The Blues stayed perfect in clinching opportunities when they harpooned the Sharks 5-1 on Tuesday, sending St. Louis into a frenzy and the Blues into the Stanly Cup finals for the first time since 1970.
The Blues controlled the scoreboard from start to finish and even had a decent amount of breathing room in the last few minutes of the game, allowing the fans to share their joy with loud cheers and chants. What a sight that opportunity presented when you consider the tension that would have existed had the game been much closer. While the last six minutes seemed to last much longer than the actual time, it was a result of the joy and celebration happening throughout the stands. There was no rush to speed up the clock from the fans, rather they were afforded the opportunity to truly enjoy the moments with long-time friends, family, seat-mates, and random strangers. The only thing I wish the in-game entertainment crew would have done was to play Take Me Home Country Road one last time after the empty net goal. The singing would have been even louder and completely off the charts but I’m really, really splitting hairs there.
The Blues opened the scoring about a minute and a half into the game with a David Perron deflection of a Sammy Blais shot. Ryan O’Reilly makes a great cross ice space to Blais who does well to find space and the passing angle. Blais then makes a subtle move to get the shot past the oncoming defender. Martin Jones has no chance in stopping the Perron deflection.
The Blues would double their lead on the power play with less than four minutes remaining in the period. While the Blues do have decent puck movement at the Blue line, Jones inexplicably stays very deep in the net after Tarasenko receives the pass. Odds are that Tarasenko will shoot from that situation but Jones chooses not to push out to challenge the shot. As a result, it’s an easy goal on a good top corner shot from Tarasenko. I’d say the goal probability goes down more than two thirds if Jones had pushed out to challenge the shot.
The Sharks would cut the lead in half on a pretty leaky goal by Jordan Binnington. Jones makes a good stop on Patrick Maroon and the rebound is sent by Joonas Donskoi to Dylan Gambrell for a partial breakaway. Colton Parayko is closing in on Gambrell so his only option is a shot and Binnington knows this so Binnington challenges. Unfortunately, Binnington takes the challenge overboard going out about nine inches too far, reducing his reaction time without really cutting off much more shot options. As a result, he can’t react fast enough and misses the shot.
With the Sharks down one, Logan Couture would miss an easy tap in goal on a rebound, missing the puck entirely. Couture would say after the game that the puck had hit him in the face and he had temporarily lost sight of it, explaining the miss. If he scores there, this game likely goes a much different way.
The Blues would get it back about six minute later with their second power play goal of the game. Brayden Schenn would break his 13 game goal drought, showing some good hand-eye coordination and some quick hands.
Tyler Bozak would give the Blues some breathing room, scoring on an odd man rush when he pass goes in off Marc-Edouard Vlassic’s stick.
Ivan Barbashev would add the empty net goal after Oskar Sundqvist hit the outside of the net with his attempt.
As the Blues prepare for their first Stanley Cup Final since 1970, let’s look at how Jammer’s keys fared, relative to the series result.
Win close games, win the series – The only close game the Blues lost was hand-gate. I’d consider this a checkmarks as they won the other one-goal game and won a two-goal game that was a one-goal game until the last 3:08.
Score 1st and survive the 1st period; win the third period, win the series – This was a big checkmark. Every team that scored 1st won. In the two games the Blues lost, they lost the third period.
Goaltending, goaltending, goaltending – Binnington had a 91.2%. Jones was only 86.9%. Consider that a massive checkmark.
Stay disciplined and win or at least be even on special teams – The Blues converted on 23.8% of their power plays while the Sharks only 15.4%. The Blues scored more or the same amount power play goals as the Sharks in five of the six games.
Given their performance on the keys to the series, it’s easy to see how they won the series in six games.
As to the Sharks injury woes, Joe Pavelski missed game six due to a knee injury, not another head/consussion issue. Erik Karlsson was hampered most of the season by his groin injury. Tomas Hertl missed game six due to a head injury. Joe Thornton played with a pulled groin suffered in Game 1.
It’s a great day for hockey.
NHL Champions for Charity Playoff Edition
In what I hope becomes a Hockeybuzz tradition, Hockeybuzz Sharks blogger
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.
St Louis Blues Blogger • 
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