“Like I said on the TV broadcast, if the coach was a little smarter, he would have had him out there more”. It was his goal that wiped out a Dallas Stars’ comeback to give the Blues a 4-3 overtime win and even this series 1-1.
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The Ducks have lost a Game 7 on home ice in four consecutive playoff years, culminating in Wednesday’s 2-1 loss to Nashville in the first round. “We did everything we wanted to do, then we played the score”.
On a rain-soaked Friday night in Big D, the Dallas Stars began the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs on the right note with a 2-1 win over the St. Louis Blues. But I ask you, if you were in that game and everything was happening at the speed of light do you think it would be so obvious? It’s anyone’s game, and we’re going out there to win them. Who cares who scored? But should we let our coach off the hook so easily?
His head shaved but for a stubbly growth roughly matching that of his chin, he is almost unrecognizable from the strapping, wavy-haired captain of playoffs past, the one member of the St. Louis Blues who can nearly match head coach Ken Hitchcock sound-bite for sound-bite. “It’s a natural tendency”.
The game-winner came with Antoine Roussel in the box for interference at the blueline that would have created an odd-man break for the Stars. But they had been on the offensive the entire overtime. While announcing the move, Ducks general manager Bob Murray expressed much more anger at his players than at Boudreau.
But if it weren’t for Antti Niemi playing two fantastic periods, Dallas would not have tied the game in the third period.
That the Blues might come out with a bur under the collective saddle was no surprise after their tepid Game 1 offering. They have Backes and goaltender Brian Elliott to thank for not being down 2-0. He might have wished to be less accurate.
The first two games in Dallas showed that the Stars are going to get their opportunities. An exciting overtime filled with fantastic saves and huge breakaways finally ended courtesy of Blues captain David Backes, who got his second career overtime victor in the playoffs.
St. Louis led 3-1 after one period, only the second time in the playoffs the Stars had trailed by two goals.
The Blues have a chance to take a series lead for the first time in this tilt against Dallas. Benn was left unmarked to fire home a fat rebound, and Hitchcock admitted “we needed the intermission” to regroup. Maybe we just don’t see it because we see the world through blues shaded glasses. He now has two game-winning goals in overtime in two straight series. Neither side could find the net though, with St. Louis out-shooting Dallas 10-6. In order to pick this up moving forward, the Blues need to rely on some of their primary and depth scorers to pick up the pace and ease the load on others, like David Backes, Robby Fabbri and Troy Brouwer, who have been carrying a lot of the scoring load recently.
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The second period curse held off for 20 minutes and the Blues played garbage hockey in the third period. “That means putting the puck below their goal line and making them go to work”.
