Blues Goalie Brian Elliott Brick-Walls Tampa Bay
St. Louis led Tuesday night with the fourth line. Hitchcock sent a message that he wanted offensive physicality this game, and when playing against Steven Stamkos, that’s not a bad play. However the Blues were unable to match that for much of the night.
The Lightning are the top team in the Eastern Conference and it showed.
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Tampa Bay is a tough opponent to face no matter what shape your team is in. A Jack Adams-finalist coach, a team that is both deep and healthy, and, let’s not forget their top-tier goaltending in Ben Bishop and a scorer like Steven Stamkos. Whether we had Lehtera, Berglund and Shattenkirk or not, this game was going to be tough.
The Periods
Tampa Bay outshot the Blues 9 to 1 in the first ten minutes of the first period, and 11-2 in the whole of the first period. This was the lowest number of recorded shots for the Blues I can remember seeing, ever, and according to commentators Pang and Kelly, was the lowest number since a game against Winnipeg in December of 2013.
To add to that number, during the first period the Blues also had eight defensive zone turnovers, ten hits, one penalty, and looked like they were half-asleep on the ice.
Cedric Paquette scored the first goal for the Lightning five minutes into the first period. The Blues were unable to score, largely in part to their incredibly low offensive output during the entire period.
They came out playing much the same during the second. There was little fire in their step, and they seemed an entirely different team from the St. Louis who came in to tonight’s game having won ten of their past eleven games.
That’s the team win. Nobody gave up, we kept doing the right things and it paid off in a big way. – Brian Elliott
The Blues got their first power play of the night with 15 minutes to go in the second period off a dubious Tim Peel tripping call. (There certainly was a trip, but it didn’t look intentional or even avoidable, which is why I say it was dubious.) Steen went down, tripping over Oshie when the back of his legs were tapped by Tampa Bay’s Victor Hedman.
The Blues got one shot on the power play and went right back to looking sleepy and confused…until David Backes decided he and Steven Stamkos needed a quality-length, quality-strength hug in the defensive zone. That landed them a nice pair of penalties, and with Hedman getting in on the fun, the Blues went back on the power play.
They began to rally, making stronger plays and putting more shots on net. They sustained pressure much better than they had in the first but in general still looked like the losers in a game of keep-away, unable to get their sticks on a rebound.
The best part of the second period was the end, when FOX Sports Midwest cameras caught this girl making fun of John Cooper, Tampa Bay’s coach.
Young Blues fan mocks Tampa Bay coach, John Cooper. Cooper is not amused, but viewers certainly were. Credit: Screencap of FOX Sports Midwest video feed by Kate Cimini
Atta girl.
The third period slowly improved as the Blues rallied. They began to win more faceoffs (and won 2/3 of the faceoffs in the third period, as opposed to the first where they only won 1/3 of them), some great saves by Elliott, and the Lightning seemingly running the show.
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Editor In Leaf
Elliott deserved some kind of medal (or at least first shower) for his play all game. He was the sole reason why the score wasn’t run up absurdly by the Lightning, making save after save after save, giving his teammates the opportunity to salvage the game.
And they did not disappoint.
Vladimir Tarasenko sunk one behind Lightning goalie Ben Bishop, a nice little wrister off Paul Stastny’s pass, evening up the score 1-1.
Tank’s goal brought the Blues and the Lightning to overtime, where Jaden Schwartz scored the game winning goal less than two minutes into overtime.
Ending Thoughts
The only thing that matters is the Blues pulled through.
Recent play has shown us that St. Louis can win without Shattenkirk — he is an important part of the team, taking the third-most ice time for a defender, and regularly registering approximately three minutes per game on the power play. But th early play in this game was abnormal, a fluke.
The St. Louis Blues are a better team than we witnessed early on Tuesday night; they proved that in the last few minutes of the game, when lesser teams would have given up on scoring and simply tried to hold the Lightning to one.
Elliott was named both player of the game and first star of the game, to no one’s surprise.
In his interview with Darren Pang at the end of the night, he credited his team’s grit and glue. “That’s the team win,” he said. “We battled it out right to the end. Nobody gave up, we kept doing the right things and it paid off in a big way.”
Feb 3, 2015; St. Louis, MO, USA; St. Louis Blues goalie Brian Elliott (1) reaches for the puck in the game against the Tampa Bay Lightning during the first period at Scottrade Center. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports
When pressed to expand on why the Blues had this kind of success this year, winning 11 of their last 12 games, he added, “I think in the past we haven’t really been able to have that extra push and I think guys sticking to the program, really putting in a hard effort for 60 minutes, that’s the key.”
Play Of The Night
For much of the night, the only Blue Note who didn’t look like he was still in the middle of his pregame nap was Brian Elliott.
Elliott made a number of terrific saves, but his best was against Ryan Callahan, when he stiffed him on what looked to be a sure goal with a great right-pad save. You can watch his acrobatics in the video below.
What did you think of the game? Leave us a comment below.