Blues Outlast Blackhawks 3-2
by Brad Lee on Feb 4, 2010 9:00 AM CST
34 comments
The Blues did not start well Wednesday night in Chicago. It looked bleak. But the Blues weathered the storm, kept it close until the second period and then stayed in control until the end in a 3-2 victory. As a few of us said in the comments of the game day thread Wednesday night, emotions were high, both teams played with a lot of intensity and it felt a lot like a playoff game. Hopefully it won't be the only game we can describe as a postseason game for the Blues.
David Backes was in the right place at the right time twice. He was cutting to the net when Paul Kariya stole the puck, took it in deep and then put it in the slot for the quick shot on net. Then on the power play T.J. Oshie at the right point made the diagonal pass to the left slot for the big one-timer -- the bread and butter play for Brad Boyes last season. The winning goal was off the stick of Jay McClement who tipped in a Roman Polak shot after the defenseman stole the puck from the Hawks on the breakout.
Chris Mason gave up a breakaway to Patrick Kane and a shorthanded goal to Marian Hossa, but it was enough to hang on for the victory.
It doesn't pain me as much as it would have 18 years ago to say that the Hawks are a dangerous team that flies around the ice and is a threat to score each time down the ice. When they get room to skate, it's hard to keep up. And that's the key, not giving the Hawks that space. Play physical, get under Kane's skin, shut down the defense at the blue line and the Hawks are beable as the Blues showed.
St. Louis is five points out of the final playoff spot with three teams between them and the Red Wings in eighth. The win Wednesday night gives some optimism for tonight and keeps the playoff discussion going. Blow it tonight and Saturday and all of a sudden you'll see us talking about the draft.
No pressure.
0 recs |
34 comments
|
Email
Print
Comments
Physical and Smart
That’s how we played and that’s why we won. Grind them down and you eventually get your chances.
I personally am not looking forward to todays game. Back to back has been our nemesis this year. Hopefully Payne can find something to keep the fire lit under these guys and we can keep moving up
No one knows why, but second only to eating the brains of the living, the dead love affordable pre-fab furniture.
We're gonna need luck
We don’t have a good back to back record, don’t have a good home record, and it’s the Sharks, the #1 team in the West. That said, we did just take out #2, so it can be done.
They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.
also
We got screwed by the refs again and again (Kane’s High Stick, Walt’s “interference” on Hossa)… and still came out on top.
Though I will admit, Blues’ defensemen got away with a couple holds late in that game too… but it seemed like at that point, the refs just let them play; it really did have a playoff feel.
Bman212121: at least we usually play the Sharks close and tough. I have a buddy in StL who’s a big Sharks fan and he often laments the fact that the Blues seem to always step it up against the Sharks, when they should be a walkover.
http://www.stlouisgametime.com/
Looking at that picture . . .
it looks like Coach Q is trying to say “KANE!” and actually says “KHAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!!!”
Anyway. Brilliant stuff last night. Keep that beer truck on the road, boys.
"Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday." -- Don Marquis
The Blue Note Zone - BY Blues fans, FOR Blues fans!
The Draft...
Blow it tonight and Saturday and all of a sudden you’ll see us talking about the draft.
You’ll probably see — and hear — me talking about the draft regardless of what happens tonight and Saturday.
Just sayin’.
B.
"If we do not prepare for ourselves the role of the hammer, there will be nothing left but that of the anvil."
-- Otto von Bismarck, 1851
http://futurenotes.blogspot.com
by Tomorrows Blues on Feb 4, 2010 11:27 AM CST reply actions
Well played game, Blues
Of course we will be looking to take one back from you on Saturday, when the Blackhawks will have the advantage of playing in your building.
The caption on that Q photo above is just hilarious.
energyyyyy
put king kong AND cam smash in the lineup tonight, and sit winnie. theres your back-to-back fatigue remedy. both of those guys can get DrinkScotch riled up. oh, and someone kill heatley, please.
by ilikeboyes on Feb 4, 2010 12:34 PM CST via mobile reply actions 1 recs
im going to rec this
because i really dont see the blues winning this at least we should get some entertainment by watching king and janssen beatin the holy hell outta people and team canada watch backes in the line up heater, thornton
Pujols takes out "I" in BIG and "A" in MAC, previously considered to be an unyielding, consonant threat
on the contrary
we’ve had a little success against sj this year, which tells me that we can beat them, regardless of whats on the line. i can now say the same thing about shitcago, and i love it. we just have to grind out a 60 minute game. maybe a frosted tip goal and a bash brother killing spree? fingers crossed..
by ilikeboyes on Feb 4, 2010 3:17 PM CST via mobile up reply actions
We need to play the whole game...
And to be honest it does worry me a little that we just can’t seem to come up with that put away goal, including last night. It seems in so many of our wins we have these little stretches of offensive output, but then if we can’t weather the storm after that— we lose. We’ll never know, but you just had that feeling last night that if they tied it, they’d win it and I’m tired of that feeling. Maybe if we can win this fun lil’ stretch here they’ll get some confidence & become “finishers” instead of “hold on & hopers.” I still hold out a ton of hope, I just hope the players are holding the same level of hunger.
"Millhouse, push 'em down if he's in yer way! Jimbo, go for the face! LOOK!!! Ralph Wiggum lost his shinguard! HACK THE BONE!!! HACK THE BONE!!!"
-Lisa Simpson, Kwik-E-Mart Gougers Goaltender
Oh and
Is anyone working on a Feb wallpaper? Always appreciated guys… And gals!
"Millhouse, push 'em down if he's in yer way! Jimbo, go for the face! LOOK!!! Ralph Wiggum lost his shinguard! HACK THE BONE!!! HACK THE BONE!!!"
-Lisa Simpson, Kwik-E-Mart Gougers Goaltender
In a sense, we stole this game.
By that, I mean lets be honest here. We are nowhere near as talented as the Blackhawks. At least not yet. We activly played bad in the first, and weathered the storm, and came out and played a hell of a 2nd period. The 3rd had a lot of “hold your breath moments”, as Chicago came out on fire (And, shorthanded or not, that Toews setup to the Hossa goal isn’t even something I can get mad about, it wat just a great play). We didn’t allow any real softies, and we played good defense down the stretch after catching some nice bounces in the 2nd.
In my mind, we need at least 9 points in this 7 game stretch to keep ourselves in the playoff race. with 2 games against Chicago, one with Washington, and one with San Jose, I thought that would be hard to pull off, but they kept the option there. Here’s to hoping we play 60 solid minutes against the Sharks tonight. All you can really ask when you are obviously a less talented team
Breaking News: I'm currently in the process of writing "I will not say and/or type "that word" 1,000 times.
in another sense we didnt
because having crappy goalie = occasionally losing games you play ok in.
and huet is crappy. his .902 save percentage is dreadfull (35th amoung netminders with 20 or more starts) and the local pundits in chytown are even already concerned about it going into the playoffs.
so lucky in the sense it became a game decided by netminders, not lucky in the sense that if the blues do that again saturday they should EXPECT to win again.
subpar starting netminders has followed 1 around the league, has it not?
A strong anvil fears no hammer
by Childhood Trauma on Feb 4, 2010 2:17 PM CST up reply actions
whats Niemi's
stats
Pujols takes out "I" in BIG and "A" in MAC, previously considered to be an unyielding, consonant threat
good but not as the starter
:) he gotta start and keep up the stats and be annoited as the #1 for chicago not to have goalie issues
p.s. what is norm macdonald doing in the photo for this story?
A strong anvil fears no hammer
by Childhood Trauma on Feb 4, 2010 2:35 PM CST up reply actions
I've had the Huet argument enough on SCH
So I won’t bother with it here.
However, if you think those three goals were the result of Huet being crappy, you need to go watch the replays or get some glasses.
Chicagoan in the Lou.
backes first goal
was just plain awesome, his second was a deflection and the 3rd goal he just got beat
Pujols takes out "I" in BIG and "A" in MAC, previously considered to be an unyielding, consonant threat
so his
35th worse (actually even loweer than that if you start including niimi and other short timers) is the result of 500 great goals?
and mason stole that game, huet did not. wether or not the goals were “legit” or soft – 3 goals on less than 20 shots is a game you’d hope an elite goalie would put in the win column for you.
additionally any of us q boys from the blues days knows enough about turek stating to tell ya we know that a great team can hide a crappy goalie behind great stats.
so if your saying those where three decent saves he would have had to make, ok i’ll give ya that, but if your saying huet’s play is stanley cup calibre i’m going to have to say it hasn’t been.
A strong anvil fears no hammer
by Childhood Trauma on Feb 4, 2010 2:48 PM CST up reply actions
I have no idea what your arguing here…
I state we stole this game, and then you say we didn’t, we just had superior goaltending, and now your stating Mason stole the game.
The Blackhawks out played us. They out shot us every period. Sure, Mason was a major reason why we won that game, but we still put up 3 goals, none of which were really bad that I could claim were the goalies fault. So what’s with the arguing?
Breaking News: I'm currently in the process of writing "I will not say and/or type "that word" 1,000 times.
you said we were lucky :)
but in a goalie v goalie game huet should be on the losing side most often, so that isnt luck pre se. getting the game into the goalies hands when you play vs huet should be the game plan.
when you do that mason will steal more than huet.
it was the word “LUCK” i was orginally arguing against. it isn’t always going to be luck if we can isolate and defeat even a good team’s weak link. the question is more “why don’t we always do it” or “how can chicago stop us from doing it” etc.
A strong anvil fears no hammer
by Childhood Trauma on Feb 4, 2010 3:12 PM CST up reply actions
Please point out where I said or even implied anything about any goals except for the three last night.
Goal 1: An outstanding play by Karyia and Backes.
Goal 2: A deflection off a Hawk D man.
Goal 3: Turnover, and then a redirect by McClement all alone in front of the goal.
I don’t care if it was Patrick Roy in goal, all three of those most likely go in.
Like I said, I’m not going to argue the merits of Huet for the season, but to claim his play had anything to do with why the Hawks lost last night is misguided.
Chicagoan in the Lou.
you didnt
but you ALSO said you previously argued this elsewhere so i’ve LITERALLY no idea what the entire arguement was.
again my point was/is it need not be “luck”, the blues should ATTEMPT to exploit the one position were they should expect an advantage vs the hawks and that is in net.
and if you watch the other side, the hawks had some great chances and a few tips as well, they didnt go in.what went in were breakaways. i’m patting mason on the back for that and if peeps don’t like it, i really dont care. lol
GREAT JOB MASON!!! wooo!!!
A strong anvil fears no hammer
by Childhood Trauma on Feb 4, 2010 3:16 PM CST up reply actions
i agree
with trauma great job by mason last night, and it didnt matter 99.9% of goalies allow all 3 of those shots, very great heads up plays on the 1st and 3rd and ill allow a lucky bounce of a gayhawk Dman
Pujols takes out "I" in BIG and "A" in MAC, previously considered to be an unyielding, consonant threat
Cam smash
Is out king kong is in conky is gettin the start in net or so I hear
by Tkachukles on Feb 4, 2010 3:40 PM CST via mobile reply actions
What the over / under
on how long till he hurts himself again. I put it at 10 minutes of ice time.
No one knows why, but second only to eating the brains of the living, the dead love affordable pre-fab furniture.
so 2 games is what your saying maverides?
Pujols takes out "I" in BIG and "A" in MAC, previously considered to be an unyielding, consonant threat
So they really should start both
Cam to finish the game after King breaks something on himself
Hockey players wear numbers because you can't always identify the body with dental records.
It is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all. Laura Ingalls Wilder
Going to the game tonight, sitting right behind behind the penalty box..
I wanna take some pictures with my DSLR/Big lense. How would I go about doing this?
Whatever it takes?
hide it in your pants
so you can get it inside.
Hockey players wear numbers because you can't always identify the body with dental records.
It is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all. Laura Ingalls Wilder
Our 59 points would put us in a tie for sixth in the Eastern Conference.
I guess I’d just point out maybe it’s been rough going for the Blues and many other teams in the Western this year.
We’re 11 points out of fifth, and besides the Hawks and Sharks, (whom the scheduling gods have decided we should play on back to back nights in different buildings, fuck you very much) all the teams have ground out wins when they could.
I guess the point I’m trying to make is that while we have had our shitty, shit-tay, SHITTTTAY games this season, we’re in a position to make a run without having to win four out of every five like last season.
Won’t be online tonight. The Dude’s gotta roll in this week’s round robin. Have a caucasian for me and tame those Sharks!
LET’S GO BLUES!!!!!
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
Related FanPosts on St. Louis Game Time
Related FanShots on St. Louis Game Time
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Recommended FanPosts
Recent FanPosts
FanShots
Quick hits of video, photos, quotes, chats, links and lists that you find around the web.
Recent FanShots
In Association With
Latest Puck Daddy - NHL from Yahoo! Sports
- Trending Topics: Odd arbitration decisions; more NHLers Tweeting
- Ovechkin wins fifth Kharlamov Trophy, talks Talbot
- Puck Headlines: Witt hits waivers; Kovalchuk grievance details set
- Jersey Fouls: Sharks get creatively awful; hockey movie pass/fail
- White, Flames agree to one-year deal; Bruins sign Wheeler
Certain photos copyright © 2010 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
