The St. Louis Blues have managed to flip the script every time the rest of hockey nation thinks they know how the story will end. Now, they have the other side wondering what is going on.
The St. Louis Blues keep on keepin’ on and they have themselves two wins from the Stanley Cup. No other team in Blues history has been able to say that.
Despite that, the story seems to always be anything but the Blues. We should be used to it since we live in the middle of the country and people who have never been here like to judge from their ivory towers.
Nevertheless, it gets old. I used to think this was all media hype and there was no real bias if you took yourself out of the situation. It has become near impossible to truly buy into that.
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Somehow, despite all St. Louis has done, the talent they possess and how well they have come together, they are just a feel good story that will end soon enough. I get the coverage aspect in terms of Boston having more people so more TV sets that can tune in.
I do not get the idea that warrants more praise or coverage. Boston is a hell of a team and I am not trying to diminish them, but they only finished with eight more points than the Blues and only four more wins.
Despite the narrative, the Blues actually had more goals coming into the playoffs. I’m sorry, but the Central division is much tougher, as is the Western Conference, despite the best team in the regular season playing in the Atlantic Division.
Still, Boston is apparently destined to win this series. Their players are dropping like flies and they are starting to show frustration in the media, but it is still Boston’s to lose.
That is fine. The Blues have relished proving people wrong. The national media keep giving them more reasons to keep doing it.
Stop Complaining
I admit some irony to the fact I’m going to tell someone to stop complaining after several paragraphs of annoyance. Nevertheless, I have grown tired of seeing an article about the officiating every single day.
You will never get a Blues fan to write a love letter to any of these officials. It cannot be said that this playoff season has seen some of the worst calls and non-calls in recent memory, maybe ever.
Enough is enough though. People should have some context before they go spouting off.
Boston fans, and one of their players, are suddenly up in arms because they did not get enough power plays in Game 4 (as though that is their God-given right). It is all apparently due to a whiny Craig Berube.
First off, that is where the fact-checking needs to come in. The Blues have had three, full series of bad officiating and Berube did not make a peep about it until after Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final.
What Berube did was hardly complain either. He made a statement that his team was the least penalized in the playoffs prior to the final and that suddenly changed in the Boston series despite no real change in the style of play.
You can argue whether it is coincidence that the fewest power plays combined happened in Game 4 or not. The fact is Game 4 was officiated the way a final game should be.
The fact that David Backes feels the need to keep talking about it in the media is beyond frustrating. Backes rubbed Blues fans’ nerves when he said Oskar Sundqvist‘s hit was dirty because we have seen Backes make that same hit dozens of times.
Now, he feels it was wrong for the officials to change how they called penalties after Berube’s comments. On the surface, there is not a ton wrong with Backes’ comments. He even admitted Game 4 was how a playoff game should be called.
His gripe was that’s not how it has been called prior to that. So, apparently because Boston has had so many power plays, they deserve to have that many each game.
Regardless of our personal biases, the amount of discussion about the referees has reached the boiling point. I’m sick of it.
I’m tired of seeing it on social media, tired of thinking about it and even more tired of seeing the players and coaches talk about it. It seemed like every game had a comment by Pete DeBoer. I do not remember much complaint from Paul Maurice, but there have been officiating complaints by someone every series.
The referees are a problem, but I just want the guys to play hockey. Why can’t we all just shush?
Chara Out?
By now, most people have heard that Zdeno Chara likely has a broken jaw. The main question is whether they will have to see Chara any more in this series.
If Vince Dunn is anything to go by, Chara will likely not return until a potential Game 7, maybe 6 if he really pushed it. However, I am not buying it.
I have no doubts that Chara’s injury is real and it would be immensely painful. I will not believe Chara is out until I see the official lineups.
The guy has not had a tremendous impact on this series, but he is still a force. He is going to find a way to get back in there unless told it would be detrimental for his long-term health.
That said, I am not going to cry any more tears if he is out of this series than any Boston fan would cry if Colton Parayko was out of the series. There will be no excuses for the winner or the loser in this series. Still, any advantage toward St. Louis is not one you’ll turn down.