Let's Go Blues

Frusciante wrote:I'd trade Shatty in a heartbeat. Horrible defensively. Absolutely horrible. Also the master of taking dumb penalties. Still got good trade value.

That being said, I'm proud of how this team played all year. Yes, they were inferior in this series, but they still beat CHI and DAL which are great teams. Heartbreaking loss tonight. I thought we all had a feeling this would end tonight though. When we gave up a 3-2 lead within just minutes and lost game 5, I kinda knew this wasn't going to go our way. Winning game 5 would've maybe given the team the confidence and cushion to be able to come away with at least one more win. But those two goals late in the second and early in the third were backbreaking and it decided this series.

I am very on board with moving Shatty. I like him. Think he provides value where he is for us, but other teams desperately need defensemen. He is tradable.

midgensa wrote:

Frusciante wrote:I'd trade Shatty in a heartbeat. Horrible defensively. Absolutely horrible. Also the master of taking dumb penalties. Still got good trade value.

That being said, I'm proud of how this team played all year. Yes, they were inferior in this series, but they still beat CHI and DAL which are great teams. Heartbreaking loss tonight. I thought we all had a feeling this would end tonight though. When we gave up a 3-2 lead within just minutes and lost game 5, I kinda knew this wasn't going to go our way. Winning game 5 would've maybe given the team the confidence and cushion to be able to come away with at least one more win. But those two goals late in the second and early in the third were backbreaking and it decided this series.

I am very on board with moving Shatty. I like him. Think he provides value where he is for us, but other teams desperately need defensemen. He is tradable.

Maybe this has already been mentioned, but I heard a rumor of him to Edmonton in a deal involving the 4th overall pick coming our way. Not sure if there's anything to that, but that could be great. Draft a really good prospect and fix a salary cap issue by trading from a position of depth.

I understand some of the negativity in this thread, but I'm going to l look at the positives. Coming into this season, this was a group that couldn't win 3 games TOTAL in the postseason, and yet they were 2 games shy of a Stanley Cup Final appearance. They booted out the Hawks. They took out the best team in the West.

The Sharks were the better team. You can criticize the Blues effort if you want to, I'm not going to do that. If the roles were flipped, we'd be talking about how well the Blues imposed their game on the Sharks and choked the life out of them. That's exactly what the Sharks did to the Blues. Yes, the Blues had some horrible puck management at times, some defensive breakdowns, and Tarasenko disappeared. But the Sharks hounded the Blues at every turn and routinely knocked them off their game.

More positives though: Tarasenko, Fabbri, Schwartz, and Parayko are all under 25. Petro is only, what? 26? 27? They just had an extended run and know what it takes to get this far and how much harder it is to get to the next step. I look at the 09 Hawks who lost in the WCF and then won the Cup next year. Sometimes a young nucleus needs a crushing loss deep in the postseason before they can make the ultimate jump. We'll see.

But this team gave us more postseason memories this year than the franchise had in a decade and a half. I can't be anything but appreciative of that despite my disappointment.

I would jump all over that. I like Shatty and all, but we really learned big time this postseason that he can only play on one side and when forced to move over, he's useless. He took dumb penalties, and hey we've got a ton of depth on D so why not? That 4th pick can be gold immediately, or let him season for a year. Best part? We don't have to trade our existing 1st rounder, so we can package that to move up and get another higher pick--maybe top 10. Works for me.

Hitch was saying in the presser last night that not finishing off the first 2 rounds earlier cost his team in the 3rd round. I agree with that somewhat - yes in that the Blues looked gassed in round 3, especially games 2, 3, and 55 min of game 6. But at the same time I don't agree with him cause everyone is tired at this point. The frustrating part for me last night is why the Blues were so-so the first 55min of the game and then played with desperation the last 5min of the game and were clearly the better team at that point but it was too late. Why couldn't they have started game 6 like that? And why did Tank not show up for the entire series until those final 3min in game 6? You guys had such an intensity and hunger in our series against us but I didn't see it against San Jose. Maybe it was fatigue but could also have been experience and youth. I don't know - but this whole year's playoffs have baffled me. Home and Away teams are now 42-42 - go figure.

Kerfuffle wrote:Hitch was saying in the presser last night that not finishing off the first 2 rounds earlier cost his team in the 3rd round. I agree with that somewhat - yes in that the Blues looked gassed in round 3, especially games 2, 3, and 55 min of game 6. But at the same time I don't agree with him cause everyone is tired at this point. The frustrating part for me last night is why the Blues were so-so the first 55min of the game and then played with desperation the last 5min of the game and were clearly the better team at that point but it was too late. Why couldn't they have started game 6 like that? And why did Tank not show up for the entire series until those final 3min in game 6? You guys had such an intensity and hunger in our series against us but I didn't see it against San Jose. Maybe it was fatigue but could also have been experience and youth. I don't know - but this whole year's playoffs have baffled me. Home and Away teams are now 42-42 - go figure.

That's exactly what's frustrating about it. I don't want to discredit the Sharks too much because they played great. But, it's like they got a sense of urgency with 5 minutes to go. How about a sense of urgency with 60 minutes to go in an elimination game.

Losing game 5 was frustrating because you need to win at home in the playoffs. But, what stuck out to me about it more than anything is how much games 2-3 hurt. You're gonna lose ~close games sometimes. Just the nature of the beast. But, losing game 5 hurt so much more because of giving away 2 games earlier in the series.

All the talk about how the Blues looked the last 10 minutes and why didn't they look that way the rest of the game is ridiculous, honestly.

OF course they got a chance in the last 10 minutes of a game where they were trailing 4-0. It is not because they magically got desperate, it is because the Sharks fell back. They wanted to make sure that the Blues could not get four goals and they didn't care in the slightest if they got 2 goals.

The Blues DID NOT look good for the end of the game ... they simply took what the Sharks gave them. Did San Jose look at all like they were trying to score? Nope. They were trying to run the clock out and not make an severe mistakes. Once it got to 4-2 it was a little dicier than the Sharks would like ... and bing ... We couldn't score again.

We simply got outskated for six games. It happens. Only one team wins. All the cliches. I was cussing at the TV and getting worked up last night also, but in hindsight it is easy to see it was not about "playing with desperation" or not ... it was simply about being beaten by a team that was simply better than us for six games.

Happens. We learned a lot. We are still pretty young. And we have a ton to look forward to next year. Eventually, it won't be next year. Faith.

Let's. Go. Blues.

midgensa wrote:All the talk about how the Blues looked the last 10 minutes and why didn't they look that way the rest of the game is ridiculous, honestly.

OF course they got a chance in the last 10 minutes of a game where they were trailing 4-0. It is not because they magically got desperate, it is because the Sharks fell back. They wanted to make sure that the Blues could not get four goals and they didn't care in the slightest if they got 2 goals.

I don't agree - I don't think what we saw was just San Jose easing off the gas which made the Blues shine. I really felt those last 5 minutes the Blues had a jump in their step, a determination, a hunger, and desperation. And unfortunately if they had started the game that way they would have forced a game 7.

I'm not mad as I should be for a very big reason. Only 2 things I'm mad about are:

1) Tarasenko's lack of effort for the first 17 and a half periods of this series. He shows up and actually looked like the Tarasnko we'd seen in the final 10 minutes of Game 6. Had that guy been there for the rest of the series and playing that way, the Blues likely win. My guess is having his 1st child right in the middle of the playoff series impacted him more than we realize.

2) The overall effort level in an elimination game and it not really amping up in intensity in that last game until they were down 4-0.

As to why I'm not as upset other than those two things:

1) The Sharks team - other than their goalie, Roman Polak, Zubrus and Donskoi - has been together for a LONG time. Their top two units have been together for something like 3 or 4 years now.
2) The Blues normal top scoring line - Schwartz/Lehtera/Taraseko - didn't exist until the beginning of last season.
3) The Blues next best scoring line - Fabbri/Stastny/Brouwer - didn't exist until this season
4) The Blues "4th" line - Upshall/Brodziak/insert Blues player whose been here longer - didn't exist until this season.
5) The only Blues line which has had more than 2 seasons of continuity was Backes/Berglund/Steen and they weren't really put together until much experimentation was done with line combos.
6) What does all of the above mean - the Sharks team as lines had much more familiarity with how each other play than the recently put together Blues team. Over a 3rd of the Blues roster (Fabbri/Brouwer/Brodziak/Upshall/Parayko/Edmundson) wasn't on the team last season and others weren't on the team until last season, and they reached the Conference Finals. That's improvement on the Blues part while the familiarity and experience the Sharks have as a unit was evident and has been throughout these playoffs, not just against St Louis.

It should also be noted the Sharks, while being more experienced as a unit, were going through the same doubts the Blues have been dealing with for the past 5 years - early playoff exits. They did a better job and worked harder in this series.

I don't expect to see Hitchcock back next season, but wouldn't be surprised if they keep Shaw and Muller on as assistants unless someone offers them HC gigs.

cardsfan04 wrote:Losing game 5 was frustrating because you need to win at home in the playoffs. But, what stuck out to me about it more than anything is how much games 2-3 hurt. You're gonna lose ~close games sometimes. Just the nature of the beast. But, losing game 5 hurt so much more because of giving away 2 games earlier in the series.

What ticked me off the most about Game 5 is why the Blues lost. Bouwmeester, the highly paid experienced defenseman, icing the puck so early in the 2nd period, when it was one of the few times the Sharks weren't aggressively forechecking, but had backed off due to actually decent defensive zone play. That icing, as talked about ad nauseam, led to the game-winning goal. Bouwmeester, with that kind of time and space available, has to make the strong veteran play, not the rookie mistake.

cardsfan04 wrote:

midgensa wrote:

Frusciante wrote:I'd trade Shatty in a heartbeat. Horrible defensively. Absolutely horrible. Also the master of taking dumb penalties. Still got good trade value.

That being said, I'm proud of how this team played all year. Yes, they were inferior in this series, but they still beat CHI and DAL which are great teams. Heartbreaking loss tonight. I thought we all had a feeling this would end tonight though. When we gave up a 3-2 lead within just minutes and lost game 5, I kinda knew this wasn't going to go our way. Winning game 5 would've maybe given the team the confidence and cushion to be able to come away with at least one more win. But those two goals late in the second and early in the third were backbreaking and it decided this series.

I am very on board with moving Shatty. I like him. Think he provides value where he is for us, but other teams desperately need defensemen. He is tradable.

Maybe this has already been mentioned, but I heard a rumor of him to Edmonton in a deal involving the 4th overall pick coming our way. Not sure if there's anything to that, but that could be great. Draft a really good prospect and fix a salary cap issue by trading from a position of depth.

No way.

All the mock drafts I'm seeing have the Oilers taking Jacob Chychrun, top rated defenseman in the draft, at #4, where he should still be available.

I know this kid isn't a proven commodity but statistically speaking he's going to be a career D-man for you and he's also about 10 years younger. If I was a Oilers fan and that trade was made I'd be pretty pissed. They're not in a "win now" mode and that kind of a trade seems overly aggressive and also way over-paying for Shatty.

WaukeeBlues wrote: All the mock drafts I'm seeing have the Oilers taking Jacob Chychrun, top rated defenseman in the draft, at #4, where he should still be available.

I know this kid isn't a proven commodity but statistically speaking he's going to be a career D-man for you and he's also about 10 years younger. If I was a Oilers fan and that trade was made I'd be pretty pissed. They're not in a "win now" mode and that kind of a trade seems overly aggressive and also way over-paying for Shatty.

Maybe. I see your point but also on the flip side the Oilers really need a veteran and proven d-man to boost their blue line. All these #1 picks (or in this case #4 overall for this year) are just prospects and they need to show a move up in the standings. Can't keep picking first every year or close to it and not show any improvement to your fan base. So I wouldn't be surprised to see them try and trade the pick for a veteran d-man.

The Oilers have needed a veteran presence on defense for years and frankly I'm surprised they haven't traded for one already. The need is so pressing, they should take Bouwmeester for the 4th, forget Shattenkirk. What they should do and what they would do are two different things, though. Shatty would net the pick and both teams should make the trade.