I'm watching Rask become Rask. Barring some kind of unlikely cover by his teammates, he's not going to lead the Bruins to the Stanley Cup because he can't. Look at last night's game - he gives up a soft goal in the first minute and the Bruins are chasing right out of the gate. The Bruins tie the game on a gift shorty and he coughs up the lead on ... a rebound. All three goals come on rebounds.
Then after the game he gave incredulous comments about how the Blues "wanted it more" than the Bruins. Not untrue, but hell, you have be motivated to try harder than the other team in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals?
I'm not saying the Blues didn't deserve to win the game. I'm saying this is the type of game an elite goaltender steals. Rask's ballwashers go on about how how much of an advantage the Bruins have in net during the series, but here we are - tied at 2-2.
Rask has stolen nothing in this post-season. He spent the first six games of the first round being outplayed by Fredrik Andersson, until he beat the lower-seeded Maple Leafs at home. Then the Bruins beat two teams that were lucky to make the playoffs.
Like Game 4, Game 2 of this series was the kind an elite goalie wins. Rask gives up a goal in overtime on a shot at the point from a defenseman. 
Congratulations, Blues. They're going to win the Stanley Cup because sooner or later Tuukka Rask will always become the Tin Man. 

forsberg_us wrote:

Rask shuts out the Blues in Game 5

The Tuukka-est scenario is he shuts out the Blues in Game 5, gives up a soft goal to lose Game 6 in overtime and sits out Game 7 with a strained fingernail.

Pretty big game here

Predictably, all the focus is on the officials not calling Bozak for the trip on Acciardi, but so what? Bad calls happen. Ask Las Vegas. Tie up the puck, re-gather (Thanks, Doc) your composure and keep playing. 

I don't know where Cassidy is coming from with this "black eye for the league" nonsense. It was a bad call. The officials didn't dominate the Bruins in the faceoff circle. The Blues did that. The officials haven't taken the Bruins' top line out of the series. The Blues have done that in the last two games.
The series has been remarkably focused on hockey. Perron can maybe stop trying to end Krug, and he can certainly shut his piehole, but at some point it's up to the Bruins to make him aware of that. That's where the Bruins may miss Kevan Miller, who by this point would have stood up to Perron and Maroon, but the Bruins have learned by now not to count on Kevan Miller's health.
But the bottom line is the Bruins for the past decade have relied on a goaltender who lacks the courage, will and intelligence to lead their team. And that's not going to change on Sunday or Wednesday.

JV wrote:

EDIT: I was writing this when Artie posted. I'll leave it anyway.

It's been a great series and relatively controversy-free until last night's "non-call". I was hoping the Blues could hold the two goal lead so the non-call wouldn't be as big a deal. But that would have been too easy.

I missed Berube's complaints after Game 3. Was he as hard on the officials as Cassidy was last night? Was there any merit to Cassidy's charge that Berube "changed the narrative" and basically talked the refs into a Game 5 (not even Game 4) non-call? Seems a little over the top but since the resulting goal was the difference in the outcome I can understand them being royally pissed. But was he justified in calling the league and refs out like that?

Sorry Artie; I guess it was too much to expect this SCF to be without rancor. At least it wasn't a nasty, dirty hit a la Tom Wilson so the anger is focused on the officials and the teams still seem to respect each other.

Berube's post-game 3 comment was in response to someone's question about the number of penalties the Blues had taken in the first 3 games and he said something like, "I'm not sure what's happened.  We were the least penalized team in the playoffs coming into the series, but something seems to have changed.  I don't agree with all of the calls that have been made."

He certainly wasn't as pointed as Cassidy was last night.  It was a subtle dig to say he thought Boston was getting favorable officiating.  Quite honestly, I'm not sure he was wrong, but I'm a bit biased.

 

I will not gloat. I know this one hurts for one of the few members of this board. It was a crazy playoff season. All of the top seeds dropped immediately and that opened this thing up. I hope Artie can appreciate the ride and understand how bad Blues fans wanted/needed this win.

And for the sake of all of us who share a loyalty to the Cardinals, I hope this puts the focus on the Cardinals. The Blues owner spent money. They made trades. They took risks. It resulted in a championship. Not merely making the playoffs, but a title. The balls in your court Moz. Do something or this City will quickly become a hockey town.

I couldnt believe the pace they played at last night.  Blues deffinatly wanted it.

APIAD wrote:

I saw the ball park was full last night and im sure bBP village was nut to butt.  Wonder how much money dewitt made off another team being successful?

18,000 were at the Enterprise Center. Another 25,000-30,000 at Busch and probably 5,000 at BPV.

It’s estimated that 1.5 M people attended the parade/rally yesterday. The entire Blues TV market is listed at 2.8 M.