Game 5 tonight, but first a quick review of the last 2 games, losses.
The Blues returned to St Louis with a chance to make it 3-0, so the Jets were definitely desperate. Perron made it 1-0 before a collapse in the 2nd period out the Blues behind by multiple goals. The final score was 6-3, with Binnington having a save percentage below 80% for the game.
‘Game 4 Binnington bounced back in a big way. This was a tight fought contest with both goalies playing great. The Blues lost in OT, with Binnington ending up with a 95% save percentage for the game. But this tied the series and set the stage for Winnipeg to regain home ice for game 5. It was now a 3 game series.
Game 5, Fabbri slotted in. Sanford was out of the line-up and Fabbri was back for his 2nd game. Sundqvist was centering the 2nd line with Perron and Schwartz . It’s funny to look back and see Blais and Sanford were out, and the 4th line was:
Fabbri-Barbashev-Steen.
Gunnarsson was also in for Bortuzzo.
My recording is the SN feed. No Pang call at the end. Sad face emoji.
Off the opening face off, OReilly lost it, puck went to the corner, was directed on goal at a sharp angle and Binnington deflected it straight to Lowry who punched it straight in, 12 seconds in. Here come the “You look nervous!” Chants. The rest of the 1st was played pretty evenly. The Blues didn’t show panic. About halfway through the period, Perron made a great pass to get Sundqvist in alone on a breakaway. Hellebyuk made a good save.
A few minutes later Hayes made a sweet power move on a 3 man attack where he cut in at speed across the crease, blowing by Edmundson, and muscled it through Binnington. More “you look nervous!”
I’ll be honest. At this point I was thinking, “Well, I thought there was a chance Binnington would turn into a pumpkin, but he’s played as well as we could have asked for. If they can win in St Louis, anything can happen in Game 7.” The play had been pretty even in the game, but the score was 0-2. The game prior had been scoreless through 2 periods. A 2 goal lead felt like a winning margin for sure.
The Blues made a strong push at the end of the 1st. Binnington made a nice confident save outside the blue ice at the top of his crease on a breakaway by Ehlers.
When I look at who was fighting the hardest to get back in, Perron, Pietro and Maroon stand out. Perron and Schuen swapped spots, moving Perron onto the top line. Nice job by Berube identifying this quickly. Binnington deserves credit too, he didn’t wilt after the 1st. I also think there are some coaches who would have overthought things and maybe pulled Binnington. The rest of the game showed that this would have been the wrong call.
The refs let a lot of stuff go in the 2nd. They were going to let this be decided 5 on 5 if possible.
I had completely forgotten the play where Fabbri got stripped inside the Blues blue line, and Hayes saved his own shot as it trickled across the goal line, or was about to. Parayko mugging him at the time probably contributed to that. Fabbri was a liability. Sadly, Edmundson was too much of the time. Watching more dispassionately now, I can admit it. If Hayes scores there, does Winnipeg win the series? The Hayes rental would have looked a lot better if they got some winning heroics and a longer run out of it. I’d like to think St Louis would still win the series, but you never know.
Thomas tried to lift a stick, missed and cut Kulikov’s face, 4 minute penalty. It was pretty egregious. This was a pivotal moment in this game. Remember Winnipeg had a top 5 PP in the league, and they’d been playing well. The game was more than 1/2 way over. Jets fans had to feel like they were on the cusp of putting this game away. During the PK, my attention was drawn to Pietro jawing with Laine and smiling. The Blues didn’t look like a team under duress. At the end of the 4m PK, shots were 20-20 with 26 minutes o game left. The Jets fans were chanting something here I couldn’t make out. Maybe “we want three!” Probably something else. The Blues were pressuring a lot, and then Hayes got a breakaway late in the 2nd. Binnington made the nice aggressive pad save. He wasn’t playing scared, stayed aggressive in goal.
Just a general observation from the 3 games I’ve viewed so far. This is the best hockey Bouwmeester ever played in a bluenote. It deserves to be noted.
After 2 periods, I would give Perron the MVP for Blues players. His tenacity seemed to infect Tarasenko a bit. That line with O’Reilly started to look dangerous, but I credit Perron with providing the injection of heart.
3rd period, one of the most memorable and historically important periods in Blues history. Blues start it down 0-2 on a PP. At the end of a tenacious PP, O’Reilly gets the rebound off a Schuen shot. The guy standing in front of the net who got the primary assist? Perron of course. Binnington made some nice saves through the middle of the period. The Jets took away a lot of the neutral zone as the period went along, but Binnington still had to be sharp on their attacks. One of these was a deflection by Edmundson right on. Whew!
You guys know the rest. I did notice that Winnipeg players were watching the clock more than Blues were. Perron put it over the glass at 13 minutes left for a minor penalty. Killed it off. 6 minutes left Sundqvist was pulled down as he passed it over to Schenn. There was a delay as they reviewed the net starting to come off as the puck crossed the line. I believe the ruling was eventually that the net was coming off by a Jets player, so the goal was good. We’ve seen these calls go the other way before. It was a huge break to get the call and tie up the game.
Both teams had some chances from here out. It felt like it was going to OT. About 1 minute to play, the Blues had a long shift in the zone after Parayko’s shot was blocked by Ehlers and severely hobbled him. The next face off was the shift that Bozak found Schwartz after Troubadour tried to eat the puck behind the net, 15 seconds left. The arena was playing Faith No More immediately after.
Blues win, Binnington heads straight off the ice, no celebration. Jets scored 12 seconds in, but it was the Blues scoring with 15 seconds left that decided it. That game was a huge emotional blow to Winnipeg. I don’t think they recovered.
The Blues returned to St Louis with a chance to make it 3-0, so the Jets were definitely desperate. Perron made it 1-0 before a collapse in the 2nd period out the Blues behind by multiple goals. The final score was 6-3, with Binnington having a save percentage below 80% for the game.
‘Game 4 Binnington bounced back in a big way. This was a tight fought contest with both goalies playing great. The Blues lost in OT, with Binnington ending up with a 95% save percentage for the game. But this tied the series and set the stage for Winnipeg to regain home ice for game 5. It was now a 3 game series.
Game 5, Fabbri slotted in. Sanford was out of the line-up and Fabbri was back for his 2nd game. Sundqvist was centering the 2nd line with Perron and Schwartz . It’s funny to look back and see Blais and Sanford were out, and the 4th line was:
Fabbri-Barbashev-Steen.
Gunnarsson was also in for Bortuzzo.
My recording is the SN feed. No Pang call at the end. Sad face emoji.
Off the opening face off, OReilly lost it, puck went to the corner, was directed on goal at a sharp angle and Binnington deflected it straight to Lowry who punched it straight in, 12 seconds in. Here come the “You look nervous!” Chants. The rest of the 1st was played pretty evenly. The Blues didn’t show panic. About halfway through the period, Perron made a great pass to get Sundqvist in alone on a breakaway. Hellebyuk made a good save.
A few minutes later Hayes made a sweet power move on a 3 man attack where he cut in at speed across the crease, blowing by Edmundson, and muscled it through Binnington. More “you look nervous!”
I’ll be honest. At this point I was thinking, “Well, I thought there was a chance Binnington would turn into a pumpkin, but he’s played as well as we could have asked for. If they can win in St Louis, anything can happen in Game 7.” The play had been pretty even in the game, but the score was 0-2. The game prior had been scoreless through 2 periods. A 2 goal lead felt like a winning margin for sure.
The Blues made a strong push at the end of the 1st. Binnington made a nice confident save outside the blue ice at the top of his crease on a breakaway by Ehlers.
When I look at who was fighting the hardest to get back in, Perron, Pietro and Maroon stand out. Perron and Schuen swapped spots, moving Perron onto the top line. Nice job by Berube identifying this quickly. Binnington deserves credit too, he didn’t wilt after the 1st. I also think there are some coaches who would have overthought things and maybe pulled Binnington. The rest of the game showed that this would have been the wrong call.
The refs let a lot of stuff go in the 2nd. They were going to let this be decided 5 on 5 if possible.
I had completely forgotten the play where Fabbri got stripped inside the Blues blue line, and Hayes saved his own shot as it trickled across the goal line, or was about to. Parayko mugging him at the time probably contributed to that. Fabbri was a liability. Sadly, Edmundson was too much of the time. Watching more dispassionately now, I can admit it. If Hayes scores there, does Winnipeg win the series? The Hayes rental would have looked a lot better if they got some winning heroics and a longer run out of it. I’d like to think St Louis would still win the series, but you never know.
Thomas tried to lift a stick, missed and cut Kulikov’s face, 4 minute penalty. It was pretty egregious. This was a pivotal moment in this game. Remember Winnipeg had a top 5 PP in the league, and they’d been playing well. The game was more than 1/2 way over. Jets fans had to feel like they were on the cusp of putting this game away. During the PK, my attention was drawn to Pietro jawing with Laine and smiling. The Blues didn’t look like a team under duress. At the end of the 4m PK, shots were 20-20 with 26 minutes o game left. The Jets fans were chanting something here I couldn’t make out. Maybe “we want three!” Probably something else. The Blues were pressuring a lot, and then Hayes got a breakaway late in the 2nd. Binnington made the nice aggressive pad save. He wasn’t playing scared, stayed aggressive in goal.
Just a general observation from the 3 games I’ve viewed so far. This is the best hockey Bouwmeester ever played in a bluenote. It deserves to be noted.
After 2 periods, I would give Perron the MVP for Blues players. His tenacity seemed to infect Tarasenko a bit. That line with O’Reilly started to look dangerous, but I credit Perron with providing the injection of heart.
3rd period, one of the most memorable and historically important periods in Blues history. Blues start it down 0-2 on a PP. At the end of a tenacious PP, O’Reilly gets the rebound off a Schuen shot. The guy standing in front of the net who got the primary assist? Perron of course. Binnington made some nice saves through the middle of the period. The Jets took away a lot of the neutral zone as the period went along, but Binnington still had to be sharp on their attacks. One of these was a deflection by Edmundson right on. Whew!
You guys know the rest. I did notice that Winnipeg players were watching the clock more than Blues were. Perron put it over the glass at 13 minutes left for a minor penalty. Killed it off. 6 minutes left Sundqvist was pulled down as he passed it over to Schenn. There was a delay as they reviewed the net starting to come off as the puck crossed the line. I believe the ruling was eventually that the net was coming off by a Jets player, so the goal was good. We’ve seen these calls go the other way before. It was a huge break to get the call and tie up the game.
Both teams had some chances from here out. It felt like it was going to OT. About 1 minute to play, the Blues had a long shift in the zone after Parayko’s shot was blocked by Ehlers and severely hobbled him. The next face off was the shift that Bozak found Schwartz after Troubadour tried to eat the puck behind the net, 15 seconds left. The arena was playing Faith No More immediately after.
Blues win, Binnington heads straight off the ice, no celebration. Jets scored 12 seconds in, but it was the Blues scoring with 15 seconds left that decided it. That game was a huge emotional blow to Winnipeg. I don’t think they recovered.
