Written by Rick Morrissey at Chicago Sun Times
The goal light briefly flashed in all its red glory, and then it went dark. The puck had hit not one post, but two, as if to let everyone know that whatever it was that had been haunting the Blues was officially no more.
The shot off the stick of Blackhawks defenseman Brent Seabrook had come with four minutes, five seconds left in the game and the Blues leading 3-2. If there was ever a time for the Hawks to give St. Louis a permanent complex about not being able to get out of the first round of the playoffs, this was it. But, no. The puck played bumper pool on the posts behind Blues goalie Brian Elliott and skittered away.
And with it went the Hawks’ season. The Blues grabbed Game 7 Monday night, the winning goal coming minutes earlier from former Hawk Troy Brouwer, who had taken a swipe or two at the puck before finally jamming it in as he fell over backward.
That’s how it was in a great game in a great series featuring two great teams. Before this descends into the inevitable open season on all that is wrong with a team that once again had championship aspirations, we might want to remember that.
“We had the toughest matchup we could have in the first round,’’ Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said.
“The disappointing thing for fans on both sides is that one of these teams has to go home,’’ Hawks captain Jonathan Toews said. “You’ve got to think that with the confidence they’re going to have coming out of this Game 7 that there’s no reason why they can’t contend all the way to the end. We felt with the way things were trending in our direction toward the end of the series, we obviously felt the same.’’
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