St. Louis Blues: Another Overtime Thriller Ends in the Blues’ Favor

When the Blues play the Blackhawks, why wouldn’t it go into overtime? Especially when the game started late to begin with. The St. Louis Blues sure got a kick out of game one in the end.

See what I did there? Kick…at the end. Applaud me for my genius! I apologize. It’s late and the game wasn’t even on the west coast.

Nevetheless, the St. Louis Blues took game one of their Western Conference Quarterfinal matchup with their arch rivals the Chicago Blackhawks.

Use whatever verbs/adverbs you want: won, stole, got lucky, deserved etc – the bottom line is the puck went in the back of the net just once and it went in behind Corey Crawford.

I’m sure our friends over at BlackhawkUp and their followers are not saying the Blackhawks lost, but rather the Blues were just fortunate etc and so on and so forth. Turn the tables and it wouldn’t matter. The Blues get a victory and the Blackhawks don’t and that’s what counts in the end.

The game opened up exactly like playoff hockey should. The teams were flying up and down the ice and there were hits galore and energy just oozing out of every pore in the building.

Just to show how much playoff hockey is different than the regular season, the Blues only got three shots on goal in the opening period but there was still little to complain about. The Blues were creating in the offensive zone and were just getting a little too cute and missing wide or the Blackhawks were blocking a lot of shots as well.

However the last time the Blues got anywhere close to that few shots in a period, the collective fanbase almost fell asleep.

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Despite the late start, nobody was sleeping on this one. The first period was jumping and so were both teams.

The second period, interestingly, felt like it began to swing a little more Chicago’s way despite the fact that the Blues finally turned the shot table around. The Blues outshot the ‘Hawks 10-9 in the middle frame but the quality of the shots was just a little lacking.

The third period was woeful from an offensive standpoint. The Blues had a paltry two shots on goal and were fortunate they had Brian Elliott standing tall as well as having the defense on point to only allow eight shots.

The strange thing is that even though as fans we had butterflies and nerves and anxiety in addition to the Blues offense just not doing much, it never felt like the game was assured of going the other way. The Blues just kept plugging away.

They kept plugging away despite several questionable penalties and even a five-on-three powerplay for the visitors. They kept plugging away despite Chicago plugging up every shooting lane possible. They opened up their game a little bit in overtime and it paid off.

Sure, the goal was fortunate but those are the kinds of breaks the Blues were not getting all game long. They had so many chances where the puck would bounce over the stick of a waiting one time shot or would be just an inch or so behind an open player.

Going forward the Blues will have to actually make their offense a little more potent. In the postgame interview David Backes even said the Blues were hesitant to shoot, get it blocked and have Chicago go off the other way.

That’s sound reasoning, but in the playoffs you can’t play timid hockey even on offense. The Blues need to find real goals, but Backes’ trickler off the defenders’ skate will surely do for now.

Blues lead the best-of-7 series 1-0. #stlblues #WeAllBleedBlue pic.twitter.com/xpuHYOhnei
— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) April 14, 2016

Negatives

The Blues began to look a little tired in the third period. Granted, there’s no way of knowing if it’s just the eventual come down off the almost sugar high they were on to start the game of if it was actual fatigue but this is an opponent you cannot have any mental lapses against.

The shots. There just weren’t enough. 18 as a total doesn’t sound terrible if you only look at the scoreline being 1-0, but many were from tight angles. Chicago having 35, including several that Elliott had to be huge on wasn’t comforting either.

The penalties. Sure, as fans we make cracks about the refs getting paid and the NHL wanting Chicago or LA to win, but the Blues put themselves in the position for a call to be made. Many were soft, but the same could be said of other games on the night as well. Perhaps the NHL has mandated their officials to crack down on anything so the Blues will have to learn quickly and stay out of the box.

Next: 5 Reasons the Blues Will Win

Positives

The crowd. Unfortunately I was not there, but I know several that were. Not only were they enthusiastic and a huge boost to their team, but they were in the right jersey. The Blues fans didn’t sell off their tickets and this was a true home crowd. There were ‘Hawks fans there, but nowhere near the numbers of recent years. Kudos to the fans of the Note.

The entire team. It took an entire team effort and everyone stepped up and did their job. Yes, the offense wasn’t where you would want it to start off a series but they got the job done. They were hitting, they were blocking shots, they were stepping up for their teammates both physically and defensively in the gaps. It was an all around team win.

Brian Elliott. I’ll be the first to admit, I’m in Jake Allen‘s camp. From a personal standpoint, I still see him as the future, but for now there’s no doubt Elliott is the guy to ride. He was phenomenal. He was on top of every play and being positive on top of his crease. He challenged everything and didn’t wait for anything to come to him. It was something to behold.

The Blues won. That’s about as big a positive as you can get. They could have played awful, rotten, disgusting hockey but if they beat the Blackhawks it would be ok.