Written by Chris Hine at Chicago Tribune.com
While the Blackhawks were reveling in a road playoff victory Friday night, a 3-2 win over the Blues that came after two replay challenges went in the Hawks’ favor, the Blues were a few feet away under the stands at the Scottrade Center trying to explain what happened and how they felt about officials overturning Vladimir Tarasenko’s goal because of offsides on center Jari Lehtera and upholding Andrew Shaw’s power-play goal in the third period after the Blues challenged contending interference.
How they felt depended on whom you asked. Coach Ken Hitchcock had one of the strongest statements:
“When you play the defending Cup champions you’re going to have to fight through a lot of stuff,” Hitchcock said. “Calls aren’t going to go your way. It’s always going to seem one-sided. … Big deal. Fight through it. If we expect to beat Chicago we’re going to have to fight through more than just Chicago. They’re a hell of a hockey club. They’ve got a lot of information on how to win. If we expect to beat them we’re going to have to be better in a lot of elements and know we’re going to get calls that aren’t going to go our way.”
Hitchcock is implying that because the Hawks are defending champions, they may be getting the benefit of the doubt on some goals. Anybody that saw Hawks coach Joel Quenneville’s 14-seconds replay system diatribe from February would know the Hawks probably disagree with Hitchcock’s sentiments.
Goaltender Brian Elliott said that the reviews and their results in and of themselves did not cost the Blues the game.
“We’ve got to put ourselves in a position where those calls don’t make or break the game,” Elliott said. “I don’t know what the rules are any more, every play is so different.”
Winger Ryan Reaves said he wasn’t sure whether Lehtera was offsides but thought officials should have waved off Shaw’s goal.
“The goalie interference I thought it was interference. I thought the pad was getting pushed before the puck was going toward the net. The refs see it differently.”
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