GDT: Game 11/82 Blues @ Philly 6PM CST FDSNMW

Oberyn

Prince of Dorne
Mar 27, 2011
14,426
3,987
That was a terrible turnover by Kyrou in the 3rd which lead to the game winning goal. I thought he played a pretty solid game up until then with the chances he was generating but he's got to find a way to get the puck in the net. As much as he deserves heat for that turnover, it is quite obvious that he is trying to do too much himself due to the absence of Thomas and also the lack of any formidable centers. There is no one else on this team that has the ability to drive the play like Kyrou and it's pretty clear he recognizes that himself. If Kyrou's chances were a few cms more accurate, he takes over that game. Unfortunately he burned himself on the rush by overskating the puck and the Flyers capitalized.

Schenn, Buchnevich, and Neighbours were all bad again. Schenn is basically cooked at this point, I expected his play to deteriorate but his hands have turned into stone. Buchnevich is not a center and his play is suffering because of it. Neighbours continues to make terrible turnovers in the offensive zone and can't achieve anything unless the puck is gift-wrapped for him at the front of the net.

At this point, it's pretty clear our center depth is shit. Bannister has Buch at center to try to alleviate this but it is evident that this tactic has failed. So why not just move Buch back to wing and accept our center woes? At least then our wingers will be passable. Taking Buch off center duty is not really a loss at this point. Just run some combination of Schenn/Holloway/Faksa/Walker/Sundqvist even though it's ass. Buchnevich is a far superior to all these players but he is far superior as a winger not a center.
 

Brian39

Registered User
Apr 24, 2014
7,560
14,195
Can't say that I'm upset about failing to get a point (with a potential for a 2nd in OT) last night. My eyes tell me that we're not good enough to bank enough points without Thomas to still have a realistic chance at playoffs when he gets back into the lineup. Maybe they will prove me wrong in November and we'll look back on this game as a missed opportunity. But I think it is far more likely that this season ends with us caring about draft position.

That said, it would have been nice to see Schenn's tip squeak through the pads with 25 seconds left. Even if that puck didn't squeak through the pads hard enough to find the net on its own, he crashed the net hard and would have had a good chance of banging it home if it trickled at all. Any chance of team success in the next month hinges on him stepping up and playing like a top 6 center and I thought he was pretty close to that last night. I'd have liked to see him get rewarded with a game-tying goal (that hopefully kicks off a scoring streak).

Oh well.

I think this team is going to continue being tough to watch for the next month.
 

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