These comments from bernie are right on.... And for you mon blues fans who could not understand our frustration the other nite maybe this will help.
Bernie: How Blues can need wake-up call is a mystery
Bernie Miklasz bmiklasz@post-dispatch.com
Apr 18, 2015 01:15 AM
The Blues flubbed an opportunity to assert themselves early in their best-of-seven series with the Minnesota Wild, inexplicably checking out and failing to compete in the pivotal second period of their 4-2 loss Thursday in Game 1.
The home team drained the energy of the turned-up crowd at Scottrade Center and immediately stirred bad memories of past postseason failures. The team’s lack of urgency was as surprising as it was embarrassing.
It wasn’t that the Blues lost; Minnesota has the NHL’s best record since Jan. 15 and is a formidable opponent.
What’s maddening is how the Blues lost.
“You get down one at home and hope to pick it up a notch and that would be a wake-up call,†Blues captain David Backes said after Game 1. “It almost took until the third period until we finally got our legs going and played our brand of hockey.â€
Therein lies a fundamental problem: With so much at stake, including their own reputations as competitors, why do the Blues need a wake-up call?
If the Blues can’t get cranked up by the challenge of taking on the Wild and shutting up skeptics who expect another STL postseason collapse, then what will it take to get them going? This is perplexing.
Blues players are well aware of the team’s futile-franchise postseason rep and resent being linked to it. The players know that the long-suffering Blues faithful have experienced more playoff disappointments than any fan base should have to endure. But the current Blues don’t think it’s fair to dump historical grievances on them.
The Blues cringe at that narrative, but then they went out in Game 1 and perpetuated that very same narrative with another distant-replay dud that came straight out of the franchise’s postseason archives.
All of that said, losing Game 1 on home ice is hardly fatal. This loomed as a seven-game series from the beginning, and no one of sound mind expected the home teams to win every game.
It just doesn’t work that way in the NHL, where road teams have won 44 percent of the postseason games since 2010, including five of the first eight this year through Thursday.
The last time the Blues won a postseason series (2012), they lost Game 1 at home to San Jose. And winning both games at home to start the series didn’t prevent the Blues from losing to Los Angeles in 2013, or Chicago in 2014.
This is a seven-game test, and the Blues can rally. But only if they start playing vertical hockey, going fast in a straight line through the neutral zone instead of making too many passes and veering sideways to enable the Wild to set up the shot-blocking defense that frustrates the St. Louis shooters.
The Blues won’t be able to win from the perimeter. They need to get inside, crash the net and put bodies in front of Minnesota goaltender Devan Dubnyk, who was much too comfortable in Game 1.
Forget the parade down Market Street; how about a parade in the Wild’s crease?
And why, pray tell, were the Blues so ill-prepared to account for the Wild’s impressive speed in Game 1?
None of this makes sense, including Blues players saying that they learned a lesson in Game 1.
Well, learning time is over.
Earning time is here.
The Blues have to come out in Game 2 and earn a victory, and earn respect. The Blues are an imposing and talented team, and nothing has been lost except for one game. But to keep the Stanley Cup dream alive, the Blues have to show more life
Vladimir Tarasenko, please pick up the white courtesy phone
Posted from Rivals Mobile
Bernie: How Blues can need wake-up call is a mystery
Bernie Miklasz bmiklasz@post-dispatch.com
Apr 18, 2015 01:15 AM
The Blues flubbed an opportunity to assert themselves early in their best-of-seven series with the Minnesota Wild, inexplicably checking out and failing to compete in the pivotal second period of their 4-2 loss Thursday in Game 1.
The home team drained the energy of the turned-up crowd at Scottrade Center and immediately stirred bad memories of past postseason failures. The team’s lack of urgency was as surprising as it was embarrassing.
It wasn’t that the Blues lost; Minnesota has the NHL’s best record since Jan. 15 and is a formidable opponent.
What’s maddening is how the Blues lost.
“You get down one at home and hope to pick it up a notch and that would be a wake-up call,†Blues captain David Backes said after Game 1. “It almost took until the third period until we finally got our legs going and played our brand of hockey.â€
Therein lies a fundamental problem: With so much at stake, including their own reputations as competitors, why do the Blues need a wake-up call?
If the Blues can’t get cranked up by the challenge of taking on the Wild and shutting up skeptics who expect another STL postseason collapse, then what will it take to get them going? This is perplexing.
Blues players are well aware of the team’s futile-franchise postseason rep and resent being linked to it. The players know that the long-suffering Blues faithful have experienced more playoff disappointments than any fan base should have to endure. But the current Blues don’t think it’s fair to dump historical grievances on them.
The Blues cringe at that narrative, but then they went out in Game 1 and perpetuated that very same narrative with another distant-replay dud that came straight out of the franchise’s postseason archives.
All of that said, losing Game 1 on home ice is hardly fatal. This loomed as a seven-game series from the beginning, and no one of sound mind expected the home teams to win every game.
It just doesn’t work that way in the NHL, where road teams have won 44 percent of the postseason games since 2010, including five of the first eight this year through Thursday.
The last time the Blues won a postseason series (2012), they lost Game 1 at home to San Jose. And winning both games at home to start the series didn’t prevent the Blues from losing to Los Angeles in 2013, or Chicago in 2014.
This is a seven-game test, and the Blues can rally. But only if they start playing vertical hockey, going fast in a straight line through the neutral zone instead of making too many passes and veering sideways to enable the Wild to set up the shot-blocking defense that frustrates the St. Louis shooters.
The Blues won’t be able to win from the perimeter. They need to get inside, crash the net and put bodies in front of Minnesota goaltender Devan Dubnyk, who was much too comfortable in Game 1.
Forget the parade down Market Street; how about a parade in the Wild’s crease?
And why, pray tell, were the Blues so ill-prepared to account for the Wild’s impressive speed in Game 1?
None of this makes sense, including Blues players saying that they learned a lesson in Game 1.
Well, learning time is over.
Earning time is here.
The Blues have to come out in Game 2 and earn a victory, and earn respect. The Blues are an imposing and talented team, and nothing has been lost except for one game. But to keep the Stanley Cup dream alive, the Blues have to show more life
Vladimir Tarasenko, please pick up the white courtesy phone
Posted from Rivals Mobile
