Blues beat the Blackhawks 5-1 and much more

First thing's first, the Blackhawks lost tonight. They played the Blues in St. Louis and the Blues played a great game. They did everything that you want a hockey team to do in a game. They played good defense, got a couple gimme goals, got a power play goal, and got a shorthanded goal. Halak was outstanding in goal and the only goal he allowed was a nice redirect by Andrew Brunette who was alone in front of the net.

Now that I've established the nice game the Blues have, let's look at the play by the Blackhawks. None of the forwards looked especially good. Hossa and Kane were trying to show off their moves so much that they ended up turning the puck over quite a few times. Sharp was extremely unlucky multiple times. The biggest problem that stuck out to me was either the terrible defense by Dylan Olsen or the bad goaltending by Ray Emery.

I'll start with Emery. The first goal was extremely weak and set the tone for the rest of the game. If he makes that stop, maybe the outcome of this game is different. Then he gives up a weak goal on the Blackhawks power play which gives the Blues a 3-0 lead. Finally, in the last 30 seconds a Blues player has the puck in front of the net and Emery doesn't even try to make the save. At least show some effort. That wasn't very veteran-like of him to just turn and look at the puck as it went straight into the net.

Olsen was another big problem for the Hawks tonight. I have never thought that he was ready for the NHL, but tonight just insured that I was correct in feeling that way. His first mistake was terrible defense on the Blues PPG and actually kicking the puck in during that play. There were no other major mistakes, but plenty of minor ones. A couple bad plays at the point and some mishandled pucks made him look like an amateur out there, which he is. I don't think he should be in the NHL, but I don't hate him. Give him another couple years in Rockford and then let me see what he can do.

The final thing I want to address about the game is the fight between Bollig and Reaves. We all knew that Bollig would get in a fight considering St. Louis is his hometown and fighting is what he's known for. The fight was probably the best fight I've seen in awhile. It lasted really long and despite Reaves being a great fighter, I'd have to say that Bollig won.

Aside from just commenting on the game, I have some other things to say. I haven't been blogging as much recently and I have decided that I am going to start being more regular from now on. Going to the game tonight made me realize how much I love hockey and writing, so I decided to come back to blogging. Therefore, don't judge me from this post because it's been awhile since I've written a blog post.