If the Blues want to win the Stanley Cup, they’re going to have to stop taking really dumb penalties.
The whistles have tried to remain relatively quiet in the Stanley Cup Final and that is the way most hockey fans like it. Let ’em play. The Blues, however, have taken just about every chance they get to force the refs into making calls. That is going to have to change if they expect to turn this series around.
After a crushing 7-2 loss to the Boston Bruins on Saturday night, Blues coach Craig Berube complained (like an infant child who hasn’t gotten his way) to anyone who would listen about how many penalty calls the Blues were getting throughout the Stanley Cup Final compared to previous rounds.
Berube was critical of the refs because they were the least penalized team leading into the Cup Final and have racked up 14 penalties since. Hey buddy, here’s a thought: Stop taking stupid penalties!
Maybe if your players would stop crushing Tuukka Rask at the end of every play, you’d get more five-on-five time. Maybe if you didn’t take ridiculously stupid penalties at inopportune times, you wouldn’t get called for taking ridiculously stupid penalties at inopportune times. Weird how that works, huh?
Berube’s dumb words come off sounding even worse given that one of the penalties taken was his own fault. The Blues were assessed a two-minute minor for a failed offsides challenge on Sean Kuraly’s first-period goal on Saturday. Here’s a look at Berube biking to Enterprise Center for tonight’s game in St. Louis:
The penalties the Blues are taking are extremely unnecessary ones. They are penalties teams take when they are outmatched, outskilled and outsmarted on the ice. The Bruins are firing on all cylinders now that the top line has woken up from their early series slumber and that is going to be an issue if the Blues stick to the “rattle Rask” game plan.
Speaking of Rask, he’s been as unwavering as humanly possible through the first three games of this series. Of the seven goals against him through three games, two came from defections off of his own players and at least two more could be argued as not his fault. Rask is playing the best hockey of his career and it’s been one of the key differences in this series. As for his Blues counterpart, well, everyone has a rough night once in a while. Getting pulled in a SCF game can’t be fun. Expect him to have a nice bounce back game tonight.
If the Blues want to extend this series and have a serious shot at the Cup, they need to win tonight. To win game 4, they’ll need to focus more on getting the puck to the back of the net and less on trying to decapitate David Backes.
The Blues will bounce back with a solid effort. If they can keep playing physical while also playing smart, they have a chance to tie this series up and head back to Boston with some confidence. If they keep doing what they are doing now, this one is over.
The Blues and Bruins face off at 8:00 p.m. ET on NBC.