Game 1 Thoughts

[TheJackBurton]

The biggest issue and one that continually bites this team in the (donkey) and has for numerous years now is this teams inability to clear the puck out of their zone.

I can't count how many times yesterday they had the puck in their defensive zone and just gave it away which led to mad scrambles in their zone.

Kyrous ill advised cross ice pass late in the first. Parayko twice having the puck on his stick with no one around and whiffed on both of them.

Then of course this ever increasing issue of closing out periods. Do they not realize a period is 20 minutes not 18?

[stljrs]

Snuggy vs Texier? No contest. We are not a cup team. The kids need to play to learn. Hit the video today. Show them what they did well and where they need improvement and send them out game 2. They will grow a lot in 4-7 games. Texier is not your future. Snuggy and Boldy are. Wasn't it Snuggy that sent the reset pass back to Fowler on our PP goal? Thought it was a good play by the kid.

[Harry York 37]

Snuggy vs Texier? No contest. We are not a cup team. The kids need to play to learn. Hit the video today. Show them what they did well and where they need improvement and send them out game 2. They will grow a lot in 4-7 games. Texier is not your future. Snuggy and Boldy are. Wasn't it Snuggy that sent the reset pass back to Fowler on our PP goal? Thought it was a good play by the kid.

This brings up an interesting quandary. While everything you say (except it was Buchnevich that kept the puck in for Fowler- Snuggy's pass was rushed and too far off the mark to be handled cleanly on Fowler's backhand. Snuggy didn't present any screen for the shot, he stood back hoping for a tip...) is true for a Coach like Monty, today? Monty needs to win a playoff series in a bad way.
Would DA need to step in and tell Monty that tomorrow is more important than today?
Will Monty feel that way?

I doubt it.

[seattleblue]

I thought the game encapsulated where the Blues are as a team perfectly. On the one hand we all saw they had a high end mode of playing they're capable of, and they showed that for a lot of this game and it felt good to watch that, to see the team proving out its components.

Then another team who has a whole agenda of their own got an opportunity to put the Blues on their heels. Due to the way playoff momentum works whenever Team A outplays Team B for the first half of the game and leads by a goal and then more or less tries to hold serve from there on out, it's an iffy proposition and Team B can come back and either earn a win or earn a steal of a game they shouldn't win.

We mostly agreed they are playing with house money they have to get experience spending it. They did well yesterday then got sidetracked. Yesterday's lesson was pretty obvious, and we have to watch them learn some lessons for a year, maybe two or three years, about how to throw and take playoff punches. It was a pretty exciting game, it's been awhile since we had real stakes. Go Blues

[swatski]

I know we are all looking at it from the Blues standpoint and agree with just about everything you guys say. My only add is that the Jets are one heck of a team and they cause some of the problems we saw the Blues have. I do think Binner messed up on 3rd goal, not buttoned up there with the 5 hole covered by the pads and/or stick. Misjudged the pass.

[JoshInFenton]

Thoughts:

1st Period: Played a Sustainable for 10 minutes or so of the game. Hit when it was reasonable to do so, played within themselves and were positionally sound, forced Winnipeg into a lot of really mediocre shots to start the period, they didn't find their feet until near the end of the period only after a penalty that i would consider extremely mediocre (in fact, the first two penalties were really mediocre calls i felt, you let them play early and you call the captains over and tell them you are going to start taking 1 guy going forward and that should handle it). They started chasing the action more and more as the period went on both in terms of defense and in terms of physicality, which gave more easy zone entries and access to prime ice, which inevitably led to goal #2. I don't fault Binner on either, the first he had no idea was gonna get tipped in direct and up high that was terrible luck, and the 2nd goal was a double tip it appeared through a screen, what are you gonna do. They still recovered well enough in the period, retook momentum, forced Winnipeg into moving the puck before they were ready, and generated a 2nd goal to tie the game.

2nd Period: This is where the game started to get away from them. They were chasing the jets trying to be physical, which look i think physicality is the way you break the jets down, some of their players have a reputation for being pretty soft and contact-adverse. But, we started to gas ourselves by the end of that period and the penalties really did hurt us too because it started to wear down a select group of guys. The jets noticed and started to give it back to us a bit physically.

3rd Period: We ran out of steam a bit, and the Jets picked up their game as a presidents cup team will tend to be able to do, and we spent the entire period chasing the puck until we got it a minute into a shift, and we flipped it high and got fresh legs out. You can't win the period like that, we needed pressure released for a few more shifts than just flip and change, but we were too hyper-focused on defending a 1 goal lead. Binner was not great on the tying goal, but he made some big saves in the 2nd and early 3rd to keep us in it, so you were asking him to basically be as good as game 7 1st period against boston, that wasn't a reasonable ask. Goal #4 happened late in the period when we just didn't have the legs to push back, and we honestly got lucky to get a 2nd shot on goal at any point.

I don't think we need to change a ton for game two to be quite honest. We need to be physical, but don't go 100% from one side of the ice to the other trying to complete the physical play, be smarter with the hits and take them when they chances arise instead. We don't need 60 hits a game to cause them to wear down, just keep it about 30-40 hits a game and try to create more turnovers and quicker puck decisions, and by game 4 or 5 they will be wearing the jets down. Game 1 was winnable, i think we'll have at least another winnable game in the next 2, it's all about getting the series to game 6-7.

As for Texier vs Snuggerud, no contest for me either. I don't think Texier does you much better, he's a skill player who shys from contact, and does have a tendency to turn the puck over. if Holloway was healthy and it was joseph vs snuggerud, I'd say the decision is more to play the brand of hockey that wears the other team down and you play Joseph over Snuggy, but we don't have Holloway in the lineup so we don't have to make that difficult decision.

[moose-and-squirrel]

for as much grief as he catches on here, I thought Faulk was a beast last night

[bluecalgary]

The Blues were beaten by one line. Granted a very good one but... if they can take the ice away from Connor the Jet's can definitely be beat.

Not making Bolduc the scapegoat but that penalty really killed the Blues momentum. Hope he learns from it and continues his strong play.

[Harry S Deals]

“I didn’t think we managed the game very well in the third period,” St. Louis coach Jim Montgomery said. “Penalties. Puck management. A little bit of our emotions. … Our habits weren’t very good tonight. Defensively, we weren’t very good tonight. We’ll get better.”

Too sloppy, Jets made adjustments to the middle of the ice thwarting the Blues forecheck to some degree. Forcing the Blues to defend was the winning strategy

[theograce]

Helly played poorly and they still won.

That has to give them confidence

[Old_Goat]

The three youngsters were caught up in the excitement, the significance and newness of it all. Bolduc was scanning the crowd and ice during the national anthems. Neighbours was a tad undisciplined. I realize that they have played in Junior Championships, NCAA Championships and other pressure situations -- almost always against others very close to their same age. But this is THE best league in the world with playoffs that are recognized by just about everyone as probably the most intense and strenuous in all of sports.
These young guys are quick learners and capable. We were on top first, came back, went back on top for quite awhile against the best team record during the season, and against likeliest the top goalie, playing in game 1 of the series on the road. It was not a blowout.
Keep the lineup the same. No need to indicate there is potentially lack of full confidence in any of them. (Obviously, if Holloway showed up healthy & ready, that would not be a knock on whomever was pulled out for him.)
Win the next two games...that will solve it.

[Harry S Deals]

Helly played poorly and they still won.

That has to give them confidence

I thought the Thomas and Kyrou goals were good shots I wouldn't put that on the goalie

[theograce]

Helly played poorly and they still won.

That has to give them confidence

I thought the Thomas and Kyrou goals were good shots I wouldn't put that on the goalie

He was too deep on the Thomas goal. Was a good shot, but would have liked to see him have that as a Jets fan. His puck management was poor. Wasn’t his A game for sure

[PPG]

I didn't think Hellebuyck played poorly at all. Each of the 3 goals that beat him was a perfect shot.When you hit the very top corner of the net, no goalie in the world can make those saves. He may have been a bit deep in his crease on the Thomas goal, but he didn't come close to making that save. Even if he had been out a it more, that shot still goes in.
Sunny's goal was another scramble in fron and he also hit the top corner.
Same with Kyrou. He was also screened on Kyrou's goal.
And on each of the Blues goals, if any of the shots had been 2" higher or wider, they would have missed the net. And we all know that numerous shots every game just miss the corner of the net because players aim there. There was probably a bit of luck that all 3 of those shots didn't actually miss the net.
If they had, then we probably get shut out and everybody says how great Hellebuyck played.

[theograce]

I didn't think Hellebuyck played poorly at all. Each of the 3 goals that beat him was a perfect shot.

He was off and nervous. You could tell and they were talking about it. His puck management, even though not a strength, was particularly bad as well.

[BobbyBlue]

If someone told you in February that you would make the Playoffs, and be tied 3-3 in game (1) with (5) minutes left against the best team in the league…you all would have taken it! It was a Great First Game for our younger players to get their feet wet. Now…it’s time to build on that experience and make a series out of this thing. Many positive things to build on and many correctable adjustments to be made. But a good initiation process for this team. Go Blues!