The Blues will be hosting the Blackhawks tonight at the Scottradecenter at 7:30pm. Will they bring their lunch pails or will they bring their suitcases and golf clubs? They have been saying all year long how resilient and different this team is. Tonight they have the chance to prove it.
If they play anything like they played in the second period of game six, look for them to have a tee time on Wednesday instead of a game. The Blues blew an early 2 goal lead and gave up a late power play goal and empty net goal to lose 6-3. A video recap of the game can be seen
here .
The Blues were generally very bad on the wall and overall in the defensive zone in this game, easily their worst game of the series. Kevin Shattenkirk’s terrible give away on the Andrew Ladd’s game opening goal occurred after an equally as weak play along the boards from Shattenkirk. Marian Hossa blocked Shattenkirk’s backhanded clear attempt, one of the weakest I have seen since my last beer league game. Ladd beat Brian Elliott low to mid glove side from a clean shot from the inner third of the face-off circle. The Blues then seemed to capitalize on Andrew Desjardins missing a wide open net, turning the momentum and scoring three goals in row from Scottie Upshall, Alex Pietrangelo, and Vladimir Tarasenko, ending the period up 3-1.
About 4 minutes into the second period, Shattenkirk makes another poor backhand play along the wall, sending the puck weakly to Artemi Panarin. Jaden Schwartz heads out to the high part of the zone before he recognizes the giveaway and then takes an extremely poor line on the back check, chasing the puck rather than chasing the wide open Marian Hossa in the slot. Elliott makes a brilliant save but has no idea where the puck is and Artem Anisimov puts another knuckler into the net past his left leg.
About 8 minutes later, Hammer makes an outlet pass from behind the Blackhawks net to Richard Panik at the Blues’ blue line. Pietrangelo moves to take Panik who drops the puck off to Jonathan Toews who is being chased by Paul Stastny. Jay Bouwmeester hesitates and makes a terrible read, putting himself in no-man’s land. He doesn’t support the right side by cutting of fToews nor does he give Toews the outside shot and cover the streaking Trevor Van Riemsdyk who ends up putting the puck in the net off Elliott’s glove, again low to mid glove side. Troy Brouwer adds to the defensive miscues by being beat to the net by TVR.
The last goal of the period begins with Panarin hooking Shattekirk’s stick out of his hands. As he goes to get it, Weise checks Shattenkirk to the ice. In the process Panarin gets the puck behind the net and feeds it to Weise who has moved to the lower part of the face-off circle for a one-timer off Brian Elliott’s blocker and into the shelf of the net. Kyle Brodziak was in good support position on the play but didn’t recognize and rotate to Weise quick enough. Terrible defensive miscues dominate the play for the Blues in the 2nd period who get outshot more than 3 to 1, giving up 19 shots.
Much like prior games, the Blues carry much of the play in the third period but this time they are unable to score. Jori Lehtera again cannot finish a glorious chance before the Blues give up a late power play goal and empty net goal. On the power play goal, both Shattenkirk and Pietrangelo go to the goal line at both sides of the net while Kane has the puck making it easy for him to pass the puck to Andrew Shaw for the one-timer goal, beating Elliott to his blocker side.
Coaching notes and Tarasenko issue?
I realize that Brian Elliott got a piece of at least 2 of the Blackhawks goals and didn’t get much support from the team, especially in the second period but, if I was Ken Hitchcock, I would have substituted Jake Allen in for Elliott after the 3rd Blackhawk’s goal. It would have been a perfect time to call a timeout but the new challenge rules don’t really allow you to use one there as you have to save it for potential goal reviews. Pulling Elliott would have acted like a timeout and provided a wake-up call to the team. You could then work Elliott back into the net at the next stoppage or at the beginning of the third period.
Hitchcock also has to find a way to use Tarasenko more. This statement has nothing to do with Tarasenko waiving off Hitchcock at the end of the second period (more on that later). It has to do with Tarasenko being 6th in even strength ice time among Blues forwards, almost a minute and a half per game behind Troy Brouwer. He’s also 6th in power play minutes per game though that is distorted somewhat by the second period power play in game 6 (more on that later) and 6th in total time on ice per game average, almost over 3 minutes behind Brouwer. Any way you slice it, I think most would see this is asset mismanagement.
Q is outcoaching Hitchcock in player usage and this coupled with the awful shooting percentages of Jori Lehtera, Paul Stastny, Alexander Steen and Patrick Berglund (4% playoffs vs 10.5% regular season) could cost the Blues the series.
Ok, now the later. By now, most of you have seen the brush off that Tarasenko gave Hitchcock at the end of the second period. This even could easily be a nothing. Tarasenko didn‘t have the opportunity to get on the ice for the Blues second period power play because he had been on the ice for 0:41 when they drew the penalty. I don’t think Hitchcock ever dreamed the second unit would maintain possession of the puck in the offensive zone for the entire 2 minutes but that is basically what they did. Tarasenko is likely frustrated at the blown lead and his inability to get onto the ice for the power play to tie the game up. He didn’t want or need to talk about something that he understood already. Of course, I am assuming this is what the brush off was about which may not be the case.
The NHL and NBCSN and start times
Kudos to Pat Foley for saying what most of us believe and feel regarding start times
here. Of course, as expected, Gary Bettman came out with statements like Foley “didn’t have his facts straight”, was “off the mark” when he said everyone hates it, and tried to rationalize it by saying that “we are still earlier than what all the other sports do”. Bettman claims Blackhawks president John McDonough called him the next morning to let him know that he was not happy with what was said and Coach Q said “we never let it be a factor and we play the game”. I might suggest McDonough didn’t like that it was said, not that he didn’t agree with what was said but that is for you to decide.
Further evidence of the idiocy of start times is tonight when the west coast, pacific time zone Ducks will take on the Predators in central time zone Tennessee at 7pm CST while the central time zone Blackhawks will take on the central time zone Blues at 7:30pm. Why not switch the game times and give the Ducks fans some extra time to get home to watch the game? Their series also only had one of the home central zone games pushed to 8:30 CST whereas the Blues and Blackhawks already had 3, making this the 4th late start game.
ETA - Emundson looks to be in for Bortuzzo. Team staying at a hotel.
It’s a great day for hockey.
St Louis Blues Blogger • 
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