GDT Rd 2 Gm 7: 5/7/19 | 7 PM CT | vs STars | NBCSN|NHL-APP

[California Blues]

Congratulations to all Blues fans.

More congratulations will be coming before too long (hopefully twice more).

[Robb_K]

We get San Jose. I'm fine with that. This will be a tough "Big Boys' series". Nothing for the feint of heart. I believe these are the best 2 of the 4 teams left. It should be a classic NHL playoff series. May the best team win. And I hope that will be The Blues.

[theohall]

Sharks looked ugly tonight. Without the Avs repeatedly turning the puck over in their own end, unforced, the Sharks don't score. San Jose didn't even look like they were trying to generate their own chances. They turtled almost the entire game. As we know, that won't work against the Blues. Feeling confident after watching how bad San Jose looked.

[WaukeeBlues]

Sharks looked ugly tonight. Without the Avs repeatedly turning the puck over in their own end, unforced, the Sharks don't score. San Jose didn't even look like they were trying to generate their own chances. They turtled almost the entire game. As we know, that won't work against the Blues. Feeling confident after watching how bad San Jose looked.

But as we also know, that can be a game to game type thing. Heck, our own Blues went from looking like a trash pile on fire in games 4 and 5 for elongated stretches to utter dominance in significant parts of game 6 and darn near all of game 7.

I think this years team is far deeper and more talented than the 2016 Blues squad. The Sharks are about the same or slightly worse, hard to gauge.

Erik Karlsson and Martin Jones are the wild cards for me in this series. Karlsson hasn't looked himself all playoffs, and has had some glaring defensive lapses. Jones has been playing better as of late but struggled all year and especially early in the series against Vegas.

Would love to get the hitting and grinding going against Karlsson to wear him down some more and put some pucks past Jones early and often to get his confidence down.

Blues in 6!

[gaijin]

Sharks looked ugly tonight. Without the Avs repeatedly turning the puck over in their own end, unforced, the Sharks don't score. San Jose didn't even look like they were trying to generate their own chances. They turtled almost the entire game. As we know, that won't work against the Blues. Feeling confident after watching how bad San Jose looked.

But as we also know, that can be a game to game type thing. Heck, our own Blues went from looking like a trash pile on fire in games 4 and 5 for elongated stretches to utter dominance in significant parts of game 6 and darn near all of game 7.

I think this years team is far deeper and more talented than the 2016 Blues squad. The Sharks are about the same or slightly worse, hard to gauge.

Erik Karlsson and Martin Jones are the wild cards for me in this series. Karlsson hasn't looked himself all playoffs, and has had some glaring defensive lapses. Jones has been playing better as of late but struggled all year and especially early in the series against Vegas.

Would love to get the hitting and grinding going against Karlsson to wear him down some more and put some pucks past Jones early and often to get his confidence down.

Blues in 6!

Every series has the potential to go either way, but I think the Blues match up favorably against the Sharks. One big question mark is how the refs will call the series- if they let Thornton get away with elbowing everyone in the head, the Blues won't be able to put a full team on the ice.

And Pavelski is back. And seemingly none the worse for wear.

[theohall]

Posted this in the other thread, but I believe the Blues have a chance to jump to an early lead in this series with the Sharks having to adjust to actually playing a strong defensive team. Meanwhile, with what the Blues went through beating one of the best defensive teams in the league, the Blues offense should improve versus a Sharks team which isn't even close in terms of their defensive structure.

Consider this - the Sharks basically eliminated MacKinnon. The Blues are deeper than the Avs. If the Sharks want to focus on eliminating Tarasenko, go ahead. That just means the Thomas/Bozak/Maroon line will get the freedom they worked so hard to get vs Dallas.

Then there's Blais/ROR/Perron.

That's two lines capable of scoring beyond Schwartz/Schenn/Tarasenko.

Have Sundqvist defending Timo Meier, who is the one player I don't feel the Blues matchup well against, but Sunny has the size to handle that.

All of this actually worries me, because it's weird feeling confident about a Blues team.

[glen a richter]

I have this recurring nightmare that they get to the SCF only to lose. In one rendition of this nightmare, they get swept, and in the other they lose in game 7.

[WaukeeBlues]

I have this recurring nightmare that they get to the SCF only to lose. In one rendition of this nightmare, they get swept, and in the other they lose in game 7.

I'd rather lose now in the Conference Finals than lose in the cup finals, in any fashion.

[gaijin]

I have this recurring nightmare that they get to the SCF only to lose. In one rendition of this nightmare, they get swept, and in the other they lose in game 7.

I'd rather lose now in the Conference Finals than lose in the cup finals, in any fashion.

Not I. I'd like to see the Blues play in a Cup Final in my lifetime, even if they do end up losing. That said, it would be just like the Blues to get to the SCF and get swept- the 3 times in history the Blues played for a Cup, they have been swept all 3 times. I would like to see that change, even if they don't end up winning the Cup in the end.

[glen a richter]

I have this recurring nightmare that they get to the SCF only to lose. In one rendition of this nightmare, they get swept, and in the other they lose in game 7.

I'd rather lose now in the Conference Finals than lose in the cup finals, in any fashion.

Not I. I'd like to see the Blues play in a Cup Final in my lifetime, even if they do end up losing. That said, it would be just like the Blues to get to the SCF and get swept- the 3 times in history the Blues played for a Cup, they have been swept all 3 times. I would like to see that change, even if they don't end up winning the Cup in the end.

Imagine double OT in the SCF game 7 instead of against Dallas. I know my heart couldn't handle the stress.