Blues' Backes solid in return
Blues coach Ken Hitchcock had a little something up his sleeve Friday, and he hinted as much following the morning skate when he was asked if injured captain David Backes might be in the lineup for Game 5.
"You never know. Might just jump on the ice and be in there," Hitchcock said. "If he's skating in the warmup, then you can all press 'send' on your tweets and away you go."
Well, away everyone went because Backes was indeed in the lineup and didn't look like he missed a beat in his first game back since taking that huge hit by Brent Seabrook at the end of regualtaion in Game 2.
Backes played just over 19 minutes (28 shifts) in regulation and led all players with 7 hits in the first period and registered 3 hits including, not surprisingly, on Duncan Keith.
An then there was one:
With Marian Hossa getting off the schneid with a goal in the first pperiod, that left Patrick Sharp as the last big gun to tickle the twine for the Hawks.
"I feel like I've had a few good shots on net, but I'm usually used to getting a few more better looks," Sharp said "They're a good defensive team, they clog things up and they make it tough to get to the net.
"You put all that stuff together it's going to be tough to get as many looks as it is in the regular season."
Sharp is far from hitting the panic button.
"No, I'll take all the chances I can get. It means I'm creating something and doing something good out there. Sooner or later they're going to start going in."
He said it:
"Obviously it's fun. It means you did something good for the team. But you can't read too much into it because sometimes you play a game and you don't hear anything."
- Michal Handzus, on the chants of "Zuus" from the UC crowd Wednesday.