The Blues returned to their relentless ways on Wednesday night, defeating the Bruins 3-2 in overtime, winning their first ever Stanley Cup Final game and evening the series 1-1 while establishing home ice advantage.
The Bruins opened the scoring with a power play goal after a questionable goaltender interference call on Sammy Blais as there was contact with the defender and Blais appeared to attempt to avoid contact with Tuukka Rask. The officials easily could have ruled the contact from the defender created the contact with the goalie and not called a penalty, unlike the goalie interference call on Jaden Schwartz later in the game where I have no idea what Schwartz was thinking.
On the ensuing power play, the Bruins appeared to get away with premature substitution which you can kind of see here.
Unfortunately, I can’t access the game to grab the better view of the play to share with you. This was the only view available on the goal highlights. Note that this is NOT the obvious too many men on the ice penalty that most of social media has been referencing as that play happened later.
Regardless, as the Bruins enter the Blues zone both Tyler Bozak and Colton Parayko pursue the puck carrier to the corner, the exact wrong thing to do while short-handed. Charlie Coyle drives the lane and hits the seam in the middle, beating Jordan Binnington 5-hole with the one-timer. This is a save we have come to expect Binnington to make and one that most good NHL goalies make most of the time. His stick positioning was off and he didn’t get his legs closed fast enough.
Robert Bortuzzo would even the score about five minutes later. The Blues would have good sustained pressure culminating with a pass from Carl Gunnarsson off the end boards to Bozak at the side of the net. Bozak would throw the puck through the crease. Bortuzzo had driven in from the right point, picking the puck up from the boards and putting a shot on net, deflecting and beating Rask who had no chance.
As the Blues have been prone to do, they gave the lead right back less than a minute later thanks in large part to two poor plays by David Perron and Binnington get beat 5-hole yet again. Watch how Binnington actually opens up his 5-hole by raising his left leg. I’m betting he really wants this play back as it was a pretty stoppable situation as Nordstrom had very few real scoring options. Again, a goal that Binnington wasn’t giving up over the last number of months.
The Blues would answer about four and a half minutes thanks to an extremely poor, rookie type play by Brad Marchand. Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy would get caught behind the Blues net with Zdeno Chara at the left point and Brad Marchand occupying the space around the right point. Vladimir Tarasenko would get the puck along the wall on Chara’s side and begin to break out with Jaden Schwartz. Marchand inexplicably fails to recognize the situation and applies poor pressure to Tarasenko. Not only does he apply poor pressure but he lets Tarasenko go, getting behind him and creating the two on one. The not so mobile Chara gets left hung out to dry on the two on one and Tarasenko cleans up his own garbage to tie the game.
With about two minutes left in the 1st period, Oskar Sundqvist would get a 2 minute minor for boarding Matt Grzelcyk and likely giving Grzelcyk a concussion. I believe the officials deemed it only a minor penalty because Grzelcyk put himself in such an awkward position before the hit which I can appreciate, especially given they are making the judgement real time. In having the luxury of watching it on tv and on replays, I really didn’t like how long Sundqvist was essentially tracking the back of Grzelcyk, following through on the hit to his numbers. I easily could have seen it been called a major and a game misconduct and not objected. Given Grzelcyk’s injury and that Sundqvist was not given the major, I expected he would get a one game suspension which he did.
If Sundqvist tracks the hit toward the puck and Grzelcyk’s right shoulder rather than taking the line away from the puck to his left shoulder, I believe that Grzelcyk likely isn’t injured or at least not as severely and Sundqvist only gets the minor penalty. I may be in the St. Louis minority but I don’t have an issue with the one game suspension given he finished Game 2.
The Blues dominated the 2nd period, outshooting the Bruins 14-6 but couldn’t solve Rask. They also generated a number of good chances in the 3rd period but again Rask was equal to the task or bailed out by his friendly goal posts. From my recollection, the Blues hit at least three posts.
With about six and a half minutes left in the game, Brayden Schenn would stick check Noel Acciari, pinning Acciari’s stick against the ice with his own. As Acciari tried to shoot, Acciari’s stick broke likely from the resistance applied by Schenn. The officials would misconstrue the bang bang play and give Schenn a slashing penalty. Fans and neutral observers on social media were beside themselves from complaining to sarcasm, talking about how the NHL would have to issue another apology to the Blues if the Bruins scored the gamer winning goal on the resulting power play. Luckily all of the static became moot as the Blues killed the power play.
With under four minutes left, Pat Maroon got off a shot from the low slot that Rask made an incredible save, stopping it with his arm, hitting where the number is on his arm. If Maroon puts is an inch or less more toward the post, the puck goes in off Rask’s arm.
Then with about two minutes left, it appeared as if the Blues may have taken the lead on a blast by Carl Gunnarsson but the shot hit iron and took an odd rebound off the post.
Take a look at both chances here:
For some unexplained reason, the NHL recap didn’t include Binngton’s save on David Pastrnak with about 45 seconds left in the game, a huge save that allowed the game to get to overtime as Pastrnak was alone in the slot.
Once overtime hit, the Blues were dominant, outshooting the Bruins 4-0 and keeping possession in the Bruins zone as if they were playing the original NHL game for Sega. Eventually, with a 6th attacker on the ice during a delayed penalty call, Gunnarsson would make good on his second attempt.
I’ve read some narrative about how losing Grzelcyk at the end of the 1st period made a huge difference. I’m not really buying this narrative. Grzelcyk only played a little over 14 minutes in game one which means they effectively lost about 9:30 of his ice time. Connor Clifton, the Bruins 6th defensemen, only played 3:30 more than game one and that includes 1:23 in overtime so really he only picked up about two of the normal minutes. Maybe it wore the Bruins top four defensemen down a little but you are only talking about less than two minutes more per player. Again, I’m not fully buying that narrative.
In review Jammer’s key to the series, the Blues survived the 1st period. While they didn’t get as good of goaltending as Boston throughout the game, they got equally timely goaltending, shutting the door after the 1st period and making the big save with the game on the line. They failed on staying disciplined but did at least keep the Bruins well below their prior playoff power play conversion rate, converting 20% rather than more than 30%. Most importantly, they won the final frame and won the close game.
More thoughts from Games 1 and 2 and lineup notes for Game 3 can be found
here.
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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