Half-Assed GDT: There's a game today against the Hawks

[execwrite1]

I'm liking many of the players on this team.

I don't think I like the team.

 

[AjaxManifesto]

Garbage.

I won't waste my time and money.

It obvious these guys only want to put in about 15 minutes of work in any particular game and ghost out for the remaining 45 minutes. All that talent is wasted by feeble minds. DA and his front office team need to start evaluating a player's heart and drive.

 

[Sgt Schultz]

I'm liking many of the players on this team.

I don't think I like the team.

That is a distinct possibility. Sometimes rosters are built that have a lot of talent but it just doesn't gel together. It happens in all sports.

I'm hoping my original assessment coming into the season is the case: that they need and will acquire a strong d-man and the rest will work itself out.

The problem with a more offensive style is that while it may be fun to watch and fits with many peoples' view of the modern NHL, when it goes in a slump, it results in losses. In general, good defense does not suffer slumps. It may not be enough to win some games, but unless somebody key back there gets hurt, it is consistent. That is actually pretty true in any sport. Obviously, the goal is a balance to some level, and I'm not convinced we have that......yet.

 

[Bye Bye Blueston]

Is it possible we just overrate the talent level? Its the wheel of Blues disappointment. Someone needs to re-post it, because it is so freaking accurate. In the off-season, we are so high on everything, and then when the team plays below those ridiculous expectations, the world is falling. Obviously, we need to beat teams like Chicago and Arizona, but teams have off-nights. I think we as a collective group judge the team too much by how they play when all things are clicking. We set that as the baseline of average play, and anything less is a disappointment. By the baseline, average is somewhat below that. No team operates at peak capacity game in and game out. If we reset the baseline to a more appropriate level, losses like this are less dissapointing (though still disappointing).

Look at the someone like Saad. Last year Colorado was a one line team and he was garbage. Then we sign him and Armstrong is a genius to get such a great player. Then he went through a stretch where he struggled and he wasn't a great signing. Then he gets hot and scores some goals, and Armstrong is a genius again. Neither Armstrong's genius, nor Saad's skill/effort changed during that time. Players just go through peaks and valleys. Its our reaction to them that changes so drastically.

This team has at least one serious roster construction issue. We might also have some chemistry issues with several brand new players and youngsters getting more minutes than they have previously. Both those could correct themselves over time. The roster construction issue with no strong defensive LD will take roster moves or a gameplan change to fix. The other could just sort itself out naturally. Either way, it was foolish to have expected this team to maintain the hot start at the start of the season. People smarter than I were posting about all the hidden red flags. Most of the board just chose to ignore them until they punched us in the nose.

You make good points. And some of what looks like lack of effort is lack of confidence of struggling team. But that doesn't make this team less maddening when there is such a huge swing between periods.

 

[jura]

oh why we suck, we're so deep

 

[BlueDream]

Is it possible we just overrate the talent level? Its the wheel of Blues disappointment. Someone needs to re-post it, because it is so freaking accurate. In the off-season, we are so high on everything, and then when the team plays below those ridiculous expectations, the world is falling. Obviously, we need to beat teams like Chicago and Arizona, but teams have off-nights. I think we as a collective group judge the team too much by how they play when all things are clicking. We set that as the baseline of average play, and anything less is a disappointment. By the baseline, average is somewhat below that. No team operates at peak capacity game in and game out. If we reset the baseline to a more appropriate level, losses like this are less dissapointing (though still disappointing).

Look at the someone like Saad. Last year Colorado was a one line team and he was garbage. Then we sign him and Armstrong is a genius to get such a great player. Then he went through a stretch where he struggled and he wasn't a great signing. Then he gets hot and scores some goals, and Armstrong is a genius again. Neither Armstrong's genius, nor Saad's skill/effort changed during that time. Players just go through peaks and valleys. Its our reaction to them that changes so drastically.

This team has at least one serious roster construction issue. We might also have some chemistry issues with several brand new players and youngsters getting more minutes than they have previously. Both those could correct themselves over time. The roster construction issue with no strong defensive LD will take roster moves or a gameplan change to fix. The other could just sort itself out naturally. Either way, it was foolish to have expected this team to maintain the hot start at the start of the season. People smarter than I were posting about all the hidden red flags. Most of the board just chose to ignore them until they punched us in the nose.

I don’t think this is it at all.

The Blues clearly have talented players. ROR, Perron, Kyrou, Thomas, Buch, Tarasenko, Schenn and Saad would be in almost anyone’s top 6. And I just named 8 guys. Bozak, Sundqvist, Barbashev would crack anyone’s bottom 6. Then you got Kostin, a young guy who at the very least is a legitimate 4th liner. That entire top 12 cracks basically any lineup in the league, because they’ve either done it before on other teams or it’s common sense based on their stats. We don’t really have any players, besides spares like Walman, that nobody would want - contracts aside.

The Blues have talent and it isn’t just us wearing homer goggles. But individual players having talent doesn’t translate into everyone coming together and playing as a team, and that’s the issue.