There was blood in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final. And a possible head injury. And plenty of fresh bumps and bruises.
The best-of-seven series between the Boston Bruins and the St Louis Blues has turned decidedly nasty, and it only took two games. If that.
Connor Clifton bloodied the Blues’ Tyler Bozak with a high stick, Oskar Sundqvist knocked the Bruins’ Matt Grzelcyk out of the game by ramming him into the glass and Robert Bortuzzo slashed Boston’s Jake DeBrusk between padding on his left arm before a face-off, leaving him doubled over in pain.
Photo: AP
Former Blues captain David Backes crushed Sammy Blais with an open-ice hit just two nights after helmet-less Torey Krug skated down the ice and leveled the Blues’ Robert Thomas with a body check. Thomas has not played since.
The NHL has consistently emphasized skill and speed of late, but sometimes you can steamroll your way to a playoff victory, which the Blues did 3-2 in overtime Wednesday night to tie the series at a game apiece.
The league still sells hatred, and it did not take long for that to build up between these heavy-hitting teams.
“They’re aggressive, they’re big, they hit well and we’re a big team and we hit, so there’s going to be a lot of chirping, a lot of hitting going, a lot of scrums,” St Louis forward Patrick Maroon said.
At the moment, it is advantage St Louis. The Blues outhustled the Bruins and delivered more blows in grabbing home-ice advantage with Game 3 coming up tomorrow night in St Louis, Missouri.
“I think we’ve been doing that all playoffs, no? It’s just our style,” Sundqvist said.
“That’s how we play and when we do it, we’re good, we’re winning pucks back and we’re creating offense. That’s part of our game,” he added.
Knowing that, Backes said that the Bruins want to “match physicality, stare them in the eyes and go right through it when they’re trying to amp that up and have an answer at times when we have the opportunity to be physical on their guys.”
St Louis were credited with 49 hits in a game filled with aches and pains.
Sundqvist’s hit on Grzelcyk drew a boarding penalty and the Boston defenseman needed help to get off the ice.
Blais and Jaden Schwartz also each ran into goaltender Tuukka Rask and both were whistled for interference.
“We can’t let them push us around,” Bruins defenseman Brandon Carlo said.
“We can’t retaliate after the whistle. They were right on top of us,” he said.
“We kind of felt like whenever we turned around to move up the ice, they were right there, doing a good job with their sticks and playing a little bit more physical than we were,” he added.
However, the Bruins were not shrinking violets. Featuring a blue line with four players 1.83m-tall or shorter, Charlie McAvoy was throwing the body like someone not afraid to hit above his weight class.
The hits continued to take their toll.
St Louis were already without Thomas and defenseman Vince Dunn, and top-line winger Vladimir Tarasenko missed a big chunk of the second period.
Bozak went down the tunnel to close the stick-induced cut on his face, but returned not long after. He was no worse for the wear — just part of the cost of doing business.
The same could not be said for Grzelcyk, who went to a hospital for tests.
Boston, down to five defenseman, appeared to tire late.
“It’s a long series,” Blues defenseman Colton Paryko said.
“Obviously they went down a D-man, and when you have five D-men and you continue to press and press and press, it’s hard for the D-men,” he said. “I thought we did a good job of continuing to do that.”
The Pittsburgh Penguins and the Chicago Blackhawks sped their way to the Stanley Cup in recent years. The Blues are looking to follow in the heavy tracks of past champions like the Los Angeles Kings and the Washington Capitals, who pounded their opponents on the way to the title.
After earning the first playoff victory in franchise history by turning the Bruins black and blue, the Blues found a recipe that could lead to the first championship.
“We’ve just got to continue hitting,” Maroon said. “That’s our team.”
The next generation of running talent takes center stage at today’s Berlin Marathon, in the absence of stars including Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge and Ethiopian world record holder Tigist Assefa. With most of the major marathon stars skipping the event in the wake of the Paris Olympics just more than a month ago, the field is wide open in the men’s and women’s races. Since 2015, Kipchoge has won five times in Berlin, Kenenisa Bekele has won twice and Guye Adola once — with all three missing today. Kenyan Kibiwott Kandie and Ethiopian Tadese Takele are among the favourites for the men, while
Japan’s Shohei Ohtani is the record-breaking baseball “superhuman” following in the footsteps of the legendary Babe Ruth who has also earned comparisons to US sporting greats Michael Jordan and Tom Brady. Not since Ruth a century ago has there been a baseball player capable of both pitching and hitting at the top level. The 30-year-old’s performances with the Los Angeles Dodgers have consolidated his position as a baseball legend in the making, and a national icon in his native Japan. He continues to find new ways to amaze, this year becoming the first player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases
Zhang Shuai yesterday said that she nearly quit after losing 24 matches in a row — now the world No. 595 is into the quarter-finals of her home China Open. The 35-year-old is to face Spain’s Paula Badosa as the lowest-ranked player to reach this stage in the history of the tournament after Badosa reeled off 11 of the last 12 games in a 6-4, 6-0 victory over US Open finalist Jessica Pegula. Zhang went into Beijing on a barren run lasting more than 600 days and her string of singles defeats was the second-longest on the WTA Tour Open era, which
Taiwan’s Tony Wu yesterday beat Mackenzie McDonald of the US to win the Nonthaburi Challenger IV in Thailand, his first challenger victory since 2022. The 26-year-old world No. 315, who won both his qualifiers to advance to the main draw, has been on a hot streak this month, winning his past nine matches, including two that ensured Taiwan’s victory in their Davis Cup World Group I tie. Wu took just more than two hours to top world No. 172 McDonald 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) to win his second challenger tournament since the Tallahassee Tennis Challenger in 2022. Wu’s Tallahassee win followed two years of
RSS