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Sharks at Blues Game 4 Preview: Give ‘em a hand

It’s time for the Blues to pick themselves up and move forward.

By hildymac
NHL: Stanley Cup Playoffs-San Jose Sharks at St. Louis Blues Billy Hurst-USA TODAY Sports

UPDATE: No one won the Louie bobblehead Wednesday, so go on and tweet your first goal prediction for tonight using #PantslessBear. First correct prediction gets yourself a Louie.

David Perron promises that the Blues are going to get over a less than auspicious missed hand pass that you may’ve heard about:

The Blues will be able to pick up the pieces and move on without the officiating crew that universally missed a despairingly obvious hand pass that led directly to Erik Karlsson’s game winning goal in overtime. Bill Daly came as close to a mea culpa as you’re going to get out of that man, when he told Jeremy Rutherford:

“It was an unfortunate miss by our on-ice officials,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told Blues beat reporter Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic Thursday. “They were among our most highly performance rated officials in our league this year. Mistakes happen and I think everyone involved on both teams and with the league understand that.”

Yeah, people understand it, but people also understand that there needs to be a way to rectify mistakes, not reward them. Removing the crew from post-season play doesn’t allow the Blues a chance to pick up where they left off in that OT.

The most that the Blues can do is get over it and get a split at home tonight. It’s tough not to dwell on the hand pass call, but it is important to note that the Blues didn’t convert on empty net chances as the clock wound down to close the game, nor did they prevent Logan Couture from scoring within the final minute of the period to force OT to begin with.

Offensively, the team clicked. Tarasenko’s snipe was him in classic form, and Perron’s two goals demonstrated that he may’ve finally woken up. Martin Jones is not a great goalie. He’s league average. The Blues have demonstrated that they can score on him. If they don’t get in their own way this evening and if the refs manage to stay out of determining the outcome of the game, the Blues should be able to return to San Jose with the series tied at two.