Can we all stop for a moment and appreciate the picture at the top of this article? Troy Brouwer’s smile juxtaposed by the oh-so-sad #Bang fan is just too perfect. Mr. #Bang tries to make himself a bigger spectacle than what’s happening on the ice and it’s a bit too perfect to see him crushed. That’s what you get for being an attention whore.
On with the recap…
The emotional roller coaster which is the St. Louis Blues in the playoffs keeps on rolling. Just when it seems like the series is about to shift heavily in favor of the Stars, the Blues pulled out a big Game 5 win on the road in Dallas.
The same familiar names lifted the Blues in this one – Brian Elliott, Troy Brouwer, Paul Stastny, Robby Fabbri and Dmitrij Jaskin. Wait, how’d Jaskin’s name get in there?
The 23-year-old got the call over Ryan Reaves in Game 5 and certainly made the most of it. Skating on the fourth line with Scottie Upshall and Kyle Brodziak, Jaskin added a bit more skill and speed to a line which was already pretty threatening offensively. Jaskin rewarded Ken Hitchcock with a huge goal to give the Blues a 2-1 lead in the second period which later stood to be the winner.
The final 4-1 score is a bit deceiving. The Blues were outplayed for long stretches, made numerous errors in their own zone and had to rely on Elliott on far too many occasions. Elliott stood tall and robbed the Stars on at least three extremely high quality chances from just outside his crease. As usual, he was awesome – and that’s the perfect word to describe his effort. Still, the Blues need to tighten up defensively. Too many Grade A chances are being created and the Blues were pretty fortunate to escape.
To put things in perspective, the Stars reportedly had 35 even-strength scoring chances. The Blues had 18. That ratio has to improve in Game 6.
Home ice is supposed to be an advantage. That hasn’t been the case for teams facing the Blues as they’re now 4-2 on the road in this year’s playoffs. Overall, the NHL has seen roughly a .500 record for all playoff teams at home this year. Here’s hoping the Blues pull out one of those somewhat rare home playoff wins on Monday to wrap things up.
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