Post-Game Talk: WCQF: Blues def. Canucks - 3-2 (OT) (Miller, Pettersson)

[Phil Brooks]

Does Boeser even have a shot yet in this series? Is he injured from skating hard in the Minny series? I don't understand this player. He looked great against Minny but he's back to floating and looking like a slug

I think he got 2 shots in at the end of the game/OT, but something definitely looks off with him.

 

[Ace of Hades]

Someone needs to take a cordless trimmer and shave his beard during a scrum. Steal his voodoo beard power.

O Reilly is even more dangerous than Pietrangelo at this point.

 

[Jovofan]

Too bad Levio isn't available to replace Virtanen

I second this. Leivo is a terrific depth forward that can play pretty much anywhere in the lineup and be effective and chip in the odd goal. It's a shame about the injury because now his presence would be a great addition. If we had him and Toffoli we might actually be able to put together three solid lines.

 

[Bertuzzzi44]

I second this. Leivo is a terrific depth forward that can play pretty much anywhere in the lineup and be effective and chip in the odd goal. It's a shame about the injury because now his presence would be a great addition. If we had him and Toffoli we might actually be able to put together three solid lines.

Agreed. Leivo can actually maintain possession and produce somewhat offensively, could really use him this series. Any word on Toffoli’s availability?

 

[sting101]

Unfortunate finish but a hard fought game. Too bad because a OT goal for us and that would have been a dagger. Massive difference in this series is developing.....losing Myers made our D much weaker and our wingers are vastly inferior to the Blues at this stage.

Roussel Eriksson Virtanen Boeser MacEwen Motte just cannot make positive plays often enough and are starting to tilt the ice to the point of wearing us down brutally. Wish we had Leivo and Toffoli so badly right now. Brock and Jake really need to be better than this. Not sustaining any attack time down low on the Blues defense who are starting to get really active is a big problem. Motte playing stupid minutes is another problem.

on D Troy Stecher got abused in top4 minutes tonight. Magnified the loss of Myers big time. Fantenberg and Benn played simple solid games. Edler was good but is starting to get lead footed and Tanev and Hughes played well but are tasked with too much heavy lifting due to injury and a lack of push back by our forwards that i touched on.

Down the middle Petey was dangerous and scored and set up beauties. Bo was good but is playing with the Eriksson the black hole. Couldn't sustain anything with his inabilities. Sutter was good but also lacked competent wingers and Beagle was decent in his role

Markstrom continues to be a rock

Hope we have a couple healthy bodies back really soon and Travis has some tough decisions on personnel to deal with. His decision to not play Petey 4 on 4 was brutal as was his bench management tonight with Loui and Motte. Cant be making errors like that and expect to beat the Champs.

 

[sting101]

yes and so are Schwartz and Perron who have been the 2 best wingers in this series

 

[vanuck]

With our roster already having enough holes as it is, the advantages we had going in were goaltending and possibly our top 6. Green's coaching however cannot be below par against a strong 5v5 team like the Blues if we're going to win. Thus seeing him rely overly much on the bottom 6 to win games and sitting back on leads feels like watching someone who might be about to scratch off the winning combo but chooses to rip the lottery ticket in half instead. Infuriating.

 

[David71]

pearson looks a bit off same with boeser no shots until ot moment... fantenberg and benn were a good pairing. simple plays blocked shots and made some hits. time to make some changes upfront. jake out adam in.

 

[Blue and Green]

Fantenberg and Benn gave it the ol' college try and they weren't making bad mistakes, but there just isn't enough talent-- a career #7 and a career #6 who had a rough start and lost his lineup spot to the #7. Plus, they're not really a good fit as both are competent third-pair defenders in their own zone but aren't good enough in transition and provide no offensive spark whatsoever.

 

[BB06]

Fantenberg and Benn gave it the ol' college try and they weren't making bad mistakes, but there just isn't enough talent-- a career #7 and a career #6 who had a rough start and lost his lineup spot to the #7. Plus, they're not really a good fit as both are competent third-pair defenders in their own zone but aren't good enough in transition and provide no offensive spark whatsoever.

Something that was glaring today as well. All Ozone play died on their sticks. Team is gravely missing Myers no matter how much his detractors try to shit on him.

 

[Fedz]

Only thing we can hope STL does for tomorrow's game, is to play Binnington.

Doubtful though.

I actually disagree with this. Allen came in with zero pressure. Now that they're down 2-1, the pressure starts to mount on him if he starts Game 4.

Allen has historically shown that he faults under pressure and is as inconsistent as they come.

I think our hope should be that after he played his best playoff game in 4 years and most Hockey in over a year, that we want to see if can do it again. My money is on us breaking through on him tomorrow night. Especially when the NHL comes down on the officials for the lack of calls.

 

[BB06]

You love to see it

 

[mriswith]

Fantenberg and Benn played way better this game than they did during the regular season. Very encouraging if that keeps up.

Everything else isn't a surprise. Need Gallant, a new bottom six, and a game plan that isn't let Markstrom get shelled until someone on an ELC scores off the counterattack.

 

[Fedz]

Something that was glaring today as well. All Ozone play died on their sticks. Team is gravely missing Myers no matter how much his detractors try to shit on him.

If Myers is in tonight, we have a 3-0 lead in the series.

He may drive us crazy but he is a legitimate top 4 Dman. Without him we only have three legit top 4 D in the lineup. Not to mention the extra ice time Edler and Stecher play without him significantly decreases their effectiveness.

 

[Peen]

yes and so are Schwartz and Perron who have been the 2 best wingers in this series

I think JT is right up there as well but I agree. Those guys are buzzing 24/7 and they understand each other so well.

Anyways, we've all been calling for Gaudette in with the bottom six being hemmed hard in this series. Hopefully he comes in. Ideally both him and Toffoli in would be amazing for our top nine.

We really miss Leivo, honestly.

 

[Blue and Green]

Fantenberg and Benn played way better this game than they did during the regular season. Very encouraging if that keeps up.

Expected goals for: 0.15
Expected goals against: 0.97
Scoring chances for: 0
Scoring chances against: 15

And that was in sheltered minutes with most of us agreeing that they were doing about as well as could be reasonably expected. (I have low expectations.) Transition and offensive zone is hopeless because neither of them have any talent with the puck on their stick. Can't pass it, can't skate with it, can't shoot it.

 

[Lonny Bohonos]

We let Brad Richardson go.

For nothing.

Zero.

Zilch.

Nada.

Nil.

But it's not like he could score in OT, right? Right?

Well we let Bonino go so...

 

[mossey3535]

We need a 3C that has some offensive ability. Right now, we have two 4C's in our bottom six. Sutter and Beagle are near the same player. Frustrating.

For all this shit we give Beagle, if we didn't have Sutter it would be easier to swallow his contract. Also Sutter had a playoff burst for like 3-4 games but was pretty much useless most of the regular season. At least Beagle is just Beagle the whole time. Not really his fault Green overplays him. Also he's not as much of a dick and fake leader as Sutter.

 

[mossey3535]

pearson looks a bit off same with boeser no shots until ot moment... fantenberg and benn were a good pairing. simple plays blocked shots and made some hits. time to make some changes upfront. jake out adam in.

Not talked about enough, apart from some lasers that he scored on he looks like the same meh player to me.

 

[mossey3535]

I actually disagree with this. Allen came in with zero pressure. Now that they're down 2-1, the pressure starts to mount on him if he starts Game 4.

Allen has historically shown that he faults under pressure and is as inconsistent as they come.

I think our hope should be that after he played his best playoff game in 4 years and most Hockey in over a year, that we want to see if can do it again. My money is on us breaking through on him tomorrow night. Especially when the NHL comes down on the officials for the lack of calls.

Normally I would agree, but Allen was under so much pressure without Binnington. It was unbelievable how much heat he was getting (and deservedly so).

I'm afraid that with this good performance under his belt he's just going to keep going. Basically Binnington was a sieve this series, but he's still more of a safety net than Allen had previously. And he's technically won a Cup already.

Of course I hope I'm wrong and he starts choking but I doubt it.

 

[Lonny Bohonos]

For all this shit we give Beagle, if we didn't have Sutter it would be easier to swallow his contract. Also Sutter had a playoff burst for like 3-4 games but was pretty much useless most of the regular season. At least Beagle is just Beagle the whole time. Not really his fault Green overplays him. Also he's not as much of a dick and fake leader as Sutter.

My biggest issue with them is that they never control the play.

And really a lot of the problems for me are less about the d zone and more about the O zone.

I do not expect them to be offensive dynamos. But they give up the puck or are not in position and the puck is coming back our way right away.

At least a guy like Motte busts his ass to try and stop the transition or hold the puck in.

 

[bossram]

Fantenberg and Benn gave it the ol' college try and they weren't making bad mistakes, but there just isn't enough talent-- a career #7 and a career #6 who had a rough start and lost his lineup spot to the #7. Plus, they're not really a good fit as both are competent third-pair defenders in their own zone but aren't good enough in transition and provide no offensive spark whatsoever.

Exactly this. Fanta and Benn are decent with in-zone play, the problem is they're always there. They just don't have enough puck-moving ability to transition up-ice and get offensive zone time. I think Fanta had like 11% xG. By eye I thought he and Benn made good separations in the D-zone and timely blocks, but you can't spend every shift there, getting a chip-out, and be back to defending.

Edler breaks down and becomes fatigued with heavy usage. You could see it happening the more minutes he played, just started looking slower. I'm a Stecher fan but he's just overmatched in tough minutes too.

I'm the furthest thing from a Myers fan, but they do miss him. He can play 20 minutes and is actually a solid transition defenseman from the D-zone out. His range and skating are a big advantage over Benn.

 

[mossey3535]

Despite Sutter playing better (although not especially in this game IMO) lately, he's still below Leivo regular season level. Neither he or Beagle is actually physical.

 

[bossram]

Despite Sutter playing better (although not especially in this game IMO) lately, he's still below Leivo regular season level. Neither he or Beagle is actually physical.

Honestly Beagle is a disaster. It's just a shelling whenever he's on the ice. Sutter has at least been moderately effective at 3C in the post-season.

MacEwen also wasn't good. He can't make a play in either end of the rink. A lot of people are giving Jake heck, but Mac totally blew his coverage on the Faulk goal. He flew the zone when we didn't have possession and just flat out did not track back hard enough.

Not having Leivo or Toffoli available hurts a ton. There just aren't enough forwards who can drive play. And there's absolutely no one in the lineup that can slow down the ROR line.

 

[mriswith]

Expected goals for: 0.15
Expected goals against: 0.97
Scoring chances for: 0
Scoring chances against: 15

And that was in sheltered minutes with most of us agreeing that they were doing about as well as could be reasonably expected. (I have low expectations.) Transition and offensive zone is hopeless because neither of them have any talent with the puck on their stick. Can't pass it, can't skate with it, can't shoot it.

Don't get me wrong I didn't say they were good. But they were worse during the season than they were this game and kept the puck out the net which was more than I expected.