The Blues' main strategy through three games of the Stanley Cup Final has been to try to hit the Bruins hard and all over the 200-foot rink, and to maybe get in goalie Tuukka Rask's face.
That's led to some penalty troubles.
St. Louis coach Craig Berube didn't cross over into whining about the officiating in the Cup Final on Sunday, but there were probably political reasons he compared the Blues' penalty totals from the first three rounds of the playoffs to the amount of violations they've been charged with in three games against the Bruins.
"Well there's a few things," Berube responded to a press conference question in St. Louis about whether the Bruins were doing something to cause the Blues' lack of discipline. "First of all we were the least-penalized team in the league in the first three rounds, and now all of a sudden we've taken 14 penalties in the one series, so I don't know, I don't buy in to all that to be honest with you.
"I think that we can definitely be more composed after the whistle. I think we've let some frustration get in there where we maybe do too much after the whistle. So we'll clean that up for sure. But like I said we were the least-penalized team in the league coming into this series, so I don't agree with all the calls."
The Blues have given the Bruins 14 power-play opportunities, but have taken 17 penalties in this series. Through their first 19 playoff games the Blues took 55 penalties (2.89 per game).
When asked if inquired with league about what he might think is one-sided officiating, Berube said, "They make calls and they don't really give us explanations why."
Center Brayden Schenn said it's up to the Blues to not get caught up in worrying about the officials, and instead just go play hockey.
"We're not officials, we go out there and we play the game," Schenn said. "So at the end of the day we don't see what they see. At the end of the day you don't have to worry about the officials, you worry about going out there, playing a hockey game and not worry about what the refs are doing."
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