SB Nation St. Louis - St. Louis Sees Its Season Come To An End With 3-1 Loss

Blues Being Quiet About Injuries During The Western Conference Semi-Finals

2012-05-08T16:27:56Z

As the Blues were playing some of their least-inspired hockey of the season against the Los Angeles Kings, many fans wondered the exact same4 thing: “God, I wonder how many of those guys are playing through injury?” People expected the news to trickle out after the playoffs, but the team talked to Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about it and that’s a no go.

Other than an obvious injury to Alex Pietrangelo and whispers of an ear infection for Brian Elliott, minimal information has come out about the team’s bumps and bruises. Is it the team doctors that’re keeping it quiet? Coaching? No — it’s the captain David Backes and the rest of the team. From the Post-Dispatch:

“I hate that because it’s almost like, ‘Well, if we didn’t have injuries, we would have been a lot better,’” Backes said. “Well, if there’s injuries all year, you’ve got to find ways to play through it and find ways to overcome it. Those are the little hurdles that you overcome individually and you suck up some pain for the better of the team.”

Backes went as far as saying, “If a list of injuries comes out, I’m not going to be very happy because I just think whatever it is, we play through it. Or else you take yourself out of the lineup and let someone that is capable and willing and they’ll fight through it.”

That’s a very valid point. Much like you can’t necessarily blame an official for a loss, you can’t blame injuries either. You have to rise above it and play through it. Or, as Backes said, let someone else fresh play because you’re not at 100%.

I’m sure tidbits of information will leak out here and there, but what does it matter now? Injuries weren’t the only reason that the Blues were swept.

2012 NHL Playoffs, Kings Vs. Blues: Reaction To St. Louis' Season-Ending Loss

2012-05-07T12:00:54Z

The season came to an end for the St. Louis Blues on Sunday afternoon, as they were swept out of the second round of the Western Conference playoffs by the Los Angeles Kings. Rather than dwelling on what transpired in this game and the series in general, though, SB Nation's St. Louis Game Plan chose to reflect on what proved to be an impressive early-season transformation by the Blues.

This was supposed to be a team that had lots of ups and downs and was still transitioning into whatever they will become in the next few years. At the start of the season, at 6-7-0, the script was being followed.

And then, of course, they showed everyone what could be. That the Blues are a strong team when they play a strong team concept game. That they have the right management in place in Doug Armstrong and the right coach in place in Ken Hitchcock. Much of the foundation is set - the team is a young core group and they all learned a lot of important lessons about how to win in the regular season and in the playoffs. They also learned how quickly it can be taken away.

For more on the Kings, head to Jewels From The Crown and SB Nation Los Angeles. For more on the Blues, visit St. Louis Game Time and SB Nation St. Louis. For complete coverage of the 2012 Stanley Cup playoffs, stick with SB Nation's NHL hub.

2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs, Blues Vs. Kings: A Series Postmortem

2012-05-06T23:19:46Z

A year's postmortem will be coming later, but today, let's just start small, which is appropriate because this four game series has been the smallest so far in the Stanley Cup playoffs. A matchup that many predicted would go six or seven games was taken in just four, and there're reasons for that. St. Louis Game Time pretty much nails it here:

Great goaltending. Stifling defense. Total commitment from all four forward lines and all three defensive pairings. Timely goalscoring. A few lucky bounces.

That has been the story of how the St. Louis Blues put together such a great season.

It's also the story of how they were beaten handily by the Los Angeles Kings in the second round of the playoffs.

The Blues were out-Bluesed. Plain and simple, Los Angeles took the Blues' game and just simply played it better. The interesting thing is, the Blues helped them do this. How? By not playing their own game at all. A four game sweep would be easier to take if the games were closer, and if the series was harder fought. Instead, the Blues played their brand of hockey for two and a half periods out of the 12 played in this series. For those of you new to the sport, that will win you precisely... well, squat. The Blues didn't try, and that is why they were swept. It'll come out in the next few days, I'm sure, that guys were playing injured and not at 100%. Frankly, I wouldn't be shocked to hear Brian Elliott had an injury considering how he played this round. Whatever the reason, though, this was social loafing in action. "Someone else'll pick up the slack." Well. unfortunately, it wasn't anyone on the Blues.

This was a wonderful season with a lot of positives to take away from it. It just ended on a sour note. For the Blues, there's plenty to build on and hope for the future. The team looks to be back to their constant playoff contender form of the 90s and early 2000s, and that's a good thing. For now, though, you do have to call it like it is, and what this series was was a lack of effort. The Blues picked a terrible time to lose four games in a row.

Kings Vs. Blues, 2012 NHL Playoffs Score Update: Blues Swept By Kings

2012-05-06T21:54:58Z

Despite a season which saw the St. Louis Blues defy expectations, this 2011/2012 campaign may be remembered for the disappointing manner in which it ended. With their offense struggles continuing, the Blues saw their season come to an end at the hands of the Los Angeles Kings, who swept the series with a 3-1 win in Game 4.

Throughout the series, the Blues couldn't find a way to get the puck past Jonathan Quick. St. Louis managed to score only six goals in the series, with the lone goal of this game coming from Kevin Shattenkirk in the first period. However, after Shattenkirk tied the game in the first period, the Blues found themselves trailing after Dustin Brown scored his first goal of the game with less than two minutes remaining in the period.

Despite a myriad of chances, St. Louis was never able to tie the game. Brown officially ended any hope for the Blues with his second goal of the game, which was scored on an empty net with just 26 seconds remaining.

Kings Vs. Blues, 2012 NHL Playoffs Game 4: L.A. Maintains 2-1 Lead After 2 Periods

2012-05-06T20:57:03Z

The St. Louis Blues are still trailing 2-1 to the Los Angeles Kings after two periods on Sunday afternoon, leaving them just 20 minutes of play away from being eliminated from the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Blues are down 3-0 in the seven-game series to the Kings and can't afford another loss, but they're losing at home in Game 4 with just one period remaining.

After a first period that saw three different scores, neither team was able to notch a goal in the second period. After the Kings had a 10-4 advantage on shots in the first period, the Blues responded in the second period with a huge 13-3 differential in shots on goal, but they couldn't find that game-tying score.

Now, the Blues are looking at a one-goal deficit with just 20 minutes remaining on their season. After posting the second-best record in the Western Conference during the regular season, being swept by the No. 8 seed would have to be considered a major disappointment. Right now, things may be going in that direction.

Kings Vs. Blues, 2012 NHL Playoffs Game 4: L.A. Leads 2-1 After 1st Period

2012-05-06T20:08:13Z

The St. Louis Blues are trying to avoid being swept, but they're trailing 2-1 to the Los Angeles Kings after one period of play on Sunday afternoon. The Blues are down 3-0 in the seven-game series and they've lost each game of the series so far by two or more goals.

The two teams alternated scores in the first period, with L.A. striking first pretty early. Just a few minutes into the game, Jordan Nolan got a shot by the Blues' Brian Elliott for his first goal of the series:

After that mistake allowed the Kings to take a 1-0 lead, the Blues followed up with a game-tying goal from Kevin Shattenkirk:

That was his first of the series, an impressive shot past Los Angeles goaltender Jonathan Quick, but the Blues wouldn't hold the lead for long. Dustin Brown scored his fifth goal of the series minutes later to put L.A. back up, now 2-1. The Kings had a 10-4 shot advantage during the period, as well, so the Blues still have a good deal of work to do.

2012 NHL Playoffs, Kings Vs. Blues Game 4: Game Time, TV Coverage And More

2012-05-06T17:37:19Z

It's win or go home time for the St. Louis Blues today. Despite dominating the San Jose Sharks in round one, the Blues haven't been themselves in round two -- or perhaps in the Kings they just found a team that's better at being the Blues than the Blues are. LA's been out-defending the Blues by a huge margin, and it shows in the game scores. After Thursday night's 4-2 loss in which Chris Stewart of all people scored the only two goals, the Blues have found themselves in a hole that very few teams have managed to get out of.

The last time a team rebounded from being down 3-0 in a series was in 2010, when the Philadelphia Flyers stunned the Boston Bruins to win four games in a row and the series. Have the Blues won four games in a row this season? Multiple times. Were they playing better hockey then than they are now? Absolutely. It's going to be tough to win when minimal effort is being shown on the ice.

This has been a tough series to watch, and it'll be a tough game to watch today if the Blues don't get in gear. Coach Ken Hitchcock is hoping some lineup changes could work. You almost have to move pieces around to drive home the message. If they haven't figured out that they absolutely need to win tonight, the Blues deserve to lose. Here's hoping that they give the fans what they deserve -- a chance to see the team at least one more time on ice in the Scottrade Center.

Today's game will air at 2:00 Central Time on NBC.

Stanley Cup Playoffs 2012, Kings Vs. Blues: SI's Adrian Dater Impressed By A Surging Kings Team

2012-05-04T15:45:21Z

The Los Angeles Kings failed to inspire confidence during the regular season and barely made the 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs as the No. 8 seed, but since then their games have been full of successes. They grabbed firm control of their series against the St. Louis Blues with a 4-2 win in Game 3 on Thursday and put the St. Louis Blues are on the brink of elimination in their best-of-seven series and now the Kings have a chance to close things out on Sunday at home in Game 4. Adrian Dater of Sports Illustrated knows things didn't exactly go well during the season, but now he's convinced things have turned and the Kings are in play to win the Stanley Cup by making the final four:

It was so easy to want to lose faith in the Los Angeles Kings all season long. Words such as "underachievers", "disappointments" and "#$%@!$%" were applied to the Kings in a regular season that saw the coach get fired and the captain nearly traded.

...But when the Kings got into the playoffs -- backed in that is -- the same rule applied to them as any other team that makes it: get a hot goalie, get a couple guys that suddenly develop hot sticks, and you can win the damn thing.

The sold-out crowd of 18,362 fanned their team with hosannas when the clock ticked to all zeros. The Kings look like they're going to the final four.

Never a doubt, right?