With the in the conference finals, the Blues financial health should improve. The only one who has won a Stanley Cup is Brouwer.
Advertisement
The St Louis Blues withstood some intense late pressure from the San Jose Sharks to seal a 2-1 victory in game one of the NHL Western Conference finals on Sunday.
It wasn’t supposed to work out like this at all.
It starts with the game-winning goal by St. Louis’ Jori Lehtera that never should have happened. A massive chunk of the Sharks’ production has come from their top two forward lines and the Burns/Marc-Edouard Vlasic defensive pairing, though, so if the Blues can shut down their most productive players, they should have a solid chance to thrive.
Sarge: Blues will choke in epic fashion as per usual. They would respond by scoring one that definitely counted courtesy of captain David Backes. His 74 points (40 goals, 34 assists) led St. Louis in the regular season.
After the game, Blues coach Ken Hitchcock noted that his team hasn’t seen a team like this yet in the postseason. San Jose will invent another dumb hashtag for the series. If the Sharks win, I will donate to the Pediatric Hydrocephalus Foundation whose mission is to educate the community by raising the level of awareness about this brain condition as well as to provide support to the families, friends and children who are diagnosed with Hydrocephalus. I think there’s going to be lots of chirping on the ice. Pacific Division titles and high scoring outputs were plenty, but so were the playoff losses, defeats made all the more painful by two letters… LA. San Jose missed the playoffs last year and were ousted in the first round the previous year by the LA Kings after they were up 3-0 in the series. Dallas outshot the Blues in five of their seven games in the second round and lost, meaning St. Louis has been outshot in 11 of its 15 playoff games.
Well, I guess 2 of 3 ain’t bad.
Huw: It is possible that the Sharks have finally shaken their choking curse.
Since entering the NHL as an expansion team in 1967, the St. Louis Blues have had some of the greatest players in league history, but nobody has been able to lead them to Lord Stanley’s Cup. Jones has passed the test so far, posting a 2.16 goals-against average and giving San Jose its first playoff shutout in six years in the Game 7 clincher last round against the Predators.
Those templates are still in the “drafts” tab as we speak.
Elliott had a sellout crowd of 19,483 chanting his nickname “Moose” all night after stopping 31 of 32 shots.
Elliott is generally regarded as the Blues’ No. 1 man in net, but St. Louis has two capable goalies with Elliott and Jake Allen.
The Sharks know a thing or two about going full-force. But this time, the Sharks were armed with a former enemy… Patrik Berglund’s deflection was waved off because of incidental contact with goalie Martin Jones, a call confirmed after video review. Logan Couture and Tomas Hertl also had two goals apiece as the Sharks improved to 21-9-2 on the road. The Blues took it too far early in the game, however.
But the Blues are the pick for a rare Stanley Cup final appearance that will help erase past failures. The Blues are so aptly named, because most years they’ve been good enough to make the postseason, but perennially disappoint and sometimes disgust their fans once they get there.
Advertisement
St. Louis is 57-28-11 overall, 27-15-6 at home and 42-38 with the under.
