San Jose stole game 1 in St. Louis.
A late third period goal, and survival mode for most of the first overtime, the Sharks came out fresh and determined in overtime #2 and schooled the Blues in their own end until the puck was in the back of the net.
It wasn't very difficult to figure out the Sharks were cycling and wearing the defense down until the Blues got tired, couldn't clear the puck (Kevin Shattenkirk) and backed off on defense, giving the Sharks more than enough room to move around and set up a one-timer to win the game.
The game should have never gone to overtime. It was the Blues who collapsed late in the third, let in a game-tying goal and tried way too hard to generate some offense the rest of the game.
It was San Jose who kept it simple, threw pucks on net and had the best scoring chances in overtime. The Sharks are in the playoffs every single year, they have veterans who know what it takes to score, and who know that to score in sudden death overtime, you don't need to do anything special, you just need to throw the puck on net and hope for a bounce.
The Blues were being too cute in overtime. Their defense men were throwing the puck around the boards from the point, but what they SHOULD have been doing is throwing EVERYTHING on goal and crashing the net hoping a rebound would squirt loose. Antti Niemi gave up some golden rebounds in overtime and there was not a single Blues player to bury the rebound into an empty net.
While all the TV analysts may praise the Blues for a strong and consistent regular season, the truth is, the Blues have been very inconsistent their last 10 games to end the regular season, and they STILL don't look like the Blues that were dominating teams and rolling over opponents all season long.
Ken Hitchcock better work his magic before game 2, or else the Blues may find themselves in a deep hole heading to San Jose, in jeopardy of having a repeat of 2000, when the President's trophy winning team was taken down by Owen Nolan, Mike Ricci and the Sharks.
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