With a 3-2 defeat at the hands of a desperate but nonetheless outgunned St. Louis Blues crew, apologists may rain bouquets down on their red-clad beloved.
But pay no mind, the Chicago Blackhawks weren’t mystically flat after an eight-game road trip, at least not with plenty of time to reacclimate and rest up for a team they’d utterly demolished by a six-goal pad over two prior games.
“We had three days off to get ready,” defenseman Brian Campbell said. “We got sloppy.”
Coach Joel Quenneville wasn’t falling into the “trap,” either. “You can call it a ‘trap game,’” he said, with some dubiousness, before allowing that “the first game back [from a long trip] is always a challenging game.”
In fact, before David Backes turned into a one-man wrecking crew (tallying the Lou’s first two goals) it was the Redshirts who were the bruisers. The Blackhawks’ assault came quick, as Troy Brouwer, Dustin Byfuglien, and Brent Seabrook flattened Blues in the first minute of play, with no one picking up the phone on St. Louis’ end.