Curse You, Mike Richards! Blues fall short in loss to Kings

by gallagher on Nov 22, 2011 10:14 PM CST

"Okay, in retrospect, that was not good."

It's not just me, there are other GT staffers who have been Mike Richards fans for a while (LEADERSHIP!), but come on, man. The Blues played a tough game against a tough opponent and came up just short. Jaroslav Halak played well and Jonathan Bernier is no slouch - many thought he'd steal the starting job from Jonathan Quick this year. My contacts are a mess and my seats at the rink are not optimal, so these bulletpoints might be a bit fuzzy tonight:

Drew Doughty got a two-minute penalty for faceplanting T.J. Oshie into the corner boards. From my crappy seats it looked bad, but not as bad as some other questionable hits I've seen down at the DrinkScotch. Lots of twittertalk about it being suspension-worthy, but I'll leave that discussion to you all in the comments.
As for Boy Oshie himself, I thought he played yet another great game tonight. I love the Cock's quote about him from today's paper that frosted tips plays Reckless, In A Good Way. Sounds like another slogan for his business cards. Tonight was no different as he had his feet moving, used his body well and created some great chances. Keep me down as a fan of the Oshie, Backes, Steen line.
Patrik Berglund made a really pretty move in the second and came up completely empty. Again, bad contacts, crappy seats, but I was halfway through my high-fiving routine before I realized he hadn't actually scored a goal. Come on, snakebit, pot a freaking goal already.
Still tied for first: Hardest Working Blues forward - Vladimir Sobotka and Alexander Steen. Seeing more and more No. 20 and No. 17 jerseys in the stands these days, with good reason.
Kevin Shattenkirk continues to be the flashy, exciting blueliner of the defensive corps, and he takes risks in a calculated manner most of the time, but tonight he damn near had a couple of crazy, costly turnovers. Luckily he was able to get back and shut down any good attempts against on those plays.
Barret Jackman, on the other hand, had two glaring turnovers that wound up in the net. That is going to happen, get over it. Jackman is sound and solid way more than he is not, so don't even start down the Brewer path on this one. It's the NHL - everyone is great at their jobs, sometimes you're going to make the mistakes that you pay for. Tonight was one of those nights for Jackman.

Right back at it tomorrow in Pittsburgh, but plenty more to talk about from tonight. You should definitely talk about these topics as well: Ryan Reaves uses his body and skating skills well and plays a much more complete game than Cam Janssen ever did; that Kris Russell is a bit of a rodeo ride when he has the puck; the powerplay could use one more practice with Hitchcock; Jamie Langenbrunner - do something, anything; Matt D'Agostini, stop doing your Brad Boyes impression.

Ready? Go.

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Comments

At some point we gotta stop making goalies look great

We aren’t just running into great goal tending game after game. We are making all these backups look like all-stars with our lack of finish. I think a lot of it has to do with 3 of our best players being out and some of is guys like bergy just aren’t used to the type of scoring chances they are getting. If we keep playing like this I think throwing pucks on net is gonna reward us and guys will get used to the types of breaks they are seeing and convert more. If we had even a league under average powerplay, instead of just the worst, we would be one of the top teams easy.

He raged at the world, at his family, at his life. But mostly he just raged.
Aren't you that guy who hates the blues?

by Icion on Nov 22, 2011 11:10 PM CST reply actions

Grachev 4:52 TOI. Time to say goodbye team and hello AHL?

by Mihali4 on Nov 23, 2011 4:09 AM CST reply actions

for a vet dman Jackman makes the same rookie mistake

over and over again, game after game. And it’s the same mistake that ends up in the net most of the time.

Insanity is what they call it when you do the same thing over and over again expecting a different result, Stop the insanity.

I don’t get the Jaxx lovefest. He;s one gear slower than plodding and constantly being burned on the outside and caught from behind. And folks want him signed for more years???? No cup will come here until the dead wood gets salvoed, even if it’s your favorite horse you send to the glue factory.

Just a chew toy for the hockey gods

by spectr17 on Nov 23, 2011 9:42 AM CST reply actions