Hopefully, the mainstream sports media can now accept that the Boston Bruins are not magically on another qualitative level than the St. Louis Blues. They’re not. That’s not how things work in the National Hockey League and particularly between two teams that have made it this far. It’s why there hasn’t been a sweep in the Stanley Cup Finals since Scotty Bowman’s 1998 Detroit Red Wings swept the Washington Capitals in 1998. Interesting, that was the fourth consecutive Stanley Cup Finals sweep and fifth in seven years. But it hasn’t happened since. Only four series since then ended in five games with a team winning 4-1. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Blues concern after Game 1 was that they weren’t playing disciplined hockey. St. Louis still had more penalties than Boston and gave up a power play goal but otherwise completely outplayed the Bruins in every phase of the game. The Bruins did block more shots but that likely has as much to do with the Blues 37-23 shots on goal advantage than anything else. St. Louis was definitely not intimidated in Game 2 and were hitting Boston all over the ice with a 50-21 hits advantage. Overall, it’s not apparent if the Blues really did play a more disciplined game in Game 2 but since they were just better than Boston it didn’t matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The series now shifts to St. Louis and the Enterprise Center. Unlike basketball, where home court advantage is often a big deal it’s usually not in the NHL. The good teams can win at home and on the road. St. Louis was a decent home team this year (24-15-2) but Boston was a good road team (20-15-6). The matchups, stats, trends, etc. that we discussed before the previous two games have changed very little. Blues’ forward Oskar Sundqvist will miss Game 3 due to a suspension handed down by the NHL for a crushing hit on Boston defenseman Matt Grzelcyk. Grzelcyk is in concussion protocol. Sundqvist is a very solid player and one of the Blues’ best defensive forwards but they should be able to deal with his short term absence. Forward Robert Thomas will likely still be out but defenseman Vince Dunn is close to returning after missing five games following a puck to his face. There have been some indications that St. Louis might use the Sundqvist absence to dress 7 defenseman for Game 3. Overall, the Blues have good depth throughout the roster so they should be OK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n