Game 1 Colorado dominated but game 2 was the complete opposite, slow defensive game. Not sure if it’s what the Blues did or the Avs just playing like garbage, but they were completely bottled up in game 2. All of their shots came from the outside. Basically zero offense from Colorado all game and the Blues took advantage of the chances they got.
In G1, the Avs did everything except finish. They were the better rested team and they looked like it. In G2 the Blues totally turned the tables on the Avs. Not sure if the Avs were expecting them to fold up or what.
G3 is a must-win for the Blues IMO. Let the Avs get back ahead in the series and they just power away. Get them down by a game and the Blues get in their heads and make the Avs start trying to play a different way, which is nearly always fatal.
Good series.
The TNT crew were talking pregame about what the Blues needed to do and Tocchet suggested exactly what the Blues did and it worked in convincing fashion. That series is a long way from over obviously but it will be a fun one to watch. Im not so sure the winner of that one takes the West because Calgary is a load and the Oil are a real wildcard. If they could get Mike Smith from a few games ago they could roll them, but man he had a stinker the first game.
Blues played a simple dump and chase with only one F1. Basically pulling out of the zone and running 4 across the red line and slowing down the AVs in neutral zone. It worked perfectly.
Other interesting thing of note. Tampa is deploying the 11F 7D like the Blues are. Seems to be working for them as well. FLA is in trouble.
Tampa ran 11F/7D a bunch in previous playoffs – the bubble for sure. Makes a lot of sense when the team is fighting injuries and guys playing banged up.
I bet we see Dean mess with the lines and D-pairs a lot more next season after being handcuffed to basically one lineup in the playoffs this year.
Other interesting thing of note. Tampa is deploying the 11F 7D like the Blues are. Seems to be working for them as well. FLA is in trouble.
Crazy they are doing it without Point as well, I figured they would be toast without him…
They won the bubble cup without Stamkos. Hedman was playing at about 50% last year. That team can play through injuries, they had like 6 guys get hurt last night. I always forget about Vasilevski and how the best team has the best goalie as a nice safety net. Funny they beat the Leafs even when their goalie didn’t show up – no one is talking about that.
Kucherov for Conn Smythe
Vasi is a beast out there. He just takes up so much of the net there is almost nothing to shoot at. He gives you a glimmer of hope then snatches it away. Sure seems like the downsizing of the goalie equipment somehow eluded him LOL
Relistening to the BG interview. Man, he is such a breath of fresh air. Blunt, to the point and honest.
Game 1 Colorado dominated but game 2 was the complete opposite, slow defensive game.
No kidding, Game 1 was edge of your seat shooting gallery, and Game 2 they were stuck in the mud and I was sleeping before the 3rd period.
Relistening to the BG interview. Man, he is such a breath of fresh air. Blunt, to the point and honest.
Fiala is for sure gone. I cant remember the exact quote but something to the effect “because got hot for 3 months” when asked would he rather keep Fiala or Dumba.
Fiala is for sure gone. I cant remember the exact quote but something to the effect “because got hot for 3 months” when asked would he rather keep Fiala or Dumba.
Yep, that was essentially it.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>CaptainMusky wrote:</div>
Relistening to the BG interview. Man, he is such a breath of fresh air. Blunt, to the point and honest.Fiala is for sure gone. I cant remember the exact quote but something to the effect “because got hot for 3 months” when asked would he rather keep Fiala or Dumba.
For a GM looking to get return on a player who just put up 85 points for your team that is one baffling statement. He inadvertently is telling other teams Fiala got lucky for a few months other than that he’s got nothing but I want you’re highest draft pick and a good prospects for him.
Foolish thing to say. But Dumba is pure gold. Sorry I don’t see the savvy GM in this instance.
I’ve said this before when you don’t value a player you won’t get value in return.
Listening to KFAN now and I can understand why BG got annoyed. They just brought it up again if it should be Dumba or Fiala? Why do people think it’s that simple. It not a 1 for 1 option. You sign Fiala and you are moving Dumba plus other pieces.
Listening to KFAN now and I can understand why BG got annoyed. They just brought it up again if it should be Dumba or Fiala? Why do people think it’s that simple. It not a 1 for 1 option. You sign Fiala and you are moving Dumba plus other pieces.
most fans dont look past next year, its the year AFTER that where it’s virtually impossible to afford anyone…
BG is annoyed because he mishandled this from the start. He made his mind up on Fiala from the get go and never left himself room to adjust. Handed out extensions to mid level players in the middle of the season when there was no need to. Brought in other players they are going to have to pay. Now he has to answer questions and he don’t like it. It annoys him. He never counted on Fiala to put up 85.
Saying something like “why because he got hot for a couple months?” Is a absurd thing to say in a number of ways particularly about a player you have to trade and you’re not dealing from a position of power to start with. Yeah KK got hot for a couple months too but whatever.
Players who get hot for a couple months are generally considered elite by anyone else. Fiala has to leave because BG always wanted him to. Now BG will have to wonder when and if he will come back to bite him at the worse possible time.
Orrr….they give Fiala 8 mill lose Dumba Plus 2-3 other players have to find a cheap backup goalie probably 2 top 4 d and probably can’t sign Boldy long term, but yeah BG just doesn’t like him and wants him gone.
Would like to see what Fiala signs for then everyone go back and try and construct the roster.
It’s not really how much they value him, it’s how much all the other teams do, they all know we are moving Fiala. Hope BG can get a bidding war going.
If Fiala had done something, anything in the playoffs it might be a different story. Not a big fan of guys who disappear for the big games. Then again, really only Kaprisov had a good series so there is plenty of blame to go around.
Sob! I went to bed with the Flames up 3-2 thinking they would close it out…
Listening to KFAN now and I can understand why BG got annoyed. They just brought it up again if it should be Dumba or Fiala? Why do people think it’s that simple. It not a 1 for 1 option. You sign Fiala and you are moving Dumba plus other pieces.
You are right it’s not as easy as a one for one deal but that’s not how even BG is defending it. It should be how he is but it’s not. Instead he responds this way.
“If I sound a little pissed off or annoyed, I am. Because all I hear is Matt getting kind of dumped on and you know what, it’s not easy doing what he did, playing in the condition he did. I like Matt Dumba. I think he’s a damn good defenseman and people want to write him out of town just because Kevin had three good months.”
First off why is Dumba playing in the playoffs when he is injured that badly? There were other options readily available. This is how Berube out coached Evason but I don’t think Evason may have had the final decision in all this. Berube had no problem putting in AHL’ers while half his D corp was beat up and he beat us with them.
If you have to defend Dumba by dumping on a guy who put up 85 points on your team you are on the wrong side of things or you are really defending yourself. Earlier BG admonished the media by saying “This is a big boy life and this is a big boy world and if you can’t take it, then tough.” Sounds a bit to me like BG is the one who can’t take it.
If Bg had $10M to give Fiala it wouldn’t work now. The environment here is just toxic towards him and that is on the Wild.
McDavid is like the create a player feature in older video games where you could MAX out every attribute and make them unstoppable… its just unreal…
Ice Cap,
While I agree with you that GMBG’s Dumba argument is flawed (Barriero should have clarified the question to get him back on track) GMBG was given a window to answer the question the way he did, so he took advantage of it on air (watch any experienced politician, they are given a pretty direct question and they 180 the answer to fit their narrative) I guarantee you GMBG and Evason have had PR coaching on how to address questions like this moving forward (Interview coaching has become a big thing in industries that deal with alot of Media and PR interactions)
GMBG just cant come out and show his cards though, I guarantee you his management team/scouts/cap guru’s have ran through every conceivable scenario on how the team/cap could look 3-4 years out, they absolutely know what they can/can’t do and also factor in wildcard scenarios (what if Boldy scores 100 points next year, how could that impact our bridge deal aav offer?)
So when GMBG replies that they need to take time and figure things out you can know that’s a BS answer, they have everything mostly figured out. The difference is most fans think short term (we can afford Fiala if we trade away player Y and Z, etc etc) GMBG and team need to think about how does that fit/impact things if we have to extend Boldy in 1 year, Wallstedt and Rossi in 3, Kirill’s monster extension in 4, etc etc…
Speculating as fans is fun, but its pretty worthless as we have like 2% of the details of the situation. I’m a big contributor of that on this thread, but I do it because its fun to think of trade scenarios and possible future line combinations, etc, but ultimately its just worthless gossip probably no where near the actual scenarios that will play out.
Who truly knows what the future will bring (besides GMBG’s idea of how it could go) I’m excited to sit back and watch things play out (i’ll keep posting speculation threads though because we only have a month or so left to get this season thread to 300 pages 
Sob! I went to bed with the Flames up 3-2 thinking they would close it out…
Ha ha ha. With both of these teams being a total defense dumpster fire, it’s NEVER over. Either team could give up 2 goals in a minute and turn the tables.
The Avs/Blues are going to DESTROY the winner of this series.
Icecap is about the only person here who thinks BG has made poor decisions. He’s dogging him every chance he gets. I don’t blame BG for those comments regarding Dumba because he’s heard them all the time. He’s no dummy. He played the game and was traded etc. He knows what it’s like. It’s a business you don’t produce then they’ll find someone to replace you. Regardless of what Fiala did this season and over what period of time it happened in the fact remains there was going to have to be other changes in order to afford him regardless of the buyouts. Those two anchors still being on the roster doesn’t change much and would make things worse. A tiny amount of more cap but it’s irrelevant.
Looks like my question if Sam Girard would survive through the playoffs might have an answer after 7 games in…
Binnington out. Blues are probably done now. He was hot.
Icecap is about the only person here who thinks BG has made poor decisions. He’s dogging him every chance he gets. I don’t blame BG for those comments regarding Dumba because he’s heard them all the time. He’s no dummy. He played the game and was traded etc. He knows what it’s like. It’s a business you don’t produce then they’ll find someone to replace you. Regardless of what Fiala did this season and over what period of time it happened in the fact remains there was going to have to be other changes in order to afford him regardless of the buyouts. Those two anchors still being on the roster doesn’t change much and would make things worse. A tiny amount of more cap but it’s irrelevant.
Kind of nice having someone around who’s not part of the group think right? Keeps things fresh and real! 
I will add signing Merrill and especially Gologoski when he did was a bad decision. He could have waited and probably got Merrill for less. Gologoski could easily be $2M taking up space in the press box for half the season not what you need in the cap hell era. Much remains to be seen. BG has his attributes and he has the advantage of past comparisons and maybe he is the breath of fresh air everyone seems to think but I get a whiff of a little halitosis as well. He imo clearly fumbled the way they handled Fiala from the start and Evason is part of that as well.
I will add signing Merrill and especially Gologoski when he did was a bad decision. He could have waited and probably got Merrill for less. Gologoski could easily be $2M taking up space in the press box for half the season not what you need in the cap hell era. Much remains to be seen. BG has his attributes and he has the advantage of past comparisons and maybe he is the breath of fresh air everyone seems to think but I get a whiff of a little halitosis as well. He imo clearly fumbled the way they handled Fiala from the start and Evason is part of that as well.
As much as I like BG he has made a couple questionable moves. Goligoski especially. Merrill I’m ok with. He is a good 3rd line D man. Could’ve maybe got him cheaper but who knows.
I am still not on the Fleury resign bandwagon. I just don’t think he’s worth the $$ it will take to resign him anymore. I don’t care that he was with a crap team in Chicago and it inflated his stat line. He wasn’t anything more than average with our group either.
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