Drivesaitl
Finding Hyman
There's two teams on the ice out there, and both want to win. Players don't pick and choose when they're going to be snake-bitten and whether or not the puck is going to bounce favorably for them as it's rolling down the opposing goaltenders back on its way into the net. I don't think anybody would try to claim Boston had outplayed St. Louis through two periods last night, but the Bruins cashed in their 5-on-3 while the Blues hadn't solved Rask despite several close calls.
I just don't see this as a case of the Blues not showing up in a big moment, not showing heart, etc. Boston was on their back foot for the majority of this game but Rask significantly outplayed Binnington. Not a whole lot more to it than that. Switch the 'tenders last night and the result is almost certainly the opposite. If I'm in that Blues dressing room, I'm reminding myself that Binnington hasn't had two bad games in a row in this series, nor has Rask had two good ones in a row. If the pattern holds, the Blues have the upper hand.
Blues were not bearing down on chances, not taking quality shots, not possessing the puck with authority, and they were passing off on scoring chances. I lost count at 20 the times the Blues turned a good offensive look to a turnover. They were bizarrely overplaying the puck. Rask was forced to make 1,2 difficult stops all night. The Blues were turning quality looks into muffin shots.
Look at the grit that Perron and Blais showed. Those two continued to dig deep and you could see their perseverance and extra efforts on almost every shift. Most Blues were invisible in this regard. ROR despicably so but Tarasenko doesn't escape attention as he was a ghost in this game. Schenn? Where was he?
The Blues had several PP's and generated one serious chance on the PP. They were pathetic with the man advantage as they have been all series. The Blues unfortunately are playing with a type of paralysis or they would have already won the series. In 3 games now in this series they have flat out CHOKED. Awful overall performances in games 1, 3, and now 6. It seemed like once the Bruins got the opening goal (thanks ROR) the Blues were paralyzed and expecting not to score. They showed zero confidence offensively. The result spoke to that.
ftr the Bruins are outscoring the Blues 21-14 in the series. A considerable margin considering a series being tied 3-3 and the Blues being pathetic on home ice two of the three games.
There were moments in the third period where the fans almost started booing the Blues effort in a potential SC winning game but then thought better of it and started cheering them off in the last minute.
But I can't imagine how disappointing, and how much of a letdown that game and game 3 were to Blues fans. No long suffering fan deserves that putrid level of play in two home games in a SC final. The Blues did this to themselves. If they don't pull out a win in Boston Blues suffering might go for another 50yrs.
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