Blues fans probably won't like this blog.
But, while tonight's loss to the Blackhawks has to sting, and there will be a temptation to blame the refs and the War Room, the fact is, they got the calls right.
Lehtera was offside—just barely—but clearly.
Shaw's goal was good—with no goalie interference.
And Vladimir Tarasenko, who might've been the hero of the game, took a pretty dumb penalty that likely cost his team the game.
In a close, close game, that's the way it goes. And it does stink to lose that way—though not as bad as it could if the refs had clearly missed the calls. But they didn't.
For the Hawks:
A big, big effort in a relative must-win in another building.
Duncan Keith was the Hawks' Tarasenko. The hero on a huge goal late in the second period, and the goat on what would have been the go-ahead goal for St. Louis—the one that came off the board.
The Hawks struggled to generate much early on but came untracked in a great, and fun to watch second period.
The only Hawks I can isolate as having less than great games were Michal Rozsival, who made a poor decision leading to the Blues' first goal, but was otherwise pretty good, and Teuvo Teravainen who had a couple of bad turnovers and was pretty much a non-factor throughout.
Nice game for Viktor Svedberg and Trevor van Riemsdyk. Richard Panik didn't do much with the puck but was an agitating force and competed up and down the ice.
The Toews, Hossa, Ladd line was dangerous yet again. 9 shots on goal and a few quality chances.
But the hero of the night was Shaw, playing hurt, but where do you expect to find Shaw at this time of year? Hacking and whacking (as they say) in front of a goalie near you.
I have no doubt there will be "robust" discussion of tonight's tilt on the message board, especially among Blues and Hawks' fans. Keep it clean, folks. Series is tied 1-1 and a lot of hockey left to play.
All for now,
JJ
FOB (good peeps, good reads)
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