By Andrew Allsman| Posted: May 1, 2013| Contact |
It was nearly a devastating outcome for the Blues in Tuesday
night’s playoff opener against the Los Angeles Kings. When the Kings evened the
score with just 31.6 seconds remaining in the game, it was hard not to flash
back to last year’s Game One against the San Jose Sharks where the Blues had
the better of the play the entire game, yet lost the lead late and it cost them.
However, the outcome was different on Tuesday, and it’s a good thing for the
Blues, because a loss would have devastated a group of players whose confidence
would have been hanging in the balance.
"Hockey gods took care
of us, they did," said Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock. "We played a
great hockey game. Waking up tomorrow would have been a challenge if we didn’t
win the hockey game. We’re hopefully going to gain a lot of confidence from
this that we can compete with these guys and not just compete but actually win.”
It was the start to a grueling series, one that the
Blues could certainly be considered the underdogs in. There were a combined 79
hits in game one, but the series is just getting started.
Had the Blues not been able to obtain the win on Tuesday, their psyche
would have taken a massive hit. The Blues outplayed the Kings for the better
part of 60 minutes. They had the better of chances, the harder hits, and the
majority of their puck-possession time was spent on a relentless attack.
However, to give up a goal late in the game and then lose in overtime would
have been a hard situation to combat. Instead, the Blues now see that they can
beat the Kings, but they understand that there is quite a ways to go in the
series.
"I think that it would
have been a shame not to win," Hitchcock admitted. "But when you’re
the defending champion, you can’t just knock them off, you’re going to have to
stick a pretty big nail in them, and we’re just getting started in this
series."
The Blues saw the Kings at their best last season. On Tuesday, the Blues
were the better of the two teams, playing as though game one was a must-win.
But that’s because it was.
Any momentum given to the Kings is too much. The Blues saw the Kings
push back late in the game, and sure enough, they tied it up courtesy of Justin
William’s late goal. The Blues remained intact but were on their heels to begin
the first overtime. It was the first time in the game that the Blues were being
heavily outplayed.
Brian Elliott, who is becoming more solidified in his position in net as
the days go by, stopped 28 of 29 Kings’ shots. The Kings are finding it is not
as easy as it was last year to beat Elliott. The Blues are finding that
Jonathan Quick is as solid as ever in goal. Lucky for the Blues, Quick’s rare
mistake took place right in front of Alex Steen as he mishandled the puck and
Steen capitalized. Had Steen not followed up on the play, this story would
potentially look much different.
While the series remains in the early stages, Game One was as important
as any. Instead of becoming a disastrous breakdown, the Blues salvaged the
game. Thursday’s game should be another hard one as the Blues look to head to
Los Angeles with a 2-0 series advantage. Game Two is the new Game One. It’s the
only game the Blues can worry about right now, but it was certainly important
to get the opening win.
“From our standpoint, we
needed to talk about something other than coming close," said Hitchcock.
"We needed to start talking about here’s how you win. You can only go to
that well so many times where the players stop believing you. We gave a big
push today and got rewarded for it. So we’ve got something to draw on now.
We’ve got something to sell (to the players on Wednesday) morning and hopefully
we come back with a similar effort."