West Finals: Sharks vs. Blues

coremiller

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Rooting for SJ because I'm selfish, but also because in the little I have watched St Louis, Binnington appears to be a goalie who handles the puck a lot, and is good at it. The Bruins have had trouble this year getting a good forecheck going against goalies who are aggressive and good at keeping the play moving back up the boards. Also, I think overall he is better than Jones.
He's certainly outplayed Jones today. Both of the first two goals were extremely soft. Then the rest of the team collapsed after the second one.
 

LogansDad

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Right. I feel like Binnington is the kind of guy who, while up and down, has the ability to take over a series at times.

Jones.... I don't feel the same way about.
 

bosockboy

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Binnington wasn’t even a part of the Blues future; just a guy. They called him up on a lark when Allen was struggling and he just figured shit out fast.
 

coremiller

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Haley gets bounced. The Sharks have only seven healthy eligible forwards left for the last 13 minutes of this game.
 

coremiller

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Frustrating that the minor penalty count in the game is SJ 7 - STL 2 when St Louis has knocked out two Sharks players with unpenalized headshots.
 

Ferm Sheller

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These two teams will kill each other in an elimination game or two. Series winner is coming to Boston in coffins.
 

durandal1707

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San Jose might be out of gas. Blues should kill them Tuesday.
Sharks played two 7-game series prior to this one. Have to think that workload would catch up to a team eventually. Also why I'm not too concerned with the Bruins getting a long rest at this point of the playoffs.
 

DeadlySplitter

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wow, I forgot this would be 5pm, going to catch highlights now. not surprised St Louis scored big in a game, but shocked SJ was shut out.
 

DeadlySplitter

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He's certainly outplayed Jones today. Both of the first two goals were extremely soft. Then the rest of the team collapsed after the second one.
I don't get this take for the first goal. Karlson turns it over then screens his own goalie.
 

coremiller

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I don't get this take for the first goal. Karlson turns it over then screens his own goalie.
It's a bad unforced turnover and there was a screen but this is hardly a prime scoring chance. It's not in close, it's not in the slot. The shot is not from a great scoring angle (about even with the face-off dot, above the circle), and the shot isn't up high in the corner or anything -- it beats Jones short side under the glove and actually bangs off the camera in the center of the goal. Jones' angle/positioning was poor here, he gave way too much space short side for a shot from that angle, you can't allow a shot basically center of the goal to go in there. This should have been a routine save. If the guy rips one up in the corner under the cross bar, (like Tarasenko's penalty shot), fine, you tip your cap. But that's not what happened here.
 

The Napkin

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right here
It kind of reminds me of Tuukka's line about not moving when you can't see gives you a better chance to make the save. He moved and the puck went center center. If he had just stayed put and "made himself big" it might have hit him. Or maybe not. What the hell do I know.
 

joe dokes

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I don't get this take for the first goal. Karlson turns it over then screens his own goalie.
Karlsson can't even get out of his own way at the moment. No surprise he can't get out of the goalie's. He seems hurt past the point of being effective.
 

SemperFidelisSox

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Pavelski, Hertl and Karlsson are all hurt and questionable for Game 6. What version of Martin Jones shows up changes from game to game. Every Bruins fan should be rooting for San Jose to come back, get only 3 days of rest, and get throttled in the Finals,
 

coremiller

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They would miss Pavelski and Hertl more than Karlsson. Karlsson hasn't been 100% the whole playoffs and as a result has mostly been a defensive liability, even before he re-aggravtaed his injury in Game 4. Swapping out the Karlsson from Games 1-4 for a healthy, less talented, more defensively sound replacement is probably a downgrade but not a huge one; swapping out the Karlsson from Game 5, when he could barely skate and in retrospect clearly shouldn't have played, is an upgrade.

OTOH, Pavelski and Hertl were their two leading goal-scorers during the regular season and are two of their three best forwards (along with Couture). Hertl in particular would be the biggest loss, because the Sharks don't have a good replacement to center the second line. Thornton centers the third line but he's not a guy who can really play big minutes in the Top 6 or handle tough matchups at this stage of his career (and on the road they can't control matchups). Goodrow centers the fourth line but he's a very limited player who's a useful penalty killer but not much else. I don't think any of their top 9 wingers have much recent experience playing center.

Even without those three guys, though, they should still be able to generate some offense through Couture, Burns, Kane, Meier, Thornton, Labanc. With a more offensively limited lineup it will be harder to dominate for long stretches so the strategy should be to play tighter/smarter defensively, take fewer risks, get a good game from Jones, and hope they get the puck luck to win a 50-50 game. They are certainly underdogs but they aren't out of it yet.
 

coremiller

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Bad Martin Jones showed up. This is over.

That didn't look like much of a penalty to me though.
 

Murby

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Blues/Bruins is going to be a tough, long, series. Seem like similar teams. Roll four lines. Can hit. Can forecheck. Oof. Was hoping for Sharks.
 

LogansDad

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I agree, Murby. Blues vs Bruins is going to be a lot like 2013 Bruins vs Chicago... two really good, similar and evenly matched teams. It's going to be an awesome series.

I don't think the Sharks would have made it to game 6 against the Bruins, and that would have been lucky.
 

locknload

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I agree, Murby. Blues vs Bruins is going to be a lot like 2013 Bruins vs Chicago... two really good, similar and evenly matched teams. It's going to be an awesome series.

I don't think the Sharks would have made it to game 6 against the Bruins, and that would have been lucky.
This blues team isn't in the same tier as that Blackhawks team. That Kane, toews hossa Seabrook core was insane and a legit hockey dynasty
 

NYCSox

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This blues team isn't in the same tier as that Blackhawks team. That Kane, toews hossa Seabrook core was insane and a legit hockey dynasty
Yeah. I know it was a shortened season but they had an 80% points percentage.

And that's probably it for the Sharks.
 

coremiller

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The Bruins are in even more trouble if the refs let the Blues play like this while calling non-existent penalties the other way.
 

coremiller

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The Sharks finally get a power play, and they hit the post + have the net come off twice while they have possession in the zone. Sometimes it's just not happening.
 

coremiller

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This is basically a replay of game 4. St Louis had some good pressure early and got the puck luck to go with it and then the Sharks controlled the last 40 minutes of the game without scoring.