Whether it was gamesmanship or true frustration, Ken Hitchcock was talking about not getting calls after Game 2. He was left stupefied by some early whistles in Game 3.
A scrum took place between the St. Louis Blues and Chicago Blackhawks, yet it wasn’t an even takeaway. The Blackhawks ultimately received a power play opportunity, and they cashed in almost immediately.
It’s difficult to tell why the Blackhawks received a man advantage from that altercation, but you can judge for yourself in the video above.
This Brent Seabrook goal was something else, and certainly feeds into various storylines:
Jay Bouwmeester followed that frustration up by taking consecutive penalties: one for a “can-opener” maneuver and another for touching the puck as he left the penalty box.
Those two calls on Bouwmeester might have been accurate in a vacuum, yet they likely only made the Blues and their fans feel more frustrated.
Long story short, there’s plenty of drama early on. It will be interesting to see how this game goes after the Blues survived a trying start.
Update: Fittingly, the Blues scored a power-play goal mere moments into their first chance.