What Did you Expect and Why Were You Fooled?

[skilles]

I didn't expect the goal tending to be this bad but none of the rest has surprised me at all. I was not impressed with the off season or preseason.


It is kind of interesting how all the people outraged because we haven't been tanking enough are now outraged because we are tanking.

[Cajanek-Spielmacher]

And yet another sock emerges during a losing streak.

Accusing anyone who doesn’t LIVE on these forums with thousands of posts as being something other than a person making a fair point is very truly a mental disease.

Pot meet Kettle AND then ignore!!

[stlhooked]

And yet another sock emerges during a losing streak.

Accusing anyone who doesn’t LIVE on these forums with thousands of posts as being something other than a person making a fair point is very truly a mental disease.

Dude thinks hes some kind of hockey expert. I would’t suprise me if he works for this hokey (not a spelling error) organization that’s been bleeding the fans Blue since the Stanley Cup.

[stlhooked]

And yet another sock emerges during a losing streak.

Accusing anyone who doesn’t LIVE on these forums with thousands of posts as being something other than a person making a fair point is very truly a mental disease.

Dude thinks hes some kind of hockey expert. It would’t suprise me if he works for this hokey (not a spelling error) organization that’s been bleeding the fans Blue since the Stanley Cup.

[BobbyOrr]

The Awful start
and having kermit and vitale yapping away is enough to loose many blues fans for something more palatable.

[a smell of green grass]

I didn't expect the goal tending to be this bad but none of the rest has surprised me at all. I was not impressed with the off season or preseason.


It is kind of interesting how all the people outraged because we haven't been tanking enough are now outraged because we are tanking.

Do you know how hard it will be for Army to accept that his team earned a TOP5 pick, especially this year when he is wearing his Olympic feathers?

I'll be happy about a TOP5 pick when he and the NHL puts in on a board. Till then, I'm picturing another #10 pick that takes 5 years to reach the NHL 2nd-line, maybe.

[Tony Palazzolo]

They threw up a stat last night that I've never seen used in specific terms. Board battles. I didn't know it was a stat official or not official. They had the Blues at 45% and and Detroit at 55%. I don't know if that was a season or game (the numbers would lead you to believe game). That 10% difference is losing possession of the puck. It gets the other team a quick exit or a scoring chance. It explains the horrible puck luck.

We can blame goaltending all we want but you can't let the other team get shots in those prime areas. Against Pittsburgh Snuggy doesn't check the player right in front of the goalie. Against Detroit Walker releases his player in front of the net leaving him all alone. In those two cases alone if the player plays his position there is no goal. That's two goals in two nights that might have made a huge difference.

This is all correctible.

Now they just need to go on a 4 or 5 game winning streak and we'll forget all about the poor start to the season.

[skilles]

I didn't expect the goal tending to be this bad but none of the rest has surprised me at all. I was not impressed with the off season or preseason.


It is kind of interesting how all the people outraged because we haven't been tanking enough are now outraged because we are tanking.

Do you know how hard it will be for Army to accept that his team earned a TOP5 pick, especially this year when he is wearing his Olympic feathers?

I'll be happy about a TOP5 pick when he and the NHL puts in on a board. Till then, I'm picturing another #10 pick that takes 5 years to reach the NHL 2nd-line, maybe.

5 years?

[sneptsmoustache]

And worse, we have to listen to this loser Mike Kelly with his face zoomed into the screen instead of at least seeing some tattas with Alexa.

Alright this actually made me laugh out loud. That poor guy...can't they back the camera off of his face by a few inches? Overall, the whole "Mike Kelly interlude" thing is kind of weird...I actually can't even focus on what he's saying because I'm always thinking "this guy again, whose idea was it and why is it so poorly executed and awkward"?

"Here's some dude that you've never heard of, we're not sure what his actual job is or whether he has any hockey cred at all, after an awkward pause he's going to say a couple things like 'the Blues are losing 4-1 and the advanced stats show why' and then throw it back to Kerbs and Joe."

[Francis Park Thug]

I thought Holloway would take the next step and become a star.
He took two steps, but, in the wrong direction.
What happened?

[sneptsmoustache]

I can't even come close to saying "I called it" but there was so much hype going into the season I was almost certain that this team was going to fall meaningfully short of expectations. Where I've been surprised:

-Lack of structure overall...zone entries, maintaining possession of the puck, creating passing lanes (poor coaching? Adapting to a new system that wasn't fully integrated last year?)
-super slow start by Holloway - I think he head-faked us with a noticeably strong training camp, but in reality he's recovering from a major injury
-Poor execution by skilled players (passes are consistently off by a few inches on the power play, forcing passes into lanes that don't actually exist)
-goaltending has been FAR below standards
-missing veteran players who played nearly every game last year more than I thought we would (Faksa, Suter)

I'm sure there are other ones, that's what springs immediately to mind.

[Old_Goat]

The Awful start
and having kermit and vitale yapping away is enough to loose many blues fans for something more palatable.

If they just had some Pom-Poms, then the BLUESCREW would be all set.
I used to watch the Bruins telecasts when Derek Sanderson was their Color commentator/analyst. He called them as he saw them. If the players were failing he made sure everyone understood why. The fans appreciated it; the players knew it. He had no trouble traveling with them and they had no problem talking with him.

[netboy65]

The Awful start
and having kermit and vitale yapping away is enough to loose many blues fans for something more palatable.

Bye

[Ziggy3]

I expected a continuation of the style of hockey they played at the end of last year.

Instead it seems like they somehow forgot over the offseason how competitive the NHL is. Like the win streak and almost knocking off the President's Trophy team were just some natural occurrence.

I expected Hofer to at least be serviceable instead of fighting the puck perhaps more than any goalie I've ever seen at the moment (and that's saying something as, you know, I'm a decades-long Blues fan).

I expected Holloway to look better than Mathieu Joseph. I expected him to put up numbers and drive his line like last year. Instead he has looked absolutely lost when he's not invisible, and is now starting to add stupidity to his game (see the inexplicable penalty in the o-zone in the last minute of a period that led to a DET goal).

I expected the 3rd pair D to be a problem, and they are. (Maybe improving the last couple games though?)

I expected Thomas to get hurt at some point.

And I should know by now to expect the unexpected, cause this is Blues Hockey.

[son_of_foolsgold]

I didn't expect the goal tending to be this bad but none of the rest has surprised me at all. I was not impressed with the off season or preseason.


It is kind of interesting how all the people outraged because we haven't been tanking enough are now outraged because we are tanking.

I am outraged because I KNEW that Army's strategy would lead to even MORE losing in the long run...since he has stubbornly refused
to begin a rebuild, we are that much further removed from Cup contention than we would be otherwise. All this losing is in vain
unless and until Army either resigns or stumbles upon the right course.

Grow some common sense people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[dtkblueshockey]

I think I had just expected the team to come out of the gate strong and bring back that same tenacity and fluidity to their game that they showed from post 4 nations all the way up until they were eliminated by Winnipeg.

The Blues touted that they wanted to get 5% better than last season with their offseason moves and it's almost like they went 10% the other direction.

I am mostly worried about how the Blues have played against teams that are not considered "elite". They are appearing mentally fragile and they are getting in their own heads when the going gets tough.

Once mistake is amplified and turns into an uncontrollable snowball.

Collective bad starts from various vets has been concerning.

Hofer's struggles have come at the worst possible time as well and he hasn't shown any indication of fixing it himself.

It's just a combination of problems happening all at the same time.

I do think it is going to be up to the players to fix it OR management will start making some moves if things don't improve.

I am thinking they should have just embraced the youth and decided to let the new wave come up but I get the decision to not do it.