That was great. Love this outdoor shit.
[Reply]

It’s weird seeing Hockey on TNT
[Reply]

Quality win... Now let's see how many of them (both teams) suffer frost bite... :-)
[Reply]

I mean you think about total body temp and hands/feet, but I didn't think about faces/ears until I saw them putting lotion on that guys earlobes because they were just bright red and cracking.

It's not hard to keep your core temp up a bit when you're working as hard as those guys were, but there's just not much you can do about noses and ears apart from putting a gator or something under your helmet, then you you may not get the ventilation you want on the top of your head when you're out there busting ass during a shift.

In either event - damn nice effort by the boys. And while I wish Kyrou had about a 6 year deal right now, he'll still only be an RFA at the expiration of his current deal so it's probably safe to go get that jersey...
[Reply]

The St. Louis Blues are +300 vs. the Avs for the series. Also dead last at +1800 in Vegas of all still extant playoff teams to win the Cup.

We got 'em right where we want 'em, boys . . .

I'm Loving the anticipation of this series with the Avs. The Blues are playing at a really high level right now and Binnington looks a lot more like 2019 Binnington. If the Blues can make McKinnon's line struggle even just for a few games the Blues have a real chance at stealing this series.

Yah, I know the Avs have a lot of horses, and they do. But their defense isn't that much better than the Blues'. And we seem to have an advantage on the power play. And we have the most 20-goal scorers (8) of any team in the NHL this season. And I think the defense has gotten better over the last 3 games. I think that the Blues are going to give the Avs a real fight, and with our scorer depth, could even take it away from CO.

Which is why I put $300 on the Blues to win this series against the Avs and another $300 to win the whole damned thing.


LETS GO BLUES
[Reply]

House money.

This is a team that's better equipped to give Colorado a run than anyone still standing, IMO.

But they're still likely to get their asses kicked. The Avalanche are fucking nasty and this sure feels like their year.
[Reply]

Jesus fuck.

The Avalanche are insanely good. The Blues didn’t even play poorly and they’re lucky they’re not losing 6-1 right now.

When Colorado plays to their ability, they won’t lose. Ever. Just…wow.
[Reply]

Honestly, had the Blues stolen this game you could've convinced me they'd win in 5.

Not as any sort of statement as to the quality of the teams, but I simply don't think Colorado can play a better game than that. It was damn clinic. And to play your best game, at home, and still lose (and lose home-ice advantage in the process) would be a brutal blow to your psyche.

You could see them coming into game 2 a bit rattled at that point, especially if Binner makes a couple of early saves, and suddenly get tight.

Again, that was awe-inspiring.
[Reply]

I would seriously hope not... any Cup contending team isn't going to be rattled to that extent and just fall apart. And if they did, they're fucking soft and weren't going anywhere anyway.

A team like Vegas last season outskated them and jumped on every mistake, putting more and more pressure on them... it's what they do.

The Blues were outskated by a fair amount last night, which doesn't really lend itself to the Avalanche changing up their strategy and putting every stupid shot on net because they never have a second in their own zone, leading to bad shots and stupidity (as they did against Vegas).

A Blues win would have had to light a fire under their ass to put a ton more pressure on the puck, to force the Avalanche to fall apart... Bennington isn't going to do that by himself.
[Reply]

Yeah, the forecheck has to be world's better for STL to stay in this.

Once the Avalanche hit the neutral zone, you can't skate with them. You can't just 'be physical' when they're advancing because you can't hit what you can't catch.

Like you said, you've gotta get them in their own zone, shrink the room they have to operate and then stay physical on the puck. You're NOT gonna hang with these guys if they break out and they have too many D-men who can hit an outlet pass to let them have it clean (even that POS bust Erik Johnson).

The Blues are going to have to get away from their 11-7 forward/Defense alignment. You just can't send 11 forwards out there and expect them to be able to maintain the level of forecheck St. Louis will have to have.

But again - any game St. Louis wins will be mostly 'stolen'. The Avalanche are just better. This year and next are perfect storms for them. It's their time.
[Reply]

Yeah, whatever throws them off their game, which has typical been end to end pressure and a relentless forecheck, and then aggressively using those turnovers for odd man rushes.

O'Reilly in particular is pretty smart about it... of course that's how he got his goal and he had some good pressure, including surprising MacKinnon at the blue line in the 3rd, which almost turned into a good chance.

The Preds' big adjustments seemed to be simply being more tenacious than their game 1 effort, plus their shot blocking improved and they started a super spread out PP in games 3 and 4 that got the Avalanche chasing some, which turned their PP from "can we decline these penalties" to something respectable.

And yeah, it would be a fucking shame if the Avalanche don't win it this year or next. A buddy texted me last night during the 2nd intermission and said the Avalanche needed another goal and might regret letting them hang around... and I replied, uh, there's no "letting". I mean, we can talk all day about how they whiffed on a couple chances and hit some posts, but that's just hockey. They played as well as you can ever ask for and sometimes hockey is just a fickle bitch.

And over the course of a ~2-4 year window, you have so much shit going against you... the field, then injuries, potentially the refs and how games are called, etc. Its not like looking back on the entirety of Aaron Rodgers' career and thinking... hmmm, something must be wrong.... over the course of a few postseasons in the NHL, you need to be pretty damn good (check) AND have some things go your way. And even then, your chances are improved to probably like 20% or maybe 55/45 over any given opponent.
[Reply]

Blues accomplished what i think al Blues fans hoped for: stole one in CO to start the series. Now it's a race to three.

Was a little flukey tonight; Avs made a lot of uncharacteristic errors (how about that crazy moment when two of them skated right into each and turned it over?). Don't expect that to be an issue in the next game.

Was a bit surprised that the Blues won the chaos portion of the game. I figured that any wild unscripted incidents would favor the faster, more talented Avs. Feel like STL got a little lucky there.

But I loved the way the Blues came right back in this game and played much better team defense, tried to punch CO in the mouth from the get-go, but didn't lose control and take a bunch of penalties.

Good job, boys.
[Reply]

Yeah, the end of it was a bit mind boggling... skating into each other in their defensive zone and were all out of whack with the empty net. It looked like there were 8 Blues skaters against 4 Avalanche, they were so discombobulated.

Goes back to what I said a few posts ago... the reality is game 1 could have looked much worse for the Blues and game 2 could have been worse for the Avalanche. And if they get so rattled by it they have a hard time stepping up in St Louis, they're STILL not the team people expect them to be.

The Avalanche seem to have a thing for game 1s in the past couple postseasons, hitting an unworldly gear and then coming back down to earth as teams adjust.... so now it's their turn.
[Reply]

The Blues may not be as talented as the Avs but I think they might have the mental edge in this series. They're the underdog and have less to lose. Avs can't get past the second round in recent years. They have to be thinking "here we go again."
[Reply]

Shit, I certainly hope not... they would have to be pretty naive and full of themselves to think it would be a cakewalk, and terribly weak mentally to take one loss and bad night as the sky is falling in a 1-1 series, as opposed to simply putting it behind them and focusing on game 3.
[Reply]