Half-Assed GDT: Blues @ Wild preseason

[TruBlu]

The team played poorly in front of Allen a metric shit ton of times and it was on him...now we blame it on the skaters when a back up goalie loses a game? Wow

 

[Thallis]

The team played poorly in front of Allen a metric shit ton of times and it was on him...now we blame it on the skaters when a back up goalie loses a game? Wow

Allen was the starting goaltender. He was an established presence. He goaltended a Stanley Cup winning roster to last place. Maybe we shouldn't compare him to a guy entering his 2nd NHL season.

 

[TruBlu]

Allen was the starting goaltender. He was an established presence. He goaltended a Stanley Cup winning roster to last place. Maybe we shouldn't compare him to a guy entering his 2nd NHL season.

Maybe it was the skaters.

 

[Thallis]

Maybe it was the skaters.

The skaters won the Stanley Cup.

 

[TruBlu]

The skaters won the Stanley Cup.

So did Allen

 

[stl76]

The problem is that Brown's path to becoming a difference-maker and securing a roster spot is bleak.

- He's not good enough to be in the top 9 right now, and its hard to see him functioning on the 4th line.
- He's waiver eligible, so sending him down may be as good as losing him for nothing.
- If he makes the team as a spare forward, how is he going to get enough minutes or experience to get better?
- If he's doomed to go down on waivers to have at least the chance of further AHL development, the time to send him is now when every team is scrambling with their final cuts. Later in the year, its more likely other teams will have roster room to gamble on him.

Maybe the Blues keep him for a while and try to feed him occasional starts, let him practice with the team. But I just think its pretty unlikely he's going to develop enough for that path to lead to a useful Blues player. That's the part that reminds ME of Yakupov.

I sincerely hope we're all wrong about him. Maybe he deserves a chance to hang with the club and show he can contribute. But it would be kind of lame to do that at the expense of another guy who has done more to earn a spot.

I think the battle for the #3LW and #4LW is between Kostin and Brown right now (w/ Neighbours rotating in on LW and the lines being reshuffled based on which line they want him on). Not saying Brown is a lock to make the roster, but I think he is capable of handling either one of the bottom 6 LW slots.

Except it is true. I have established my "going against group think" cred pretty solidly. But sometimes a group thinks a certain way because its true. I have specifically watched Brown for fairly large sections of multiple games this pre-season, rewinding multiple plays to specifically see how he played off-puck. I have never seen someone so unwilling to even briefly touch another player in any contact sport I've ever watched. I legitimately think he has a psychological fear of even rubbing up against an opposing player. I am not joking or exaggerating when I say this. I honestly think he suffers from some phobia.

He bumped shoulders with a puck carrier once that looked almost accidental as Brown was trying to move out of the way. The puck carrier didn't expect him to move away and moved with him. After the contact, Brown stopped skating, kinda jumped, and looked shocked and disturbed by it. When he is bending down to pick up a puck, he straightens up and completely disengages from the puck if an opposing player comes near him. I mean complete disengagement, he takes his stick off the ice, puts his arms close to his body and makes himself as skinny as he he can. I've seen this multiple times. I saw him throw a cross check on the forecheck where he held his stick out at complete arms length and turned his face away from the "contact". I use contact in quotes because there was none. He missed the check because he was turning his face away and coming in super awkward. I specifically looked for him hitting someone, watching him on defense and the forecheck as much as camera angles allowed. The accidental bump is all I saw (stats bear this out as he has one hit).

I agree that he is a gifted playmaker. But he is no Adam Oates, He is not so gifted that we can have him completely give up on any contested puck battle and try to play matador on the forecheck. He doesn't have to be a difference maker physically. But he needs to fight long enough on puck battles to allow teammates to come in. He needs to forecheck well enough to at least make the opposing player slow down enough to go around him. Without doing that, we won't have the puck enough for his play making to matter.

I honestly don't know how to respond to this. Watching Brown's game and coming to the conclusion that he has a psychological fear of being touched is not a sane conclusion to reach IMO. But if that's your opinion then that's your opinion.

Perunovich looked okay, overall, and didn't look like he didn't belong. Brown looked terrible defending on the game winning goal. He just let the puck carrier go to an open space and fire the puck by Husso. He didn't close in on him and try to impede his progress towards the goal, or his view of the goalie and net. That was his man. Brown, earlier, made a couple good passes to his linemates, but he won't be able to play for Berube if he doesn't play 2-way hockey. Kostin didn't do much that was noticeable. For someone, who 3 years ago, looked like he might, with some experience, eventually become a solid power forward in The NHL, he hasn't progressed much over that period.

Agreed, that OT goal was the result of poor defending all around. It looked like Brown thought he and Walman would switch off coverage, but he has to know that you can't switch right there in the slot (even if the plan was to play a man-to-man coverage as is usual in OT). Like, the plan might've been to have Walman cover the goal scorer once they were set up defensively, but you can't leave the wild player that much room in the slot with the puck on his stick while you and your defenseman switch man coverage.

I'm happy with the way Husso played. His play, most of last season, looked very shaky to me, other than a couple good games. He looked good tonight. Maybe he'll have more confidence, and play better this season.

Yeah Husso was solid tonight. He probably wants that second goal back, but I thought the team failed him the last 2 goals. Nothing he could do on the deflection for the game tying goal, and the OT goal was the result of poor defensive play.

 

[Majorityof1]

I honestly don't know how to respond to this. Watching Brown's game and coming to the conclusion that he has a psychological fear of being touched is not a sane conclusion to reach IMO. But if that's your opinion then that's your opinion.

You would think. But how else can you explain a hockey player trying to avoid hitting someone and then stopping skating after accidental contact? Can you think of another example of him actually hitting or scuffling with someone on the boards, or coming into close contact with another player in anyway? If I see him do that, I'll revise my opinion. But I have looked and have not seen it. Seriously, give me one example of him doing anything even mildly physical.

 

[Bluesnatic27]

Maybe it was the skaters.

Well the same skaters posted achieved the 3rd lowest xGA from 2016 - 2019 of any team in the league.

Yet, all of Allen's underlying numbers puts him in the bottom 3rd of the league for all goalies that played more than 5000 minutes, i.e. starting goalies.

Maybe Allen just wasn't a fit a for the Blues, but Allen's problems were most definitely because of Allen, not because of his defensively great skaters.

 

[Robb_K]

I think the battle for the #3LW and #4LW is between Kostin and Brown right now (w/ Neighbours rotating in on LW and the lines being reshuffled based on which line they want him on). Not saying Brown is a lock to make the roster, but I think he is capable of handling either one of the bottom 6 LW slots.


I honestly don't know how to respond to this. Watching Brown's game and coming to the conclusion that he has a psychological fear of being touched is not a sane conclusion to reach IMO. But if that's your opinion then that's your opinion.


Agreed, that OT goal was the result of poor defending all around. It looked like Brown thought he and Walman would switch off coverage, but he has to know that you can't switch right there in the slot (even if the plan was to play a man-to-man coverage as is usual in OT). Like, the plan might've been to have Walman cover the goal scorer once they were set up defensively, but you can't leave the wild player that much room in the slot with the puck on his stick while you and your defenseman switch man coverage.


Yeah Husso was solid tonight. He probably wants that second goal back, but I thought the team failed him the last 2 goals. Nothing he could do on the deflection for the game tying goal, and the OT goal was the result of poor defensive play.

And the 1st goal wasn't really a blamable goal on him, as it was shot from almost an impossible angle, and it was shot perfectly into the only few centimetres it could have landed in and still be inside the net, in the very upper right corner. It was an absolutely perfect shot and the only place he could have gotten it to score, when it looked like he was already behind the goal line. He came up with several really great saves. Had he not, the score could have been 6 or 7 to 3. The game reminded me of The Blues under Hitch, when they got out to 2 or 3 goal leads, then stopped skating hard and playing aggressively, tried to sit on the lead, and ended up being tied and lost in OT.

 

[Robb_K]

Except it is true. I have established my "going against group think" cred pretty solidly. But sometimes a group thinks a certain way because its true. I have specifically watched Brown for fairly large sections of multiple games this pre-season, rewinding multiple plays to specifically see how he played off-puck. I have never seen someone so unwilling to even briefly touch another player in any contact sport I've ever watched. I legitimately think he has a psychological fear of even rubbing up against an opposing player. I am not joking or exaggerating when I say this. I honestly think he suffers from some phobia.

He bumped shoulders with a puck carrier once that looked almost accidental as Brown was trying to move out of the way. The puck carrier didn't expect him to move away and moved with him. After the contact, Brown stopped skating, kinda jumped, and looked shocked and disturbed by it. When he is bending down to pick up a puck, he straightens up and completely disengages from the puck if an opposing player comes near him. I mean complete disengagement, he takes his stick off the ice, puts his arms close to his body and makes himself as skinny as he he can. I've seen this multiple times. I saw him throw a cross check on the forecheck where he held his stick out at complete arms length and turned his face away from the "contact". I use contact in quotes because there was none. He missed the check because he was turning his face away and coming in super awkward. I specifically looked for him hitting someone, watching him on defense and the forecheck as much as camera angles allowed. The accidental bump is all I saw (stats bear this out as he has one hit).

I agree that he is a gifted playmaker. But he is no Adam Oates, He is not so gifted that we can have him completely give up on any contested puck battle and try to play matador on the forecheck. He doesn't have to be a difference maker physically. But he needs to fight long enough on puck battles to allow teammates to come in. He needs to forecheck well enough to at least make the opposing player slow down enough to go around him. Without doing that, we won't have the puck enough for his play making to matter.

From what I've seen of his play, I agree that he seems to shy away from contact. But, why in The World would anyone with such a phobia choose Ice Hockey for a career??? - EVEN if his father was an NHL player!

And how has he gotten all the way to knocking on the back door of The NHL. If he doesn't commit 100% to playing hard in the 200 foot game, he'll never get a chance to prove himself at The NHL level with Berube as head coach. He's got quite a bit to work on. I hope he'll be waived to The AHL soon, and go unclaimed, so he can work on his game. From what I've sen of his play, there are 5 forwards The Blues have fighting over the Forward 10-15 positions I'd rather see The Blues keep up than Brown.