The view from St. Louis

It always seems a bit trite to heap praise upon a team that has been eliminated from the playoffs. It’s certainly not much consolation to the players. That said, the St. Louis Blues deserve a nod. With the exception of a disastrous first period in Game 2, the Blues had a good showing in this series against the Kings. History will show they got swept, but those who watched the games will long remember how intense, tight-checking and close they were. The Kings were simply a stride better than the Blues in every area of the game. What a ride it was for the Blues. It’s easy to forget now, but they were the first team to fire a coach this season, as Ken Hitchcock replaced Davis Payne. After that, they shocked the NHL world and almost won the President’s Trophy, and Hitchcock almost certainly will be rewarded with the Jack Adams Award. The Blues have had potential in recent seasons. They put it all together this season and took a big step. The Blues have a relatively young core group of players and should be considered a top team again next season, after they take some time to regroup from this disappointing second-round defeat. Here’s how the St. Louis Post-Dispatch covered yesterday’s game, followed by some additional postgame quotes from the Blues’ locker room…

St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Blues coverage

—–

COACH KEN HITCHCOCK

(on the series, and Jonathan Quick’s play…) “We took penalties at the wrong time. We got emotionally wrapped up during the shift and couldn’t shut it down when we needed to shut it down. … As much as we played really well here, we lost the series at home. I don’t think we played as well at home during the whole playoffs as we did in the regular season. That’s something we’ve got to address, from a focus standpoint or a living standpoint. We played very, very well on the road. But even as well as we played today, you’ve still got to outwork the goalie and if you look at the seven games we’ve played against Quick, we’ve scored seven goals and we have not found a way to outwork him. He made maybe five, six unbelievable saves off the second shot, but that’s who he is. … He’s the same as Hasek, same as Belfour. He never quits on the puck. It’s a very unique skill; it’s not common. He never stops looking for a puck. I think there are a few goalies in the league still playing like that right now, to be quite honest with you. The guy in Phoenix is about the same, so is the guy in Nashville. But it’s a very unique skill. It’s not common. It’s hard to find.’’

(on whether the Kings can win the Stanley Cup…) “They’re the best team that we’ve played against, so that’s all I can judge it on. L.A. plays the way you have to play to win the Cup now. I think they play that way. … They play the game the right way. … I’m sure they’ve had stumbles along the way to figure it out, but it looks like to me like they’ve figured it out.’’

—–

DAVID BACKES

(on the game…) “When their goalie is playing well, if it takes 25 shots, great. If it takes 50, we’ve got to find a way to get 50. Not enough today, and a couple soft plays by us. They’re Johnny-on-the-spot and capitalized on them. I’m more disappointed in their ability to stick together as a cohesive unit and play for each other a lot more than we were. We were reactive and taking penalties, which disrupted our rhythm and didn’t let us get into our flow. I think the second period, we really got into our game, the way we played all year to be successful, and I don’t think they had a ton of response for it, but they did a good job of bending and not breaking. They get credit, but we’re going to have a long summer of thinking about how we could have been better in the series.’’

(on his outlook on the season, overall…) “What we really play for is postseason success. This is something that’s going to sting, but we’re going to have to learn from it. Those guys are playing as well as anyone. They have a great goaltender and their guys are sticking together, so they get credit. I have a feeling they’re going to go a long way.”

RYAN REAVES

(on the game…) “It’s disappointing. The penalties hurt us and it just wasn’t the outcome we wanted. It was a hard-fought game. We had them going, and (there were) just momentum-killers.’’

(on his outlook on the season, overall…) “It was a good season. We had our ups and downs, but I think we always bounced back and I think that’s why you saw us come out so hard. We knew we could bounce back; we’ve been doing it all season. It’s tough to swallow that one because I thought we played really well. We had a couple little mistakes that hurt us, but it was a hard-fought game. First and foremost, I’m going to remember how much fun I had this season. It was an unbelievable group of guys this year and I had a blast my first year. I couldn’t have asked for a better group, but right now losing in the playoffs stings.’’