“Looked like he nearly kicked it. I’d have had a heart attack if that was the case”. However, they could be physically drained from an exhausting series against the Blackhawks, and could just be out of gas moving in the second-round.
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They’re finally singing to a different tune in St. Louis. Hitchcock, maybe captain David Backes, some other veterans, all were likely to be shown the door here had the Blues lost.
Scottrade Center and all of St. Louis erupted.
“I think this is the ugliest goal I’ve ever put”, stated Brouwer, who now has a total of 8 playoff goals, “but still the timeliest goal I have been able to score”.
“For him to bury that one, good feeling for everyone in here”. To be the best, you have to beat the best and you might as well get it over with in the first round.
“For a franchise that’s had trouble getting out of the first round, it’s a big confidence booster”, Brouwer said.
After winning Game Seven 3-2 last night, the St. Louis Blues eliminated the defending Stanley Cup Champions The Chicago Blackhawks and that’s not all. “I was reading if we lost this series, how many teams were going to be going after him”.
The two heavyweights went toe-to-toe and left it all on the ice.
It was fitting, then, that Coldplay’s “Fix You” blared on the sound system as the Blues and Blackhawks shook hands.
At least the Blackhawks went down swinging.
There’s a reason three of the games went to overtime in the season series, and there’s a reason the Blues won all three.
“It’s fun having short summers … obviously we’re going to have a longer one now”, said Hawks’ defenceman Duncan Keith, who played 33 1/2 minutes.
Chicago’s Andrew Shaw (right) collides with St. Louis’ Scottie Upshall in the second period.
Chicago is out of the post-season, their hold on the Stanley Cup gone.
It took 89 games into the season, but the trade by GM Doug Armstrong paid off dividends.
The Blues built the early lead on goals from Jori Lehtera just one minute into the game and Colton Parayko at 13:43 of the first period. “It was really eye-opening what a championship team can do like them when they dial it up”, Hitchcock said. “You find yourself on the bench just in awe of some of the things they do”. You don’t get bonus points for looks.
“But we have knowledge and it’s the emotional knowledge of how deep you have to dig”.
“Wasted energy is a real negative factor”, Hitchcock said.
For most St. Louis players, like defenceman Jay Bouwmeester, in his 14th National Hockey League season, it will be their first time in the second-round.
In addition, the two were assistant coaches on Team Canada for the Olympics and shared a dorm room. St. Louis now meets the Dallas Stars, who beat the Minnesota Wild in six games.
Instead of a highly-skilled battle between two teams trying to play fast and loose, this will be a collision of styles in which the Blues are going to try to grind the high-flying Stars into slushees. The Blues forward hit the ice, with Gustafsson simply deflecting the 20-year-old, but Fabbri’s move did free up the puck.
“I don’t think there’s anything better in the Stanley Cup [playoffs] than a Game 7 when everything means something”, Predators coach Peter Laviolette said.
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Now they want to go back to Anaheim and finish off the Ducks. We needed to not just run up against the wall and fall backwards again.
