The St. Louis Blues Advance To Round 2 Of The Stanley Cup Playoffs
from Benjamin Hochman of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch,
Confident, cohesive and a little crazy, the Blues stepped off the bus that freezing Winter Classic afternoon in beach wear. Undaunted by Minnesota (both the hockey team and the elements), the “Beach Boys” won the outdoor game. And so, after every Blues home win since, Beach Boys music blared. Sure enough, it happened Thursday at Enterprise Center, as Minnesota’s players, suddenly on summer vacation, became “Beach Boys” themselves.
The swagger-fueled Blues swatted away the Wild for the fourth time in six games, winning 5-1 on Thursday to advance to the second round. And along the way, the Blues overcame seemingly all the adversity — be it injured defensemen and a struggling goalie — and all their adversaries — be it Kirill Kaprizov or Marcus Foligno, who said Thursday morning: “We went into Vegas last year in that hostile arena, crazy fans, much louder than this rink, and we stole a game. That's what we have to do tonight.”
They didn’t do it.
And while I’ve never been to the Vegas rink, I can’t imagine it being that much louder than Enterprise Center was Thursday night.
And we knew the Blues needed to demoralize the Wild early — but really, it was a two-period process. And an impressive one. Nick Leddy (Nick Leddy?) scored the first and only first-period goal, but after two, the Blues led 4-0.
How did they do it? With confidence and cohesion. They killed penalties diabolically. They won puck battles on the boards. And they got contributions from seemingly everyone. And really, that’s the spirit of the playoffs — and the spirit of this team. The Blues are, indeed, a team. And it takes a team.
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Below find the game highlights and handshakes....
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