Blues Fall Again At Home: Disturbing Trends

by gallagher on Nov 5, 2009 11:31 PM CST Comment 12 comments

St. Louis Blues' Lars Eller (61) is congratulated by teammates after scoring in the third period of his first NHL hockey game, against the Calgary Flames. Erik Johnson (6) did not kiss Eller.

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I had a buddy who used to intentionally put off every assignment until the last possible second. He said he'd done the same thing all through college, too. He'd get to the last possible instant that he could potentially start a project, go into total freak-out mode, curse himself, pull on his scalp in an overly aggressive way and then proceed to wail away on the project until it was done, usually seconds before the deadline.

"I know myself," he'd say, "I do my best work when my back is against the wall."

I'm starting to think that the Blues have the same mentality as a team. They are now 5-6-2, eight losses in their first 13, on the year. Last year they started 5-7-1, eight losses in their first 13 games. It wasn't until almost the last possible second last year before they went on the tear that put them into the playoffs... on the second-to-last day of the season.

The Blues grabbed the first goal of the game only five times this season: in the three wins against Anaheim, Minnesota and Carolina and the two losses to Phoenix and Atlanta. The Blues have given up the first goal in the other eight. Clearly, this isn't the way Andy Murray wants his team to play, but think back to the end of last season. How many times did the Note give up the first goal? Forty-seven times, friends. Forty-seven.

It may not be the mentality they want to have, but it clearly is the mentality they have. This team puts pressure on itself time and again by giving up the lead and having to battle back. It happened 57% of the time last year and it has happened 62% of the time this season. The only difference? Last year the team was getting scoring from all of their lines. This year the Blues are averaging 1.00 goals per game in their eight losses.

How do you fix it? No idea, but clearly the Blues need a new pre-game ritual to get their intensity ratcheted up.

A couple other notes from tonight:

Lars Eller/Lars Ulrich/Skeet Ulrich comes up from Peoria, dons Cory Stillman's number and gets his first NHL goal. Great to see it and glad to see the new guy from the AHL is the one who breaks the scoreless streak. Can we call up someone else from Peoria to get the team another goal in Philly on Saturday?
The team got plenty of shots tonight, went to the goal hard, won puck battles and didn't shy from any contact. And still they lost. At some point you have to stop saying, "Just ran into a hot goalie tonight," but it does just seem like the Blues can't pull an easy draw in net: Miikka Kiprusoff, Tomas Vokoun, Ilya Bryzgalov. All three are good golaies and all three stymied the Note on this homestand.
There's plenty of underachievers to point a finger at right now, but the play of T.J. Oshie and Patrik Berglund is so incredibly different from last year that it stands out. Seems like it's time for those two to become roomies again, fire up Rock Band and play "Wonderwall" all night again. Don't screw with the hockey gods. Especially when you're a sophmore.
Eric Brewer kicked in the first goal of the game to put his team down. For a guy who would probably want nothing more than to get off the list of the fans' "Most Hated Player" he sure isn't finding a way to help himself.
Sometimes a golatending controversy is good for a team. Look what happened last year when Chris Mason played well enough to get Manny Legace to push the self-destruct button: the Blues wound up with one of the hottest goalies in the league and rode him to the sixth seed in the playoffs. Mason has been good, don't get me wrong, but if Ty Conklin has a couple more quality starts, maybe it'll jump start Mason's defense mechanism and he'll get even better.

Flyers up next in Philadelphia on Saturday night. Should be an entertaining game with a good, hard-hitting team. let's see if the Blues can rise to the occasion.

Here's your post-game interviews with Eller, Oshie and Johnson, the assumed future of the team:

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Comments

Not even going to discuss the game itself -- I'm so underwhelmed.

What I will discuss, however, is the in-game atmosphere thing that disgusted me:

For those of you who have never been to a game or haven’t been for a while, there is a third period dealie that the Blues do in order to get the crowd into the final push. During a “let’s sell beer on TV break”, they flash crap on the Jumbotron that people cheer or boo. “Upper Bowl”, “Lower Bowl”, “Dog Lovers”, “Cat People”, other team’s logo, bluenote, “Free Beer”, “Just Kidding”, etc. Amongst this usual fare, they toss in the following tonight: “Tired of Racking Leaves”.

Now I’ve been a rackee and a racker (nuts, my friends), but never racked any leaves. Makes me wonder if Angellllllllla is typing the stuff in for the Jumbotron, with her obvious love for superfluous letters. Oh, to prove yourself to be an idiot in front of a little less than 19,250 people.

Let's go Blues!!!

by Milo. on Nov 5, 2009 11:51 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

i've racked leaves

the little boy ones double over and hit the ground. the girl ones? not so much

A strong anvil fears no hammer

by Childhood Trauma on Nov 6, 2009 11:57 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Are you seriously calling out Chris Mason?

Asking more from him would be insane. The first goal tonight was put in by Brewer, and the second was a big fat screen. What more could he do? How could he be better?

And the Oshie, Bergland, Eller line was the best one on the ice tonight. They were the only ones who were able to consistently keep the puck in Calgary’s zone and create a few scoring opportunities. Most of this season they’ve been lackluster, but tonight wasn’t one of those nights.

by hisTALLness on Nov 6, 2009 1:22 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

You might not expect to get it, but you always ask more from your goalies.

by Bman21212 on Nov 6, 2009 2:04 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

and even with brewer

the team d has actually been good, i still ask brewer and the others to block passes and break up odd man rushes occasionally, but right now for as horrible brewer has been since his return, it aint him, or mason, or any of the d from tiny weaver to injured cola. 4 games and what? a elbow goal off a rookie and a score by our junior call-up d-man?

it just isnt acceptable. other than silent jay, the forwards are epic fail, and i’d scream more, but other than backes not getting chippy, they are pretty much doing what they always do sans hit the twine. it isnt like kt isnt there or boyes isnt shooting, or kariya isnt floating or winchester isnt grinding out his ice time. or they aint playing a system (which for the last two games consist mostly of getting the blues points open, passing it back to the d, then making a line change).

A strong anvil fears no hammer

by Childhood Trauma on Nov 6, 2009 12:03 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Yeah, asking more from goalies is kind of what I was going for.

Unless they pitch a shutout, you can always ask for more.

SWYD

by gallagher on Nov 6, 2009 4:39 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Something tells me that I should be glad that I missed the 1st two periods and most of the 3rd.

I was home in time for Eller’s goal, which was nice. I didn’t see the whole game, so I can’t comment, but between kicking in the first goal and running away from interviews after the game. Brewer isn’t exactly out to endear himself to fans or the team.

The point of the captain is to show leadership skills and get your guys on track, not alienate the guys. It’s like we have Bobby Holik 2.0, only not as scary. Holik and Boulton got into an altercation during a game on the ice a few years ago. You don’t want an atmosphere like that anywhere near your team – and a few more boneheaded plays, and a little bit more “I don’t wanna do interviews!” poutiness, and someone needs to take a good look at who the leaders are.

I’d rather have the rotating C back than deal with someone who has his head up his ass. Brewer needs to take a good look in the mirror and ask himself what he wants out of his position with the team. There are others who are more capable than he is (Walt comes to mind, obviously), and unless Brewer proves otherwise, he’s going to continue to be a disappointment to the fans and to the team.

Reporter: There`s a "stamp out the Beatles movement" underway in Detroit. What are you going to do about it?

Paul McCartney: We`re going to start a campaign to stamp out Detroit.

by hildymac on Nov 6, 2009 9:34 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

Not only did Brewer kick in the goal

He failed to block/deflect/touch the pass that went right through him to Iginla in the first place.

Not afraid to nitpick

by joker24 on Nov 6, 2009 10:17 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

Actually

I read somewhere that Berglund and Oshie are renting a house together. So they’re roomies again.

St. Louis Game Time

by Marcus E Pettersson on Nov 6, 2009 11:56 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

I'm usually the negative Ned after a loss....

but I saw some glimmers of hope last night.

Oshie diving to almost knock a puck in after a shake n bake move. Welcome back Kamikaze Kid.

Eller (Skeet) crashing the net and then standing up to the D. Plus a couple excellent shots on goal, something we are in dire need of. Welcome to the bigs BabyCakes. This kid could be the spark we need for the offense to start lighting that lamp.

Mason backstopping good enough for a win

The Blues peppering the goalie with plenty of shots and making things happen in the O-zone. Something they have been lacking lately. The goals will come if they keep the fire turned up in that dept.

Mr. Dangles (Frenchie) crashing the net and getting off an epic one timer. Someone dish this kid the puck and he will be our next Hullie. It’s as obvious as the ~~nose~~ grimace on Golblin’s face.

No “too many men on the ice” penalties. Well shit and fall back in it, we finally made it through a game without that mental breakdown.

More as the alcohol wears off

Some days its just not worth chewing through the restraints

by spectr17 on Nov 6, 2009 12:42 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

As someone who was there

I thought it was a vast improvement over the last couple games, and I actually thought we outplayed them a good deal of the game, esspecially in the 2nd, just couldn’t finish until the Eller tip in. Good goaltending, solid defensive play, and another 30 shot night isn’t terrible.

If I do have a complaining point, it’s how few of the players who have actually been playing well lately were in for OT. Eller had a really good game, he didn’t see any ice time so Oshie and Backes, who haven’t been doing anything, could be out for the game costing goal. For OT, the players who are playing best now should be in, not the ones with the best track record.

Breaking News: Being a Cubs fan sucks.

by Novacain on Nov 6, 2009 1:22 PM CST reply actions 0 recs