. So the Blues would face the remaining 2 or 3 seed (Dallas, or whoever replaces the Blues as the 3rd seed if Blues slide up).

 

[Brockon]

Living in Colorado and being a night owl, this schedule will be no problem for me. But it's going to be rough for the east coast fans, especially if any of the games go to OT.

I mean, I live in BC and I'm also a night owl... The games start at 730pm for me - which means I won't have to change much to catch every game.

But, thinking about the lion share of the fanbase further East... Yikes.

 

[oPlaiD]

I mean, I live in BC and I'm also a night owl... The games start at 730pm for me - which means I won't have to change much to catch every game.

But, thinking about the lion share of the fanbase further East... Yikes.

It's kind of awkward for what is ostensibly a "home" game to start at a time that prohibits some of the home audience from watching it. But what can you do?

 

[Robb_K]

I get game starting times now, at 7:30 PM, instead of the normal 2:00 AM. One of the few pluses of my California Covid Captivity.

 

[Blueline2757]

I live in Alberta. And i'm not the night owl that i used to be. Games will start at 8:30. I guess I'll be drinking lots of coffee then. I feel bad for the central and eastern fanbase.

 

[simon IC]

I think the Blues biggest adversary is time. I really think that if this team gets steamrolling they can be unbeatable, just like last year. My biggest concern is that they may take to long to gain that momentum, and dig themselves into a hole they can't get out of against Vancouver. I hope we get some puck luck early on in the series, because I think we are going to need it.

 

[brokeu91]

I live in Alberta. And i'm not the night owl that i used to be. Games will start at 8:30. I guess I'll be drinking lots of coffee then. I feel bad for the central and eastern fanbase.

I live in Rhode Island, this is really going to suck for me

 

[flying v 604]

If last year is any indication, we seemed to have a bad blow-out loss once every round. One reason I preferred the Canucks over Calgary was with the way we've looked so far I think avoid the physicality of the Flames would be beneficial to us. As well as the fact that we avoid Tkachuk being the pest he is as well. A skillful and inexperienced (playoff wise) Canucks team may be just the opponent we need to be able to find our game against provided we can limit their offensive threat while we are doing so.

Vancouver was very physical against the Wild. Calgary is not a physical team at all. MT runs around cheap shotting players Lucic can't skate fast enough to hit anyone. Myers, Edler, Benn, Mcwwen, Virtanen Rouselle Miller Toffoli can all play a heavy game. Plus don't forget about Petey are resident goon

 

[MissouriMook]

I think the Blues biggest adversary is time. I really think that if this team gets steamrolling they can be unbeatable, just like last year. My biggest concern is that they may take to long to gain that momentum, and dig themselves into a hole they can't get out of against Vancouver. I hope we get some puck luck early on in the series, because I think we are going to need it.

I'm trying really hard to see the glass half full side of this. Despite how poorly they played in the three round robin games, they were leading after two in all three of them against teams with better regular season records than the Canucks. We just have to figure out how to get there again and hang on in one of the first two games. I believe that if we can get a split in the first two games it will give us enough time to get back to the Blues of 2019 so we can start a run.

 

[Stealth JD]

Game Day!!!

Let the Cup-defense, begin. (successfully, por favor)

 

[illinidave]

Winnington just needs to get re-p*ssed at Petterson getting the Calder over him....