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Teams make their own luck but the blues got lucky imho as, based on overall team play, the game could easily have gone either way. As I saw it:
-Blues converted some of their prime chances early on and Nashville didn't. Nashville missed the net on at least 4 shots that could have been fairly easy goals. Kind of reminded me of the Blues late last year, lol.
-Rinne is still off after having hip surgery in May. His play on the Sobotka breakaway was beer league form.
-Halak made a few good glove saves that actually stayed in the trapper but he still can't control a rebound to save himself. His shot totals against in certain games are padded because he leaves a ton of rebounds there for another shot.
- As you noted, the third pairing really struggled at times though so did some of the other pairings. They were often hemmed in their own zone for long periods of time (think 30 seconds).
- Anybody else think Chris Pronger when Jay hit Sobotka with that stretch pass? Only difference was that it wasn't through the middle.
- Brett Hull is perfect for this organization right now....bringing back fond memories, doing the right things (going down the blues bench, shaking preds hands, acknowledging some the preds as he came out to the faceoff, etc.) and playing to the fans. People may not have noticed but he threw the ceremonial puck into the stands to the fans as he walked off the ice. He will help get people in the seats and corporations to open their checkbooks.
- As you noted, the fourth line had a lot of questionable shifts and I thought Max looked poor sans maybe two or three shifts.
- Faceoff dot was definitely an issue though they did win key face-offs on the PP.
- The blues use the non-puck side D aggressively on the breakout, more than any team I have seen. This will likely cause a lot of scoring opportunities both for and against. The good news is that it usually seems to be Jay or Shattenkirk who have better speed to somewhat recover if it goes awry.
- Speaking of Pronger, Weber reminds me of him as he was a bit nasty to play against last night with a lot of stick work away from the play.
-Berglund missed some very good chances last night. That line really could turn into something if they start to click.
-Roy set up a sure fire goal but the winger (can't remember who) wasn't expecting the pass, likely due to never really having played with a guy like Roy. Hopefully that chemistry will develop more. |
