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St. Louis Blues Jake Allen, David Backes Look Ahead To Saturday [Video]

By Kate Cimini

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If Thursday night’s first game of the postseason for the St. Louis Blues was difficult for fans to watch, just imagine what it felt like to be stuck in that downward spiral.

The Blues started out the first period with their usual we-haven’t-warmed-up-yet look and immediately gave away a pretty decent goal to start.

After that, it was a free-for-all for the Minnesota Wild. The Blues were on their heels, playing like they just got off a 12-hour shift at the meatpacking plant and all they wanted was to go home and get to bed. Like they had been drained of their life force by some alien only found in X-Files reruns. Like…like…like a team that didn’t deserve to make it out of the first round of the playoffs.

As A.P. Andes noted in his post-game roundup,

"The level of apathy evident on the ice tonight for almost the entire game—or for even one period—will not get it done against the Wild."

Truer words.

To their credit, both Backes and Allen recognized the absence of their usual level of play by their skaters. Allen, on the other hand, deserves all the credit in the world for his play, putting to rest my fears that he wouldn’t be able to keep up with the rushes that Minnesota likes to deliver their goals on.

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“I think in the second we sort of took our foot off the gas,” Allen told reporters post-game. “If we would have kept pushing there… I think we’re definitely gonna [sic] learn a lesson from that. They’re a team that grinds, works hard, and they’re speedy, so we’re going to have to get back to the drawing board and be ready come Saturday.”

He was positive when it came to the next game against the Wild, scheduled for St. Louis on home ice come Saturday.

“I don’t think we expected to win four straight,” he laughed, looking almost relieved. “We got the nerves of the playoff jitters out of the way so…Saturday’s a new day.”

Blues captain David Backes echoed Allen’s sentiments. “I think we got better as the game went on. I don’t know if it was nerves or what, but we didn’t bring our A game from the drop of the puck.

“We’ll take blame and blame where it’s due. We need a better effort on Saturday, but the good thing is we know it’s in this room to bring better effort.”

When asked about Allen’s performace (who had a save percentage of .926, shutting down 25 out of 27 shots) Backes gave kudos to his teammate for whom last night was his first postseason start and first full postseason game.

“He made all the saves he was supposed to and some he shouldn’t,” Backes told reporters.

Maybe the Blues are looking at their disastrous first game as a dress rehearsal for the rest of the series. As even casual theater fans know, the worse the dress rehearsal goes, the better the actual show will be.

You can watch the video below or here at the link.

Next: Blues Phone It In During First Game Against Wild

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