Blues/Wild Playoff series discussion

[BlueMed]

Blues have been ass in the playoffs since the Cup. This will last 6-games max; not in the good way. Blues better hope it becomes a special teams battle; at evens the Wild should handle business and feast on our weak defensive zone play.

Bump.

 

[BlueDream]

This result is not surprising.

Now at least make it close against the Avs, I don’t expect a series win but win at least 2 games.

 

[Bye Bye Blueston]

This result is not surprising.

Now at least make it close against the Avs, I don’t expect a series win but win at least 2 games.

we can beat them. no more injuries, binner stays sharp, get couple breaks..

 

[Joshuar56]

I have to say I'm shocked that Binnington came in and owned this series. Pleasantly surprised, but if you would have told me before the series that Binnington would take over starting with the Blues down 2-1, I'd have said we were f***ed.

 

[TaLoN]

Just wanted to say congrats. Your team was clearly better on and off the ice. I envy your coach's ability to actually adjust in adversity.

He coached circles around our coach who was like a deer in the headlights.

Good luck in the rest of the playoffs.

 

[PocketNines]

"Go save our season on the road against an experienced playoff team that has riddled you with goals."

Bold strategy Cotton

update: .846

 

[Bye Bye Blueston]

Was weird series. Not a single close game. But I am confident better team won.

 

[Linkens Mastery]

Just wanted to say congrats. Your team was clearly better on and off the ice. I envy your coach's ability to actually adjust in adversity.

He coached circles around our coach who was like a deer in the headlights.

Good luck in the rest of the playoffs.

Yall can come hang out and cheer for the destruction of the Avs with us if you guys and gals would like.

 

[Joshuar56]

Was weird series. Not a single close game. But I am confident better team won.

I think the only reason it went 6 games is the Blues lost so many dmen.

 

[Xerloris]

Blues have been ass in the playoffs since the Cup. This will last 6-games max; not in the good way. Blues better hope it becomes a special teams battle; at evens the Wild should handle business and feast on our weak defensive zone play.

Could you show me this weak defensive zone play?

I have to say I'm shocked that Binnington came in and owned this series. Pleasantly surprised, but if you would have told me before the series that Binnington would take over starting with the Blues down 2-1, I'd have said we were f***ed.

I'm not, I even predicted Binnington would replace Husso in the playoffs. He was on the upswing for the last month and you could see that what ever was ailing him since his Covid case appears to be fixed.

 

[Nsjohnson]

Hey guys, good series. Blues have a fantastic forward group and they really play as a team and play calm. Likable too, even Schenn who every team would want on their roster.

Best of luck against the Aves. Please do us all a favor and just sweep them.

 

[Reality Czech]

Hey guys, good series. Blues have a fantastic forward group and they really play as a team and play calm. Likable too, even Schenn who every team would want on their roster.

Best of luck against the Aves. Please do us all a favor and just sweep them.

Thanks man, appreciate it. I thought this series might end with our two teams hating each other but I feel some mutual respect there. I have a lot of respect for the Wild team and fan base and wish you much-deserved success in the future as long as it doesn't come at the expense of the Blues!

 

[AjaxManifesto]

Respect for the Wild and their fan base.

Very good team, smart hockey fans.

Would love to see them hoist the Cup one day.

 

[Itsnotatrap]

I have to say I'm shocked that Binnington came in and owned this series. Pleasantly surprised, but if you would have told me before the series that Binnington would take over starting with the Blues down 2-1, I'd have said we were f***ed.

The more you watch Berube, the more you appreciate how he manages struggling players. He seems to find a nice balance between keeping it performance based without being totally reactionary to whatever just happened. Giving some latitude, but not much, and not letting a problem linger. When he identifies it, he calls it out but just as a simple state of fact of the matter, not in some kind of backstabbing CYA way. More like “this is what we need him to do, it isn’t happening, so we’re going this other direction for a while and see what happens.”

And this is the key thing you see: when he calls someone out or sits them, that player doesn’t seem to be blacklisted forever. He shows he will go back to them.

You see it in how he has worked and continues to work with Kyrou. He prodded Thomas, Vladi, Buchnevich a little. Nobody is above it. Managing Husso and Binnington in this series looks like perfection.

He’ll call anyone out, and demand more, but he will come back looking to you quickly too. Hockey coaches have expiration dates no matter what when around the same guys day after day, but seems like his approach gives him the best shot to stay in control and manage performance for the longer haul than your typical hardass that flames out in around 3 years.

 

[Bye Bye Blueston]

 

[Brian39]

The more you watch Berube, the more you appreciate how he manages struggling players....He’ll call anyone out, and demand more, but he will come back looking to you quickly too.

The willingness to come back to struggling guys quickly is the key to making the 'hard ass' style work at high levels. When he demands more, it isn't just empty words or venting frustration. He expects more and then makes sure you have the opportunity to meet his expectation. Everyone on this team knows you can get yourself out of his doghouse and back into important roles.

 

[Brian39]

This series ended when Leddy beat Cam Talbot in the 1st period last night. That was hands down the worst goal of the series and it came while Minnesota was making a pretty strong push. He wasn't even remotely on his correct angle and because of that allowed a D man to beat him clean short side on a 1 on 3. Words can't fully capture just how far off his angle he was. So I drew 2 lines from the puck to each post. Proper positioning would put Talbot in the middle of the 2 lines. But instead, the majority of his body is outside the lines:

And it isn't like Leddy's shot was the result of a pass that got the play moving laterally or even a hard lateral cut across the middle by Leddy. Leddy took exactly 1 stride from the time he crossed the red line to the time he took the shot. He was slowly coming straight down the middle, crossed over to got to his left, drifted that way and then took the shot. No excuse to be off your angle that bad.

He should have been gone after that goal. That's a shot you would expect an EBUG to stop. In an elimination game, you have to recognize that your goalie doesn't have it when his fundamentals are that terrible.

How he never got the hook is beyond me. Schenn rang the crossbar on him in the 2nd after beating him clean on the glove side. Goal #2 was a good goal, but Talbot didn't come close to it. The rebound and subsequent slide out of his net on goal #3 was brutal. Easily the worst goaltending performance of the series for either team, he looked brutally uncomfortable all game and with 26 minutes left they're down 3-0 on 16 shots against. I don't know if I've ever seen a more clear, "pack it in boys, our season's over" decision in a playoff game than leaving him in after that.

 

[ort]

Leddy is literally skating in a circle of all 5 wild players. That's the kind of goal that's going to haunt Wild fans for years.

I was kinda surprised how little fight Minnesota seemed to have. Their entire season was on the line, and it looked like they were playing a losing game in December or something. I didn't feel any desperation from them at all.

Maybe that's a testament to the Blues play, and I'm sure that's part of it... but once the score started getting out of hand in this one, the Wild just seems to give up.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

The more you watch Berube, the more you appreciate how he manages struggling players. He seems to find a nice balance between keeping it performance based without being totally reactionary to whatever just happened. Giving some latitude, but not much, and not letting a problem linger. When he identifies it, he calls it out but just as a simple state of fact of the matter, not in some kind of backstabbing CYA way. More like “this is what we need him to do, it isn’t happening, so we’re going this other direction for a while and see what happens.”

And this is the key thing you see: when he calls someone out or sits them, that player doesn’t seem to be blacklisted forever. He shows he will go back to them.

You see it in how he has worked and continues to work with Kyrou. He prodded Thomas, Vladi, Buchnevich a little. Nobody is above it. Managing Husso and Binnington in this series looks like perfection.

He’ll call anyone out, and demand more, but he will come back looking to you quickly too. Hockey coaches have expiration dates no matter what when around the same guys day after day, but seems like his approach gives him the best shot to stay in control and manage performance for the longer haul than your typical hardass that flames out in around 3 years.

I remember in 2019 there was a stretch where Tarasenko was struggling. Berube said something like, “Vlad needs to play better, and I know he will.”

He managed to make the message about Vlad’s disappointing stretch be couched with a vote of confidence.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

Leddy is literally skating in a circle of all 5 wild players. That's the kind of goal that's going to haunt Wild fans for years.

I was kinda surprised how little fight Minnesota seemed to have. Their entire season was on the line, and it looked like they were playing a losing game in December or something. I didn't feel any desperation from them at all.

Maybe that's a testament to the Blues play, and I'm sure that's part of it... but once the score started getting out of hand in this one, the Wild just seems to give up.

I found myself wondering who the leaders are on that team. In game 6 I couldn’t tell.

 

[stlbluz]

Is that Panger in your avatar & if so did he make a joke about Jada?

 

[PocketNines]

Berube coached like he won a Cup recently. Evason coached like he has never won a 7 game series at any level as a player or coach which is weird because he did win a series as a player once 28 years ago. The coaching was a stunning mismatch. Evason is not head coach caliber

 

[The Note]

Leddy is literally skating in a circle of all 5 wild players. That's the kind of goal that's going to haunt Wild fans for years.

I was kinda surprised how little fight Minnesota seemed to have. Their entire season was on the line, and it looked like they were playing a losing game in December or something. I didn't feel any desperation from them at all.

Maybe that's a testament to the Blues play, and I'm sure that's part of it... but once the score started getting out of hand in this one, the Wild just seems to give up.

It was basically the inverse of all those times the Blues would have to play Chicago or LA (not comparing the Blues to either of those teams' peaks because obviously they haven't had near the same success) in a game 6 after squandering a 2-0 series lead. You could always tell those Blues teams were one bad break away from imploding. I got the same feeling from Minnesota last night. As @Brian39 said above, as soon as Talbot let that awful goal in after the Wild had carried play, you could see the Wild already thinking about the golf course or the beach.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

Is that Panger in your avatar & if so did he make a joke about Jada?

He was doing a Don Cherry parody.

Berube coached like he won a Cup recently. Evason coached like he has never won a 7 game series at any level as a player or coach which is weird because he did win a series as a player once 28 years ago. The coaching was a stunning mismatch. Evason is not head coach caliber

I agree. But I also think Armstrong gave Berube a lot more useful pieces to manipulate than Evason had. He probably got the maximum from that team in the regular season.

Turns out home ice (game 7) was irrelevant. I think Blues’ players knew that a month ago.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

I really hate this auto-merge thing. It’s a solution for a problem that doesn’t exist.