On Monday night the Blues returned to being relentless, finally rewarding their loyal and persistent fan base with a home Stanley Cup Final victory. Before the series started, the team still had four items it needed to give to its fan base. It has delivered on two, giving them their first Stanley Cup Final victory and their first home Final victory. Two more remain though Blues fans would still be ecstatic if they only get one of the two.
Charles Glenn got the night off on a great note, signing what could have been his final national anthem (now he has one more). Blues fans will really miss Charles next year as he does an excellent job and has become a part of the in-game experience, if not the team.
After the anthem, Charles pass the microphone to Brett Hull who did his best Ric Flair impersonation in firing up the crowd with a Let’s Go Blues.
It didn’t take long for the Blues to get their fans back on their feet and celebrating as Ryan O’Reilly scored on a wraparound just 43 seconds into the game. David Perron moved the puck to Alex Pietrangelo at the right point. Pietrangelo then slid the puck to Vince Dunn at the left point. Dunn moves well to adjust his angle and gets a quick shot to the net that is redirected by Zach Sanford. Tuukka Rask makes an excellent save on the deflection but can’t stop O’Reilly’s wraparound on the rebound.
The Blues controlled a lot of the next 11 minutes until what I originally thought was a mental mistake by Colton Parayko. Note how the Danton Heinen comes in one on three and Parayko elects not to take the body and apply a real physical challenge. Instead he plays more of a containment type defense. In my opinion, he needs to separate Heinen from the puck to aid in transferring possession, knowing the Blues have numbers in that situation.
As a result, Parayko’s later poke check pushes the puck to Zdeno Chara who comes along the wall and puts a shot to the net. Charlie Coyle deflects the shot and then buries the rebound.
Binnington does a poor job on the play on the recovery save attempt as he doesn’t get any real drive to stay with Coyle on the rebound. He does the splits to extend his leg and can’t stay with Coyle. Also, you’d like to see a little better rebound control in that situation but the deflection makes that tough.
The Blues rallied back, taking the lead back just over two minutes later. Parayko started the play by breaking up Heinen’s pass in his own end.
As the puck goes the other way, Brayden Schenn ends up with the puck along the left wall where he spins and slides the puck through the slot to the right point. Jaden Schwartz lifts Connor Clifton’s stick, allowing the puck to slide through to Alex Pietrangelo. Pietrangelo makes an incredible save, changing the angle of the shot and shooting low blocker side. Rask makes a good save but can’t control the rebound which is buried by the net crashing Vladimir Tarasenko. Watch Pietrangelo closely on the play as his tuck to shoot move is very, very good.
Near the end of the 1st period, Chara suffered facial injuries, taking a Schenn shot in the mouth area.
The Blues continued to control the game through most of the 2nd period. A little over halfway through the 2nd period, the Blues kept the puck on the Bruins side of the ice for over 3 minutes, routinely changing lines and defensive pairings while the Bruins managed one change. More impressive, about 85% of that time was actually in the Boston zone, not the Boston side of the neutral zone.
This stretch of play ended when the Blues got a power play based on this play:
Tarasenko looks like he tried to initiate contact with a reverse hit and then sells the head contact. In watching it live at the game it looked bad and you can easily understand how the officials made the penalty call. In watching the replay, it should not have been a Boston penalty in my opinion.
Perhaps karma was served though as Brandon Carlo scored a short-handed goal on the ensuing power play to tie the game. Brad Marchand hit the Blues blue line in a one on three situation. Much like Parayko earlier, Dunn chooses not to play Marchand’s body, instead playing a contain style of defense and it burns the Blues again. Perhaps this is the Blues strategy but I would much rather have them make a physical play when they have numbers to attempt to change possession.
Binnington does a poor job of rebound control and then only gets the edge of his glove on the rebound shot, allowing the rebound to beat him.
The Blues ended the period outshooting the Bruins 25-19 but tied on the scoreboard. Of course, that wouldn’t matter as the Blues went on to dominate the Bruins in the third period, outshooting them 13-4 and outscoring them 2-0.
O’Reilly scored his 2nd goal of the game and the game winning goal midway through the third period. The play starts as the Blues defense pushes the pace back at the Bruins in transition quickly as the Bruins are changing.
As Pietrangelo comes down the right wall into the zone, he takes a couple of looks to his left, surveying where the Blues are driving the net and the defensive coverage. He then puts a good shot on net that handcuffs Rask and O’Reilly buries the rebound. This is another really smart, well executed play by Pietrangelo.
Schenn finished the scoring by stealing the puck from Clifton and burying the empty net goal.
Other game notes:
- Torey “Bobby Orr” Krug was -3 with only one shot in over 24 minutes. I still find it laughable that some Bruins fans and/or media were comparing Krug to Orr. To me that’s like comparing Pasta to Gretzky or Lemieux.
- Speaking of Pasta, Pasta, Bergeron, and Marchand combined for two assists, a combined -1 and six shots with Marchand failing to generate a shot in almost 21 minutes.
- I thought John Moore played a very effective 19 minutes, especially given the circumstances.
- Sammy Blais played less than 7 minutes.
- Schenn had a great game with 1 goal and 1 assist with 3 shots and 5 hits in 16:33
- Sanford had another good game with 1 assist and 4 shots and 5 hits in 10:18
- Guess who led the Blues forwards in ice time?????? Oskar Sundqvist with 19:32. Next closest was Schwartz with 18:42.
- Joel Edmundson played less than 8 minutes after making a number of giveaways. Don’t be surprised if he watches Game 5 from the rafters.
- Jay Bouwmeester, Alex Pietrangelo and Colton Parayko played 82 minutes. Expect this to continue if all three are playing well.
Series Notes-
- In my humble opinion, Jordan Binnington has yet to have a performance in the Finals that is as good as most of his wins in the 1st three rounds.
- Seven players have four points in the Finals. Only two are Blues – Schenn and O’Reilly but three of the top five goal scorers in the Final are Blues (add Tarasenko).
- Binnington has an 88.2% Finals save percentage. Look out if his performance regresses the average to his regular season or post season mean.
- Rask has been strong at 91.9%.
- Schwartz has no goals on 8 shots in the Finals and he hasn’t score in five games (since his hat trick). Some would say he is due.
Post game quotes:
- Coach Berube - "Going into the next game, first of all, great win we had, but we just got to get past it, move on. We have to know that we have to come into Game 5 with a desperation and the attitude we need. That's the biggest thing. We're going to get Boston's best effort. We got to match it, for sure. But the desperation effort, compete, it's going to be a tough game. I think going into Game 5, just got to get your mind right, get it in the right spot, know how hard the game is going to be."
- On minute and lineup management - Berube - "It's game to game for me. We really try to use everybody. I think that's how we're built. That's how we've had the most success, is by using everybody, getting everybody involved. I always talk about our best attribute is our team, our team play. By that we use everybody. I don't see any difference going forward here. We need everybody's best game."
- Berube - "We try to play a physical game night in, night out, a forecheck game. We force teams to play 200 feet as much as we can."
- On being asked what changes now that Chara isn't playing - Berube correcting the reporter - "What changes if Chara is not playing?" Eventually answered "nothing from our standpoint".
- On minute management now that there will be two off days between each game - Berube - "Well, last night I thought the minutes were all good when I looked at it. Two defensemen played more minutes than a little bit normal on our team. So like I said, I go game to game, see who's going. Maybe there's somebody that's not going, I won't use them as much.
I used the Sundqvist line an awful lot last night in the game. They did a great job against Bergeron's line. They probably played a few more minutes than normal."
- A little gamesmanship from Berube here? - "Discipline is huge. I thought the game was ref'd really well. I thought we were disciplined. We did a good job of playing between the whistles, checking properly, not taking the hooking, interference penalties, tripping, things like that."
I’ll have a game day blog tomorrow with real lineup indications but I expect Robert Bortuzzo will replace Joel Edmundson. I think there is some gamesmanship going on in relation to Chara and Grzelcyk. It wouldn’t surprise me that one or both of those two play and if they do, they may likely dress seven defensemen. Would that mean David Backes becomes the odd man out?
It’s a great day for hockey.
NHL Champions for Charity Playoff Edition
In what I hope becomes a Hockeybuzz tradition, Bruins Hockeybuzz writer
Anthony Travalgia and I placed a wager on the series. If the Blues win, Anthony has agreed to make a donation to the
Gateway Area Multiple Sclerosis Society (@mssociety on twitter) whose mission is help each person affected by MS in St. Louis address the challenges of living with MS. They help by raising funds for cutting-edge research, driving change through advocacy, facilitating professional education and providing programs and services that empower people with MS and their families to move their lives forward. I picked this charity to honor Blues anthem singer, Charles Glenn. Read more about Charles’ battle with MS
here. If the Bruins win, I will donate to the
JDRF (@JDRF on twitter) whose mission is improve lives today and tomorrow by accelerating life-changing breakthroughs to cure, prevent and treat T1D and its complications.
Sharks Hockeybuzz writer
Steve Palumbo and I placed a wager on the series. Since the Blues won, Steve should be making a donation to the
Gateway Area Multiple Sclerosis Society (@mssociety on twitter) whose mission is help each person affected by MS in St. Louis address the challenges of living with MS. They help by raising funds for cutting-edge research, driving change through advocacy, facilitating professional education and providing programs and services that empower people with MS and their families to move their lives forward. I selected the MS Society to honor St. Louis Blues Anthem singer Charles Glenn. Read more about Charles
here.
I hope that our wagers will inspire players and fans to pledge donations for each win their team makes in the NHL playoffs.
NHL Champions for Charity Regular Season
Given that the Predators pulled out the division title, all be it not without some controversial officiating in the last couple of games, Best Buddies Tennessee
https://www.bestbuddies.org/tennessee/ is the beneficiary. Best Buddies Tennessee is dedicated to establishing a volunteer movement that creates opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment, leadership development and inclusive living opportunities for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. As a side note, I recently got to experience a Best Buddies even in the St. Louis area that was led by the Eureka high school football team. It was a lot of fun and brought a lot of joy to those involved.
It’s a great day for hockey.
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