Article: Game 5 Gamethread: Wild at Stars (7:00 p.m.)

[CammieBuckeye29]

6 hours ago, B1GKappa97 said:

I think they should tbh. Especially with the game back at the X. 

Gus had a good run but the magic is clearly gone. Dude was giving up too-easy rebounds this last game and, from what I saw, looked like he was struggling to see the puck. 

I know MAF gave up 7 goals the last time he was in, and everyone else also played terribly, but at this point the Gus Bus doesn't seem to be backstopping anything anyway. May as well shake things up. 

I went back and watched all the Stars goals from Games 4 and 5. 

Game 4:

1st goal: Mojo was soft on a loose puck, Gus does a poor job of controlling the first shot, it is bouncing around but I didn't like the positioning of Gus' stick; he needed to either go blocker down and cover the ice and at least have the blade of the stick covering the five hole. 

2nd goal: Hartman with the lazy backcheck on Hintz in the neutral zone, you generally want your goalies to save long-range shots like that but I think Gus was screened up high by Nyquist and down low by Spurgeon and Hintz skating right to left across his vision.

3rd goal: That entry for Dallas was too damn easy for starters, Mojo lost Seguin completely in the slot, Gaudreau and Dumba both go Benn, Middleton has slid completely out of position as well, and Seguin is left all alone for the easy goal. Not really on Gus at all. 

Game 5:

1st goal: The cross-ice pass got through 3 Wild players, Benn & Seguin were allowed to park in the slot with zero repercussions, Brodin left Seguin to cover Robertson and Spurgeon was way too late shifting down to cover, again soft net front play.

2nd goal: Stars did a great job of quick passes around the perimeter to get the Wild running around a bit, Robertson got the puck and held on for a second and drew 3 Wild players to him for some dumb reason which in turn screened Gus.

3rd goal: There was no screen on a shot from up high, Gus left a huge rebound, Spurgeon was slow to catch up to his guy racing towards the rebound, and I thought Gus' reaction to his own rebound was slow. 

So overall, a combination of Wild players losing their guy in the defensive zone and Gus being left all alone, some good screen play by Dallas, and two mishandled rebounds by Gus. If they want to go back to Fleury, that's fine. If they want to stick with Gus, that's fine. What they need to do is be harder to play against in front of their own net and stop losing Dallas players for easy tap-in goals. 

Edited April 26, 2023 by CammieBuckeye29
added a thought.

[Backwoodsbob]

On 4/25/2023 at 7:29 PM, Backwoodsbob said:

I'm going to assume that Foligno will be gone for at least a game or two. Too bad!

Good news! Moose will be back in game 6. No suspension!