Three Takeaways From Blues' 2-1 Loss Against Jets In Game 2

[Spyro Gyra]

* Jets best players outplaying Blues best players, especially in third period -- You want to know where the series has been the difference? The third period. The Jets have now outscored the Blues 4-0 in two games, and it's Mark Scheifele and Kyle Connor doing the damage, and they did it again.

* Binnington gave Blues a chance -- This one falls into the don't blame the goalie (again). Binnington was beaten twice in this game, in an inadvertent way by his own teammates; first, when Scheifele scored his second lucky goal of the series after driving the net after easily driving wide around Nick Leddy, having his shot stopped, but then knocked in by Snuggerud's skate in front trying to help.

* Snuggerud needs to keep shooter's mentality -- Snuggerud had to feel worse than anyone on the ice when the Scheifele goal went in off him. But he atoned himself with a snipe power play goal just beating the horn at 19:58 of the first period to tie the game.

* Bonus takeaway: power play got stale -- The good news is when Snuggerud scored, it made the Blues a robust 3-for-4 with the man advantage. That's good. No, that's exceptional. The bad news is they had three more after that, including two in the second half of the second period with the chance to take the lead and failed to convert and another in the third with a chance to tie and also did not convert.

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[callitwhatyouwant]

The problem with the later power plays wasn't that they didn't score, which of course is an issue. It's that they legitimately created 0 pressure. you can't be in playoff hockey against a better team and not find ways to build momentum at times during the game. It's not like you are going to dominate from puck drop. The game is going to have ebbs and flows. And what this Blues team has shown is that it can get going against one of the best teams in the league. But then it has a hard time having a punch back after the other team has garnered some momentum. The PP is a great place for that. But those last PP's we refused to shoot so we couldn't do things like muck it up in front of the net that might have changed the momentum even if we didn't score.

There's a handful of stuff I think the Blues would want back after it's all said and done. Kyrou getting blasted in the 1st seemed to change his whole game. Not sure if he is OK. Saw 1 spurt of energy from him in the 3rd and he took a cruise around the net instead of driving a play.

the 11-7 while sounding good, and did keep the other team off the scoreboard in conventional ways, ended up being a reason the team couldn't score. Not because I think Joseph finds a way, but because the offensive group didn't have very good flow. Admittedly, there were 2 big time chances that didn't go in during the 2nd and 3rd. They had a flurry of opportunities to open up the game too.

Fun hockey but this got extremely difficult. You are getting the goalie play. But so are they.

[Russdv14]

I need to add something re: the Schiefele goal with Snuggie barreling back to try to help Binner. In the intermission, Mark Messier had a graphic singling out Kyrou for a boneheaded line change move with Kyrou & others going to the bench while leaving Schiefele to scoot alone down the ice & around a floundering Leddy.
My guess is that Snuggerrud subbed for Kyrou & saw how no one was there to stop Schiefele and that’s why he was so aggressive to try and help Binnington although he probably interfered more and would’ve taken the brunt and stopped the puck. that goal cost us the game.
Messier said series and Cups are won with “details, details, details”
and to never make the line change when the play is at the red line.

This is pretty much the gist of what multi championship player Messier said. If someone else saw the between. Comments, they might describe it better than myself.

And I have not seen one time when our player barreled in towards Hellebucyck to make him feel tentative when our players crash toward the net. They’ve made it easy for Helle

[seattleblue]

If there were ever two perfect games where they had a chance to win and didn't but could "learn valuable lessons for the future" then this was those two games for the franchise. All the young players have egregiously f'd up. Bolduc in G1, Tucker just a straight moron penalty in G2, Snuggy with the own goal G2. These players need to do the wrong thing before they can do the right thing. So next year and subsequent years they remember, "once we get back in, this is what it's going to be."

I wish they had simply won and decided to be ahead of their expected curve, sometimes teams do that. I think they can win G3. I think overall we should be encouraged that the roster is playoff competitive.

Jordan Kyrou. He is in a different place than he was before. Previously I would expect him to shrink into nothing after that hit. Next year I expect him to have learned from it and expect it. For him to lift the Cup ever, he has to compete through that. This is what was being talked about with Thomas ... could he play through being targeted as one of the main guys?

[TangledUpInBLUE]

If there were ever two perfect games where they had a chance to win and didn't but could "learn valuable lessons for the future" then this was those two games for the franchise. All the young players have egregiously f'd up. Bolduc in G1, Tucker just a straight moron penalty in G2, Snuggy with the own goal G2. These players need to do the wrong thing before they can do the right thing. So next year and subsequent years they remember, "once we get back in, this is what it's going to be."

I wish they had simply won and decided to be ahead of their expected curve, sometimes teams do that. I think they can win G3. I think overall we should be encouraged that the roster is playoff competitive.

Jordan Kyrou. He is in a different place than he was before. Previously I would expect him to shrink into nothing after that hit. Next year I expect him to have learned from it and expect it. For him to lift the Cup ever, he has to compete through that. This is what was being talked about with Thomas ... could he play through being targeted as one of the main guys?

Couldn’t agree more with your overall take. The fact this team has been able to push and be more than just competitive with a team that was a Stanley Cup pick early on can’t be overlooked.

This current team makes somewhat reminds me of the those Blues teams that had a hard time getting past Chicago. Still green and needing to learn the rigors of a playoff run.

[dhsux]

Great thread

Blues 0-2 yet love the positive vibe and constructive criticism

Not quite there but close a win could turn this series

[Spyro Gyra]

If there were ever two perfect games where they had a chance to win and didn't but could "learn valuable lessons for the future" then this was those two games for the franchise. All the young players have egregiously f'd up. Bolduc in G1, Tucker just a straight moron penalty in G2, Snuggy with the own goal G2. These players need to do the wrong thing before they can do the right thing. So next year and subsequent years they remember, "once we get back in, this is what it's going to be."

I wish they had simply won and decided to be ahead of their expected curve, sometimes teams do that. I think they can win G3. I think overall we should be encouraged that the roster is playoff competitive.

Jordan Kyrou. He is in a different place than he was before. Previously I would expect him to shrink into nothing after that hit. Next year I expect him to have learned from it and expect it. For him to lift the Cup ever, he has to compete through that. This is what was being talked about with Thomas ... could he play through being targeted as one of the main guys?

From some of your comments, it sounds like you've been a fan for a while. I remember another player that rightly or wrongly got labelled for disappearing in the post season and could never overcome it. I'd bet you remember too. Does the name Pavolina sound familiar? Is that where Kyrou's career is headed? Time will tell.

[netboy65]

I need to add something re: the Schiefele goal with Snuggie barreling back to try to help Binner. In the intermission, Mark Messier had a graphic singling out Kyrou for a boneheaded line change move with Kyrou & others going to the bench while leaving Schiefele to scoot alone down the ice & around a floundering Leddy.
My guess is that Snuggerrud subbed for Kyrou & saw how no one was there to stop Schiefele and that’s why he was so aggressive to try and help Binnington although he probably interfered more and would’ve taken the brunt and stopped the puck. that goal cost us the game.
Messier said series and Cups are won with “details, details, details”
and to never make the line change when the play is at the red line.

This is pretty much the gist of what multi championship player Messier said. If someone else saw the between. Comments, they might describe it better than myself.

And I have not seen one time when our player barreled in towards Hellebucyck to make him feel tentative when our players crash toward the net. They’ve made it easy for Helle

You have a long history of not liking Kyrou, I get it, but Thomas, Parayko, Schenn were all pathetic that game.
If I were Binner, I’d kick everyone’s (donkey) in that locker room except Fowler and Snuggie. He deserved a much better fate.

[callitwhatyouwant]

Just to highlight the line change dilemma on the 1st goal. I don't want to read up into it too much but Monty said in post game "the play wasn't executed correctly when they do those wholesale line changes. There's only 3 options you can say that the play wasn't executed correctly.
1. The flip out didn't get out far enough so a change shouldn't have happened ( i have a hard time believing this one because the whole squad went so someone is yelling for that change)
2. Kyrou is supposed to pressure that puck so make sure that the easy pass can't happen because the puck didn't get deep enough.
3. Leddy needed to drop deeper to prevent more rush from that side of the ice until reinforcements could get in. From Leddy's position, aint no way he's preventing that play.


To me both points 2 and 3 seem like options. But 2 is more glaring because kyrou can pressure away from our zone. Leddy would have had to be perfect to prevent that play from developing.



Also, if you go grab the highlights on youtube, The Blues had like 8 chances to score especially off juicy rebounds in the first period. They were the better team by a pretty wide margin to start until exactly what we all keep talking about, that Kyrou hit at 7 minutes. Binner tried to keep them in it with crazy save at 4:30. Needed someone to step up after that

[seattleblue]

If there were ever two perfect games where they had a chance to win and didn't but could "learn valuable lessons for the future" then this was those two games for the franchise. All the young players have egregiously f'd up. Bolduc in G1, Tucker just a straight moron penalty in G2, Snuggy with the own goal G2. These players need to do the wrong thing before they can do the right thing. So next year and subsequent years they remember, "once we get back in, this is what it's going to be."

I wish they had simply won and decided to be ahead of their expected curve, sometimes teams do that. I think they can win G3. I think overall we should be encouraged that the roster is playoff competitive.

Jordan Kyrou. He is in a different place than he was before. Previously I would expect him to shrink into nothing after that hit. Next year I expect him to have learned from it and expect it. For him to lift the Cup ever, he has to compete through that. This is what was being talked about with Thomas ... could he play through being targeted as one of the main guys?

From some of your comments, it sounds like you've been a fan for a while. I remember another player that rightly or wrongly got labelled for disappearing in the post season and could never overcome it. I'd bet you remember too. Does the name Pavolina sound familiar? Is that where Kyrou's career is headed? Time will tell.

I remember that nickname! I didn't like it nor did I agree that Turgeon was soft either. Loved Pierre.

Who was soft. Craig Janney in 1992 against the Hawks the Blues led 2-1 in the series and this guy would literally cede the boards to the opponent, it was brutal to watch. You could go into the corner on him and take his wife. I didn't miss the greedy, oathless Oates and I understood why they traded a dollar for 75 cents but (bleep), Craig. I recall the day he was traded for Jeff Norton. He arrived in the San Jose locker room spewing so much profanity in every answer, knowingly so as to ruin everyone's attempted sound clips on the new acquisition. Everyone was looking at each other like, "great, this new guy!" But his wife had just been taken and he was traded 2000 miles away. Surly as HELL he was.

[LGB73]

Kyrou and Thomas have never been physical players and have tended to shy away from it. Their playoff careers are going to be defined by whether they can get over it because teams can see it and will continue to try to intimidate them with physical play.

[Spyro Gyra]

If there were ever two perfect games where they had a chance to win and didn't but could "learn valuable lessons for the future" then this was those two games for the franchise. All the young players have egregiously f'd up. Bolduc in G1, Tucker just a straight moron penalty in G2, Snuggy with the own goal G2. These players need to do the wrong thing before they can do the right thing. So next year and subsequent years they remember, "once we get back in, this is what it's going to be."

I wish they had simply won and decided to be ahead of their expected curve, sometimes teams do that. I think they can win G3. I think overall we should be encouraged that the roster is playoff competitive.

Jordan Kyrou. He is in a different place than he was before. Previously I would expect him to shrink into nothing after that hit. Next year I expect him to have learned from it and expect it. For him to lift the Cup ever, he has to compete through that. This is what was being talked about with Thomas ... could he play through being targeted as one of the main guys?

From some of your comments, it sounds like you've been a fan for a while. I remember another player that rightly or wrongly got labelled for disappearing in the post season and could never overcome it. I'd bet you remember too. Does the name Pavolina sound familiar? Is that where Kyrou's career is headed? Time will tell.

I remember that nickname! I didn't like it nor did I agree that Turgeon was soft either. Loved Pierre.

Who was soft. Craig Janney in 1992 against the Hawks the Blues led 2-1 in the series and this guy would literally cede the boards to the opponent, it was brutal to watch. You could go into the corner on him and take his wife. I didn't miss the greedy, oathless Oates and I understood why they traded a dollar for 75 cents but (drat), Craig. I recall the day he was traded for Jeff Norton. He arrived in the San Jose locker room spewing so much profanity in every answer, knowingly so as to ruin everyone's attempted sound clips on the new acquisition. Everyone was looking at each other like, "great, this new guy!" But his wife had just been taken and he was traded 2000 miles away. Surly as HELL he was.

Remember those days too. Indeed, Janney was as soft as they come!

[rbirules]

I need to add something re: the Schiefele goal with Snuggie barreling back to try to help Binner. In the intermission, Mark Messier had a graphic singling out Kyrou for a boneheaded line change move with Kyrou & others going to the bench while leaving Schiefele to scoot alone down the ice & around a floundering Leddy.
My guess is that Snuggerrud subbed for Kyrou & saw how no one was there to stop Schiefele and that’s why he was so aggressive to try and help Binnington although he probably interfered more and would’ve taken the brunt and stopped the puck. that goal cost us the game.
Messier said series and Cups are won with “details, details, details”
and to never make the line change when the play is at the red line.

This is pretty much the gist of what multi championship player Messier said. If someone else saw the between. Comments, they might describe it better than myself.

And I have not seen one time when our player barreled in towards Hellebucyck to make him feel tentative when our players crash toward the net. They’ve made it easy for Helle

I was watching the ESPN broadcast as well, and that's a very good summary of Messier's comments. I think four of the five skaters changed with the puck at the red line. Messier mentioned you have to make sure the puck gets over the defensemen's head on that play before changing. It was caught at center ice, players went to the bench for a change and the Jets had an instant scoring chance as a result.

[bud white]

Just to highlight the line change dilemma on the 1st goal. I don't want to read up into it too much but Monty said in post game "the play wasn't executed correctly when they do those wholesale line changes. There's only 3 options you can say that the play wasn't executed correctly.
1. The flip out didn't get out far enough so a change shouldn't have happened ( i have a hard time believing this one because the whole squad went so someone is yelling for that change)
2. Kyrou is supposed to pressure that puck so make sure that the easy pass can't happen because the puck didn't get deep enough.
3. Leddy needed to drop deeper to prevent more rush from that side of the ice until reinforcements could get in. From Leddy's position, aint no way he's preventing that play.


To me both points 2 and 3 seem like options. But 2 is more glaring because kyrou can pressure away from our zone. Leddy would have had to be perfect to prevent that play from developing.



Also, if you go grab the highlights on youtube, The Blues had like 8 chances to score especially off juicy rebounds in the first period. They were the better team by a pretty wide margin to start until exactly what we all keep talking about, that Kyrou hit at 7 minutes. Binner tried to keep them in it with crazy save at 4:30. Needed someone to step up after that

Yeah, I commented on this in another thread. I mean, we were literally inches away on more than one occasion. There were some big rebounds popping off of Hellebuyck. And Snuggerud(?) made an incredible pass across the crease to Kyrou that just missed from being a tap-in.

And remember in the third there was a shot from his left wing that Hellebuyck stopped and it rolled up his back only to come out the other side. That one was close to going in behind him too. These chances were before the Jets went into "lockdown" mode.

[FunSeeker]

1 Takeaway
We only scored 1 goal. Not gonna win that way usually.

[ChooseBlues]

If there were ever two perfect games where they had a chance to win and didn't but could "learn valuable lessons for the future" then this was those two games for the franchise. All the young players have egregiously f'd up. Bolduc in G1, Tucker just a straight moron penalty in G2, Snuggy with the own goal G2. These players need to do the wrong thing before they can do the right thing. So next year and subsequent years they remember, "once we get back in, this is what it's going to be."

I wish they had simply won and decided to be ahead of their expected curve, sometimes teams do that. I think they can win G3. I think overall we should be encouraged that the roster is playoff competitive.

Jordan Kyrou. He is in a different place than he was before. Previously I would expect him to shrink into nothing after that hit. Next year I expect him to have learned from it and expect it. For him to lift the Cup ever, he has to compete through that. This is what was being talked about with Thomas ... could he play through being targeted as one of the main guys?

From some of your comments, it sounds like you've been a fan for a while. I remember another player that rightly or wrongly got labelled for disappearing in the post season and could never overcome it. I'd bet you remember too. Does the name Pavolina sound familiar? Is that where Kyrou's career is headed? Time will tell.

I remember that nickname! I didn't like it nor did I agree that Turgeon was soft either. Loved Pierre.

Who was soft. Craig Janney in 1992 against the Hawks the Blues led 2-1 in the series and this guy would literally cede the boards to the opponent, it was brutal to watch. You could go into the corner on him and take his wife. I didn't miss the greedy, oathless Oates and I understood why they traded a dollar for 75 cents but (drat), Craig. I recall the day he was traded for Jeff Norton. He arrived in the San Jose locker room spewing so much profanity in every answer, knowingly so as to ruin everyone's attempted sound clips on the new acquisition. Everyone was looking at each other like, "great, this new guy!" But his wife had just been taken and he was traded 2000 miles away. Surly as HELL he was.

Kyrou is not the mystery player in my opinion. Instead I think Buchnevich fits this scenario better. What does the final form of Buchnevich look like?