GDT: WCQF: Game 7 Blues @ Jets 6PM CST FDSNMW/TBS

[TheDizee]

I'm sure in a macro view most of us are happy with what the team accomplished but it's going to take more than 12 hours for the sting of losing Game 7 when you have a 2 goal lead with 2 minutes remaining to go away.

This is group therapy.

I expected them to lose in 5, especially when they dropped the first 2. They were never going to win the cup this year so I am real happy with their performance. The past 2 years the clubs have been so unlikeable that it was hard to watch sometimes. Even the start of the year that was the case. So to have them turn the corner and get past that era of shit hockey is the best thing moving forward.

It is disappointing however that they could not accumulate even more experience for the younger players moving forward.

 

[BadgersandBlues]

Another thing that drives me crazy is that they clog the middle and take away the passing lanes (which is fine) but offer zero pressure on the player with the puck. I watch a lot of hockey and the teams that pressure in those situations seem to have way more success at creating turnovers in that situation and getting the EN.

With the way the Blues, Leafs and others do it (I don't think it's a surprise that Berube's team deploys the same strategy as the Blues), you're essentially hoping to minimize the puck getting through at all, but you have no chance of a turnover, a decreased chance of puck possession and getting an empty netter, and you make it extremely hard on your goaltender if a puck does get through because there's 6-8 guys down low for the puck to deflect off of.

Too much pressure and you'll get burned, but I feel like there has to be a happy medium because what we're doing this season isn't working.

Blues: 13 GA in EN situations
Berube's Leafs: 13 GA in EN situations

I agree - I know our 5v5 zone D employs a similar lack of pressure, especially against puck carriers along the half-wall and the point - which is fine 5v5 b/c generally the offensive team is trying to space out and find seams for scoring opportunities, with taking a shot from the point as a last resort. When you're a man down though, giving people all the time and space in the world is generally catastrophic, b/c they will eventually get the puck through and outnumber you in an area (Usually down low). Pressuring guys speeds them up and forces more bad passes/turnovers, which can lead to ENGs. I think that's the main issue here - we play not to lose, instead of playing to win. I'd rather see us be aggressive and put games out of reach, with the occasional flub that costs us, vs. continually sitting back and hoping that nothing bad happens.

 

[taylord22]

I also want to say that Monty deserves a good amount of blame for this as well. I have two major criticisms - the first is that whatever we are doing in man down situations isn't working. We had the most abysmal PK under him for much of the season until the winning streak. We also gave up the most 6 v 5 goals in the league - something Boston had an issue with as well when he was there. I wonder how much of that is Claude Julien's influence (He's an assistant for us now), as some people have mentioned that Boston still plays man down situations with a lot of the elements of Julien's system, and it hasn't worked out well for them either.

The other issue I have with Monty is that he gets far too conservative far too early. I can understand shortening your bench a bit with say under 5 minutes to go, but he started doing all sorts of stupid shit with 15 minutes left in the game. We kept putting extra faceoff guys out there during D-zone draws, and then when we would win them, the extra guy would scurry off the ice. This would f*** up our breakout, and then subsequently our forecheck. That's why we looked like we were turtling, b/c Monty kept playing stupid games with the lines. Bolduc didn't see the ice once after the 15 minute mark of the third period. Joseph got like two shifts. Kyrou was playing hopscotch - he would pop on, we'd lose possession b/c no one was on the right side, and then he'd have to pop back off. The Joseph-Sunny-Bolduc line had one of the best xGA/60 of any line that played a minimum of 150 minutes - they were just as good, if not better, then the WTF line at holding down the fort - yet by Monty's actions you would never know it. That leads to gassed out players by the end of the game, and then you have situations like we just saw. There's no reason to shorten the bench with 15 minutes to go and up by 2. You roll the lines and continue to play your game, you don't f*** around and give away all the momentum.

I know I should be excited about the long view, b/c it still looks bright, but man I simply cannot right now.

Overusing Faulk, underusing Broberg in key situations is something I put on the staff in addition to not making enough adjustments with the PP. Winnipeg was able to adjust by Game-4 and we didn't do enough to change up the looks. Part of that was the injury to Thomas and him not being able to practice much, but, that's a common hurdle for every playoff team.

Regarding the sitting back - I never know how much of that to attribute to the players vs. coach. Perhaps it's easiest to just call it 50/50. I doubt we walked into the 3rd with the gameplan of sitting back, but when you're deploying Leddy/Suter or Suter/+ with your 1C in order to provide some semblance of insulation, you're going to be forced to sit back just from the lack of decisive puck moving and pinching. Thomas got plenty of shifts with Fowler, too, but far too many entries in the 3rd were predicated on your top line skating 200ft against set pressure. And with only Lines 1 and 4 capable of establishing a forecheck, it broke the flow of the game.

 

[TheDizee]

I’m kinda glad it’s over.

I would have liked to see them go against Dallas for a measuring stick and for more playoff experience for people like Snuggy/Bolduc.

 

[ChicagoBlues]

I truly don’t understand the negativity in this thread. I thought most of us were on the same page, in that we were just happy to be in the playoffs. And we got a game 7 in overtime! Like, that was just an exciting game of hockey.

Good on the Jets for overcoming everything we threw at them. At the end of the day, we were the Cinderella team against the President’s Trophy winner, and we went the distance.

Excellent learning experience for the younger players. Loved that the kids didn’t look out of place with the elevated level of play in the playoffs.

Now we can look to the draft and Armstrong’s last offseason as GM. He hit a home run last summer; maybe he has one more left in him.

Me neither. I don’t get it. In a vacuum, I get it, but we’re not inside of a vacuum; too small. (said in a Zoolander voice).

 

[Snubbed4Vezina]

I also want to say that Monty deserves a good amount of blame for this as well. I have two major criticisms - the first is that whatever we are doing in man down situations isn't working. We had the most abysmal PK under him for much of the season until the winning streak. We also gave up the most 6 v 5 goals in the league - something Boston had an issue with as well when he was there. I wonder how much of that is Claude Julien's influence (He's an assistant for us now), as some people have mentioned that Boston still plays man down situations with a lot of the elements of Julien's system, and it hasn't worked out well for them either.

This is a fair concern. Bruins were near the bottom of the league in EN goals against last season, and they were in the bottom half of the league the year prior too. So we now have three seasons of data that likely puts Monty as one of the worst 5-on-6 coaches in the NHL.

Love Monty, and I'm ecstatic that he's here, but if this is schematic, throw it in the trash.

 

[BadgersandBlues]

If we’re really talking weak points of the game/series, it’s the middle-6, not enough offensive IQ along the blue-line, and poor play 6 on 5. I’d also throw in we didn’t make adjustments to the PP once Winnipeg got a handle on the structure.

We can certainly quibble about 18/25 being iced together - I’m not a fan either - or who flubbed clearing attempts -also agree Faulk shouldn’t be out there- but we lost the war in the macro, not the micro.

Overusing Faulk, underusing Broberg in key situations is something I put on the staff in addition to not making enough adjustments with the PP. Winnipeg was able to adjust by Game-4 and we didn't do enough to change up the looks. Part of that was the injury to Thomas and him not being able to practice much, but, that's a common hurdle for every playoff team.

Regarding the sitting back - I never know how much of that to attribute to the players vs. coach. Perhaps it's easiest to just call it 50/50. I doubt we walked into the 3rd with the gameplan of sitting back, but when you're deploying Leddy/Suter or Suter/+ with your 1C in order to provide some semblance of insulation, you're going to be forced to sit back just from the lack of decisive puck moving and pinching. Thomas got plenty of shifts with Fowler, too, but far too many entries in the 3rd were predicated on your top line skating 200ft against set pressure. And with only Lines 1 and 4 capable of establishing a forecheck, it broke the flow of the game.

I agree with the overusing of Faulk and the underusing of Broberg - I am still in shock we didn't have Fowler OR Broberg out there for either goal against - simple unbelieveable.

I don't think the Players go out there looking to turtle. However, when the coach makes extremely conservative moves almost from the start of the period, it's tough to get the flow going. The Joseph-Sunny-Bolduc line was our second best "regular" line in terms of xGF% this series, with a fair slant towards defensive starts - yet with the way Monty deployed them in G7 you would never know it. I wish I could filter out these sub 3 minute lines but here are our lines 5v5 per NST:

We didn't shelter that line at all - you can't see it here but that line had a 27% Ozone faceoff %. The Joseph-Sunny-Bolduc line was more then capable of handling 5v5 minutes. Yet we didn't give them a shift together past the 15 minute mark. How are lines supposed to establish forechecks if our coach doesn't play them? Way too much tomfoolery by Monty in this game and others (He did the same exact thing in the last Edmonton game and it burned us there too). If you have a multiple goal lead, keep doing what you've been doing for the first 40 minutes, don't get f***ing cute.

I think Monty is a great coach, and he's done a lot to clean up us at 5v5, but the man needs to figure out his late game usage.

 

[Beninnola]

I’m not negative at all. I can’t be mad at success like the jets had. Their fans needed it too.

Season was a huge success imo. Lots of development time.

For me it Would have been okay if we were bad then got a great pick but it’s even better to do what we did and really identify the weaknesses in the group as it relates to a future deep run.

I’m pumped we get Fowler next year. Dude is amazing and with Broberg it looks like it’s a super strong advantage.

 

[RustyCat]

Jets fan here coming in peace. Want to say that holy hell you folks have a heavy, hard hitting, gritty team..I recognize it stings but I want to say that I have really grown an appreciation for the Blues and the fan base. What an incredible series. I would want Brayden Schenn on my team any day, he's a f***ing warrior. Great series and mad respect to the Blues.

 

[SirPaste]

This is a fair concern. Bruins were near the bottom of the league in EN goals against last season, and they were in the bottom half of the league the year prior too. So we now have three seasons of data that likely puts Monty as one of the worst 5-on-6 coaches in the NHL.

Love Monty, and I'm ecstatic that he's here, but if this is schematic, throw it in the trash.

To be fair, the Blues have been garbage at 6-on-5 for years not just this year, but it is definitely something to look at.

 

[pseudoswede]

Has anyone found a stat on how many goals the Blues have given up when facing a 6-on-5 this season? I believe I can count at least 10 (including last night), but I'm sure that number is higher, and it's probably higher than the sum of the other 31 teams.

 

[SirPaste]

After the shock/sting of last night has started to fade, I agree with most in here that the season overall was definitely a huge success. We were much better than I anticipated and despite the brutal way it ended that was a hell of a series with Winnipeg, congrats to them and their fans. There is a lot to look forward to and I think the team is in a fantastic spot moving forward.

 

[BlueDream]

I truly don’t understand the negativity in this thread. I thought most of us were on the same page, in that we were just happy to be in the playoffs. And we got a game 7 in overtime! Like, that was just an exciting game of hockey.

Good on the Jets for overcoming everything we threw at them. At the end of the day, we were the Cinderella team against the President’s Trophy winner, and we went the distance.

Excellent learning experience for the younger players. Loved that the kids didn’t look out of place with the elevated level of play in the playoffs.

Now we can look to the draft and Armstrong’s last offseason as GM. He hit a home run last summer; maybe he has one more left in him.

What a ridiculous statement.

You don’t understand why people are negative after the team blew a 2-goal lead with under 2 mins left to blow the series? That’s a true choke job that brings out a lot of emotions, despite whatever you think the expectations were at the beginning of the season.

Sorry but I just hate comments like this, as if you expect everything to be sunshine and rainbows after a loss like that. Give your head a shake, this isn’t rocket science.

 

[Louie the Blue]

I truly don’t understand the negativity in this thread. I thought most of us were on the same page, in that we were just happy to be in the playoffs. And we got a game 7 in overtime! Like, that was just an exciting game of hockey.

Good on the Jets for overcoming everything we threw at them. At the end of the day, we were the Cinderella team against the President’s Trophy winner, and we went the distance.

Excellent learning experience for the younger players. Loved that the kids didn’t look out of place with the elevated level of play in the playoffs.

Now we can look to the draft and Armstrong’s last offseason as GM. He hit a home run last summer; maybe he has one more left in him.

I will start off by saying last night doesn’t change my overall positive outlook on the future and being happy with how the overall season played out.

However, whether the Jets are a President’s Cup team or not, it’s inexcusable to blow a 3-1 lead with under 2 minutes to go, especially in a Game 7 elimination game, and have more experienced players (Buchnevich/Faulk) make mistakes that weren’t forced by anyone other than themselves that contributed to Winnipeg scoring. Additionally, the Blues did not play well a majority of the second or third period. They should have never let Winnipeg be in a situation to tie, much less win in OT.

 

[TheDizee]

Has anyone found a stat on how many goals the Blues have given up when facing a 6-on-5 this season? I believe I can count at least 10 (including last night), but I'm sure that number is higher, and it's probably higher than the sum of the other 31 teams.

It was 15, not sure if that includes last night.

Even during the winning streak, they were doing it. Did it vs PIT/VAN/COL. Did it against Nashville and Anaheim as well but they came after the buzzer went. Could have been so much higher.

 

[Stelmacki]

Why? We're tougher, have productive defensemen and a superior goalie. I think we could have at least taken the Stars to 6.

Tougher teams don’t willingly give up a 2 goal lead with 3 minutes left in the 3rd period of game 7. Just laughable…

 

[Louie the Blue]

Also forgot to mention the part where Winnipeg was without their 1C the entire game and one of the best defenseman in the league being out a majority of the game, leading to Winnipeg having to double shift with 5 defensemen.

 

[TheDizee]

Also forgot to mention the part where Winnipeg was without their 1C the entire game and one of the best defenseman in the league being out a majority of the game, leading to Winnipeg having to double shift with 5 defensemen.

Blues didn't take advantage of this in either G5/7. To me they were not as physical as they were in every other game of the series last night and I think they were scared of taking penalties. They could have absolutely worn down and worked that Jets D core better.

 

[TheOrganist]

What a ridiculous statement.

You don’t understand why people are negative after the team blew a 2-goal lead with under 2 mins left to blow the series? That’s a true choke job that brings out a lot of emotions, despite whatever you think the expectations were at the beginning of the season.

Sorry but I just hate comments like this, as if you expect everything to be sunshine and rainbows after a loss like that. Give your head a shake, this isn’t rocket science.

Exactly. I mean this is right up there with the Yzerman game in terms of gut punch so regardless of expectations going into the series it became incredibly winnable with Winnipeg's injuries and Hellabuyck's goaltending so of course there is some bitterness with how Game 7 shook out.

 

[AyeBah]

Another thing that drives me crazy is that they clog the middle and take away the passing lanes (which is fine) but offer zero pressure on the player with the puck. I watch a lot of hockey and the teams that pressure in those situations seem to have way more success at creating turnovers in that situation and getting the EN.

With the way the Blues, Leafs and others do it (I don't think it's a surprise that Berube's team deploys the same strategy as the Blues), you're essentially hoping to minimize the puck getting through at all, but you have no chance of a turnover, a decreased chance of puck possession and getting an empty netter, and you make it extremely hard on your goaltender if a puck does get through because there's 6-8 guys down low for the puck to deflect off of.

Too much pressure and you'll get burned, but I feel like there has to be a happy medium because what we're doing this season isn't working.

Blues: 13 GA in EN situations
Berube's Leafs: 13 GA in EN situations

We play 6 on 5s the same as a 5 on 4, makes no sense. Basically, play in a box

 

[Power Surge]

Tampa fan coming by to say your team fought hard and deserved better. Keep your head up you have a good team.

 

[ChicagoBlues]

I agree with the overusing of Faulk and the underusing of Broberg - I am still in shock we didn't have Fowler OR Broberg out there for either goal against - simple unbelieveable.

I don't think the Players go out there looking to turtle. However, when the coach makes extremely conservative moves almost from the start of the period, it's tough to get the flow going. The Joseph-Sunny-Bolduc line was our second best "regular" line in terms of xGF% this series, with a fair slant towards defensive starts - yet with the way Monty deployed them in G7 you would never know it. I wish I could filter out these sub 3 minute lines but here are our lines 5v5 per NST:

View attachment 1029995

We didn't shelter that line at all - you can't see it here but that line had a 27% Ozone faceoff %. The Joseph-Sunny-Bolduc line was more then capable of handling 5v5 minutes. Yet we didn't give them a shift together past the 15 minute mark. How are lines supposed to establish forechecks if our coach doesn't play them? Way too much tomfoolery by Monty in this game and others (He did the same exact thing in the last Edmonton game and it burned us there too). If you have a multiple goal lead, keep doing what you've been doing for the first 40 minutes, don't get f***ing cute.

I think Monty is a great coach, and he's done a lot to clean up us at 5v5, but the man needs to figure out his late game usage.

Good post.

 

[TheDizee]

Exactly. I mean this is right up there with the Yzerman game in terms of gut punch so regardless of expectations going into the series it became incredibly winnable with Winnipeg's injuries and Hellabuyck's goaltending so of course there is some bitterness with how Game 7 shook out.

Yzerman goal was 100x worse. I could care less about the Jets, but f*** the Red Wings. They will always be my most hated team. This team was never going to win a cup so while it sucks, we are not good enough yet to go through 4 rounds against cup contenders. And Dallas is going to eat whoever won this series bacon anyways. Jets are in trouble as the Stars are getting healthier and the Jets are going the other way with lots of banged up people.

Off the top of my head, these playoff losses were much worse:

Rams SB 36 - Refs a big part of this but Rams turned it over which was the only way they'd lose that year.
Rams 2003 double OT loss to Panthers - where Martz totally cucked out with chance to win game on last drive in 4th and settled for FG
Blues 2003 - Blew 3-1 lead to Canucks in a year where COL/DET were yoinked.
Cardinals 2012 NLCS - Played like mental midgets for the last 3 games and blew a 3-1 series lead.
Cardinals 1996 NLCS - Could have sent Ozzie out with a WS, instead they got outscored like 30-2 in the last 3 games and blew a 3-1 series lead against the Braves.

and ofcourse the Yzerman goal where they blew a 3-2 series lead after having Fuhr hurt due to Kypreos dirty Kadri like play

SB 36 will always be the worst loss in STL history until some team dethrones it.

 

[Louie the Blue]

Blues didn't take advantage of this in either G5/7. To me they were not as physical as they were in every other game of the series last night and I think they were scared of taking penalties. They could have absolutely worn down and worked that Jets D core better.

I think after they went up 2-0 last night they took their foot off the pedal and played to not lose and they got the result they deserved.

Game 5 should have been more of an advantage since Winnipeg had to game plan how to deal with Schielfe’s injury live.

 

[ds774622]

Has anyone found a stat on how many goals the Blues have given up when facing a 6-on-5 this season? I believe I can count at least 10 (including last night), but I'm sure that number is higher, and it's probably higher than the sum of the other 31 teams.

The only team that gave up more with the other goalie pulled, than empty netters scored. Abysmal. https://morehockeystats.com/teams/en