whats with you and grit man
I get wanting it but that was not the problem last night imo it was the fact we where missing Pernouvich, leddy, mikkola, and Bortz

Walker in my opinion such energy guy who can block, hit and score. I am more leaning to replace Toropchenko. And doubful what Bortz will play next game, Scandella can play looks like.

Grit wins you championships, especially when you're playing a team like Minnesota. It wasn't the only problem, but they do get pushed around. We need defense, yes, but grit is also vital. Have to beat down the opponents players. That's why we won in 2019.

I dont mind Walker, but he's also not a big hitter and won't grind down an opponent. I'd be okay replacing Bozak, but we need toughness in the lineup.

Blues were pushing and beating the wild last night
they outplayed them for 55 out of 60 minutes they didnt allow a shot for 10 minutes
they got unlucky, play like that every night (without the injures and stupid penalties) we win the cup easy

Bortuzzo's stick breaking was unlucky. The rest was combined bad puck management and getting pushed around in your own zone. Not to mention taking too many inopportune shots. Getting pushed around in front of your net shows the Blues aren't intimidating anyone. 39 hits is good, but they have to be effective. They're not effective right now.

I highly disagree tbh

That's fine. No beef with you brother, from my perspective they don't look physically up to the task.

Schenn cant carry the physical way on himself haha

That's kind of my point. We have him, Barbashev likes to hit, and Bortz that are overly physical. Faulk will lay a hit now and then but we just don't have a ton of it.

Taresenko, Perron, and Krug too
not so much on the hits but will have dirty plays and hit a decent amount

They'll put a body on you and get you riled up, but no one is intimated by them. They need an intimidating presence. Joshua (outside of Witowski) is our only option sadly.

The added physical value of Joshua over Walker is not the difference between us winning the cup and losing 6-2. Would I like to crack a couple more heads out there, sure, but not at the cost of being out of position. It has been a weird series so far, tbh i thought minny played significantly better than us 5v5 game 1 and lost because we just had great special teams play and timely saves. Game 2 we dominated 5v5 play but lost because of a couple early special teams goal and Flower made some big saves. These teams are so close, a post here, a broken stick there or a missed call can change the game. I don't think we are that far off from our 2019 team physically speaking, we just have more offensive firepower so we might as well play to that strength. All that being said, the goalie that make the timelier saves will win the series imo. Tonight should be a fun one, I will be the lunatic in 108 screaming obscenities at every Wild player.

Is it the thing that will put us over the top? No, will it help us against Minny, it sure will. Blues have zero intimidating presence. At least Maroon provided some sort of intimidating presence.

Fair enough. Looks like Joshua is in tonight over Walker. I expect to see some body bags on the sidelines.

At least I can at least have some sort of bragging rights knowing Chief sees the same issue. Doesn't mean much if the Blues can't win though.