Nothing good can last forever. The St. Louis Blues had been 4-0-2 under new coach Ken Hitchcock, and had yet to allow more than two regulation goals under his watch, but the Kings scored three times and recorded the regulation win. The Kings had been 2-8-0 in their previous 10 games at Scottrade Center. Here’s how the St. Louis Post-Dispatch covered last night’s game, followed by some additional postgame quotes from the Blues’ locker room, courtesy of The Associated Press…
Blues lose as power play fizzles
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COACH KEN HITCHCOCK
(on the game…) “I think the last two games in the last two periods, we’ve probably come off it a little bit in the third period. We’ve kind of been the team making a few mistakes. We’ve made a couple errors in our own end that have ended up in our net or ended up us taking a penalty to give the momentum back to the (opposing) team. It’s a frustrating loss for the players to battle back like we did and give it up so quickly. It’s a tough loss. … The difference for us was when we had all the chances in the second period and we couldn’t grab the lead. For me, that was disappointing.’’
(on the Blues tying the game in the third period…) “That last power play was very, very effective. I think it gave us momentum leading up to (Sobotka’s) goal. But when you’re scoring two goals a game, you’re living on a fine line. We’ve been on the right side of it for the most part. But we’re going to have to extend ourselves a little bit better if we expect to win.’’
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DAVID BACKES
(on Drew Doughty’s late cross-checking penalty…) “The end result is a two-minute penalty and a faceoff outside the zone. They might as well just run clock on that. I guess if that’s the extent of it, that’s a good way to kill the clock … no holds barred at the end of the game. But it can’t come down to the last three seconds. We should have been in better position, where it’s us closing out that game.”
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BARRET JACKMAN
(on his two turnovers that led to Kings goals…) “The first one on the (penalty kill), I just made a bad read with good players on the ice. I thought the play was in the middle, but obviously it wasn’t and they jumped on it and scored. The second one, the puck just bounced over my stick. It was going the wrong way and I couldn’t recover.’’
They improved the St.Louis area around the arena, or something, because the view from St.Louis looks a hell of a lot better than it did last year.
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The view TJ Oshie had of ST.Louis was well below average last night.
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Often times my posts are critical of some part of the Kings so in the spirit of Thanksgiving, here is a positive post:
1. Last year, the Blue took all four games from us and we lost 8 points to them (4 at home and 4 on the road)
2. So far this season, we have gained 4 points that we didn’t get last year (see #1)
3. Not only did the Blues take those four games from us, they pretty much embarrassed us during a couple of them.
4. In the 2 games we have taken from St. Louis this season, we have done the following -
– won one at home
– won one on the road
– embarrased them in one
– came from behind and won one the hard way
5. We are in second place in the division (yes, I know we have played a couple of more games than most everyone else)
6. In division, we have beat Dallas twice and beat Anaheim twice
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. The holiday was established by Abraham Lincoln in 1863 as a religious day of thanks and to ask for Divine intervention in regards to ending the Civil War. Unfortunately for Dallas, Thanksgiving does not apply in hockey. GKG!!
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PurpleBlacknGold Reply:
November 23rd, 2011 at 9:59 am
@DesertKing, Thanks for the refreshing positive post. All things considered, the team is coming together and working hard. We all can come up with numerous areas they need to improve, but they are hanging in there, and I am optimistic about the direction of the team. Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving. GKG!
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Stuart Reply:
November 23rd, 2011 at 10:35 am
@PurpleBlacknGold, agreed!
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puck73 Reply:
November 23rd, 2011 at 10:00 am
@DesertKing, Very good post my friend. Also, did you notice in the article that Blues fans are not happy with their powerplay? Hmmmm, I wonder if they would like to borrow our powerplay genius Jamie Kompon? lol
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Fire Hitchckck!
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Michael J. Reply:
November 23rd, 2011 at 10:04 am
@Michael J.,
Make that Hitchcock.
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Dominick Reply:
November 23rd, 2011 at 10:10 am
@Michael J., lol
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“…Anze Kopitar jumped on a misguided pass by Barret Jackman…”
Um, no. Mike Richards jumped on Jackman’s misguided pass and put the puck on Kopitar’s stick a microsecond later.
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