Stanley Cup Final non-GDT - for all things not on game day.

[theohall]

The D will have to continue to be strong, and it would be nice to get Dunn back for the finals. Boston is basically San Jose with better goaltending, so I'd expect tighter games where the defense will make a lot of the difference.

Agreed about Boston. At the same time, Boston hasn't played any "heavy" teams in the playoffs.

Toronto - no real defense.
Columbus - has a defense, but lacks offensive depth. Tries to play heavy, but doesn't really have enough depth to play that way. Jarmo brought in more skill, which helped until they hit a team that truly plays heavy and had better goaltending.
Carolina - again, lacks offensive depth. Really young defense, which does have size and tries to play heavy. They just got out-heavied and out goaltended. More of the latter than the prior.

Even DeBoer said this - the two heaviest, hardest, most organized teams are meeting in the Stanley Cup Final.

Blues are the deepest team the Bruins have played and vice versa. As to heavy play, the Blues already got that from Winnipeg for series and San Jose for about 3 games.

My concerns facing the Bruins:
1) their big set breakout play is the kind which gives the Blues fits defensively. 4 guys to right of center working up ice together... 5th guy works up left wing alone ahead of them... Someone gets the puck to that lone guy and he winds up with a breakaway. Then flip the play to the other side of the ice depending whose on the ice. Why it's a problem for the Blues is they tend to lose the lone guy shooting up ice who isn't near the puck. Dallas was good at taking advantage of this, which is part of why it went 7 games. San Jose didn't try this hardly at all.
2) Tukka Rask is playing extremely well. We'll see what the Blues can do to him, as long as they keep playing the get the puck to the net with traffic game.

No matter what, a "former Blues player" wins the Cup, again, since Perron is both - former and current.

[glen a richter]

It would be a great time for Rask to hit a slump. Being off for what, 11 days, can't hurt but I think he's professional and experienced enough that he's not going to hit a wall now. Not on the grandest stage in hockey. Blues need to figure out how to score on him and then continue to expose whatever weakness they can find.

Step one, at the absolute worst, is to split games 1 and 2. This team has been money on the road and that obviously has to continue. Don't get down 2-0, that's a big hole to climb out of against any team, especially a team like Boston.

One last thought for the moment: if we believe this storybook season is to have a storybook ending, plunk down $100 on this--Blues clinch the Stanley Cup on an overtime goal by Jay Bouwmeester.

[glen a richter]

One thing I noticed was that Boston was 30th in the league in PIM. This team spends an awful lot of time in the box, so correcting the flaws with the PP would be a real good idea. Time on the PP can be a difference maker in a tight series.

[theohall]

It looks like they had the PP fixed in Game 6. It was better in Game 5. As Kerber was pointing out on the radio, the entire success or failure right now of the power play is based off of winning the draw in the offensive zone. They are struggling with zone entries after clears, regardless of which unit is on the ice. Not sure how they fix it, because apparently they have set plays they run in practice for entries, but when they see the exact same defensive set up in a game, they don't do what they did in practice to beat that set up. It's the only area, IMO, that they haven't completely "bought in," simply because they aren't playing the way they practice in that one area.

And while Boston is 30th in PIMs, the Bruins PK is 4th best in the playoffs. It was 16th in the regular season.

Meanwhile, Boston has the best PP in the playoffs and they've been on the PP almost as much as they've been short-handed. 50 power plays to 51 penalty kills.

The Blues will need to continue playing disciplined hockey while having the PK of the final 3 games of the WCF. Because the PK wasn't that good the first 3 games of the WCF.

This could easily turn into another series of attrition with whichever team better able to get through the hard hitting winning.

[StL Dan]

How sick are we going to get of Brad Marchand before this series is said and done?

[theohall]

How sick are we going to get of Brad Marchand before this series is said and done?

Probably as sick as you were about hearing the "Win it for Joe" crap.

[California Blues]

Let's make sure Laila gets to keep that big smile on her face!

[glen a richter]

Basically all of my colleagues have jumped on the Blues bandwagon. I'm not sure if that's partly a function of just trying to be supportive of me or just a natural by-product of the inborn hatred from New Yorkers towards everything Boston. More than one has been crystal clear that they "really really hate the Bruins".

[ComradeT]

Basically all of my colleagues have jumped on the Blues bandwagon. I'm not sure if that's partly a function of just trying to be supportive of me or just a natural by-product of the inborn hatred from New Yorkers towards everything Boston. More than one has been crystal clear that they "really really hate the Bruins".

A colleague here in St. Louis is a Rangers fan. Most definitely pulling for the Blues because he can't stand the Bruins.

[glen a richter]

As we approach the final, does anyone have any clue what happened to some of our lost regulars? Dmiles, reelbigfan, sseagle?

[Portland Blues]

As we approach the final, does anyone have any clue what happened to some of our lost regulars? Dmiles, reelbigfan, sseagle?

Looks like Dmiles hasn't logged in since the end of March. Hopefully all is ok with him. sseagle's last login was late 2017.

[WaukeeBlues]

Basically all of my colleagues have jumped on the Blues bandwagon. I'm not sure if that's partly a function of just trying to be supportive of me or just a natural by-product of the inborn hatred from New Yorkers towards everything Boston. More than one has been crystal clear that they "really really hate the Bruins".

A colleague here in St. Louis is a Rangers fan. Most definitely pulling for the Blues because he can't stand the Bruins.

Plus I think people are pulling for the Blues just because Boston has something stupid like 12 titles in the last 15 years or some crap. Between the Patriots, Red Sox, Bruins in 2011 and the Celtics... they've had plenty of winning. I think the large majority of the hockey world wants the Blues to win. Which is nice

[StL Dan]

Basically all of my colleagues have jumped on the Blues bandwagon. I'm not sure if that's partly a function of just trying to be supportive of me or just a natural by-product of the inborn hatred from New Yorkers towards everything Boston. More than one has been crystal clear that they "really really hate the Bruins".

When I walked into the office a few mins late Wed morning this week, most of my co-workers stopped what they were doing when they saw me and gave big smiles, spontaneous high fives and congratulatory remarks because they know how big of a Blues fan I am. It was a really cool feeling.

[gaijin]

Being in the military, my workplace is full of people from all over the US. Most of the ones that follow hockey (or have asked about the Blues jerseys hanging on my office door) tell me they are pulling for the Blues (even the Red Wings fan), except for an old civilian who is originally from Boston. But even he is excited for the Blues since he has lived in StL so long. He said that if the Finals were the Blues against anyone else, he would cheer for St. Louis.

[glen a richter]

A complete stranger at Home Depot said good luck on Monday while I was waiting at the register. It feels really nice to be on the positive end of things once in a while.

[theohall]

While leaving a Gate gas station the other day, an older gentleman, also a complete stranger, stopped me to talk Blues hockey, and he's lived in Jacksonville, FL his whole life.

[glen a richter]

It feels like it’s been a month between games. Is it tomorrow night yet?

[theohall]

Was watching NHL Network the other day and Alex Tanguay put up his "expected line matchups" for the series. It's pretty clear he didn't pay any attention to how the Blues beat the Sharks.

His matchups.

1st 91-10-17 vs Marchand/Bergeron/Pastrnak
2nd 9-90-57 vs Debrusk/Krecji/Backes
3rd 7-21-25 vs Nordstrom/Kuraly/Acciari
4th 49-70-20 vs Johansson/Coyle/Heinen

Well - that looks great if your Bruce Cassidy. Fortunately, for us, we have Craig Berube who smartly started using the 49-70-20 line against top 6 forwards later in the season to see who they would perform. The answer is so well he used them against the Sharks top line regularly in the final 3 games of the Sharks series.

Don't be surprised if the first game looks alot like what Tanguay suggests, but see it change dramatically afterwards. I wouldn't be surprised if Berube has a different line start each of the 4 games so all 12 forwards get a Stanley Cup start, simply because every Blues line is capable of matching any of the Bruins lines , although I believe the 10/17/91 grouping is probably the weakest defensively.

What Berube did so well, especially vs the Sharks in the last 3 games, was get the Blues 1st and 3rd lines out against the other teams 3rd and 4th lines. He did his best to ensure the Blues 2nd and 4th lines took on the opposing teams top lines and I'd expect that to continue vs Boston.

49-70-20 vs Marchand/Bergeron/Pastrnak would be interesting, because that Blues 4th line simply isn't that fast. What they are exceptional at is reading the play, being in the right position, forcing turnovers, quickly turning those turnovers into up ice rushes and forechecking smartly. FYI - that's exactly what that top Bruins does extremely well also, they are just faster skaters. If that 4th line can force the Bruins top line to play in their own end more, the Blues remaining 9 are better than the Bruins remaining 9 matched up that way.

It's going to be fun to watch.

[glen a richter]

I was thinking about the “x-factors” I’ve called all playoffs—Schwartz, Binnington outstopping both Bishop and Jones, I think our SCF x-factor is going to be Perron. Dude came up short last year and wants it even more. He should put up a great series if the hunger is really there.

[Kerfuffle]

Wanted to get perspective from my friends here on what the turnaround was for this Blues season. Was it coaching? goaltending? Sports are strange and this is the national story and I would put it at the same level as the Kings in 2012 when they snuck in as the 8th seed and then wiped everyone out to win the cup. The Blues are cruisin but who would have thought this would be the final matchup back in early Jan. I read the threads here and I"m not seeing anything that explains the turnaround to the season. Was there one thing you could point to where the team suddenly put it all together?