Nobody would have blamed them if the St. Louis Blues had been a little down in the mouth after a double overtime loss to the Chicago Blackhawks in game 5. Instead, the team seemed to have already put it behind them and was ready for game 6 in Chicago
The St. Louis Blues probably needed to take care of business on their home ice in game 5. It would have made things so much easier.
They needed to get an early goal in the first period. They needed to stop all belief for the Chicago Blackhawks. They did neither. They still had every opportunity to win, coming back from a two goal deficit and creating chances in overtime. The roof on the Scottrade Center would have exploded.
Instead, now the Blues need to win in silence. They’re traveling to the unfriendly confines of the United Center for game 6 of the Western Conference Quarterfinals and seemingly clinging to a 3-2 series lead like a child clings to its teddy bear.
You wouldn’t know this from the players or the coaches however. Maybe it was the late night. Maybe it was fatigue.
Whatever the reason, you didn’t hear a bunch that was down in the dobber so to speak. You didn’t hear fear or frustration. You heard a calm bunch that knew they had missed an opportunity but didn’t plan on doing it again.
Alex Pietrangelo even took it a step further. “It’s going to be fun to win it in Chicago,” he said during his postgame comments. That’s a confidence we have rarely heard from anyone in a St. Louis locker room ever (with the exception of baseball).
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Now some of this can be attributed to the time factor. Game 5 ended well after midnight locally and the Blues had to start focusing, not only on game 6 but on travel preparations and just mentally focusing on moving on. There literally isn’t time to feel sad.
Even Ken Hichcock said in his incredibly brief postgame “plane’s at three.” The Blues had enough on their mind, that simple statement might be the kind of refocus you need after a tough loss.
“We knew this was going to be difficult, we knew this was going to be hard…we just gotta find a way to make them crack some more,” continued Hitchcock. Again, no wasted time on the second period and what went wrong and how they could fix it. There’s no time for fixing now.
On to the next game and throw the footage in the garbage. Rest up and refocus.
A case could be made that this is all lip service. People might just assume what else would any of these players say?
The Blues do still have to go out and win in Chicago to avoid a toss all the cards in the air game seven. That’s no easy task even though home ice hasn’t mattered in this series.
But we’ve spent the last few weeks if not months saying this team feels different. They talk differently as well. It’s not just what is being said, but how it’s said.
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In the past, you might get the exact same sentences but there would be a sense of exasperation. There would be that sense of fear and dread. The only thing you could sense this time was the frustration of another travel day and wanting to go home and get in bed instead of speaking to reporters.
St. Louis still has to actually do it. However, with people doubting them all season whether it be injuries or during losing streaks or just overall, they have done it. Now they have another opportunity to show why they’re confident and show why they are different.
The St. Louis Blues are from the Show-me state and still have to show the league they can. For right now, given the current circumstances, they still seem like they’re ready to take that step.