"The Blues were on the ice for about 45 minutes this morning at HP Pavilion, but interestingly they didn't spend any time working on their 5-on-1 rush. If you haven't seen it, click on the "Related Video" above and watch the Blues fail to score on an "odd-man" rush in Thursday's 4-0 victory over the Los Angeles Kings. They didn't even get a decent shot on net and wound up giving the Kings' Alexei Ponikarovsky a subsequent breakaway. Because goalie Jaroslav Halak was able to turn aside Ponikarovsky's shot, and because the Blues left with a win, however, they were able to laugh it off this morning. "What was funny about it ... as a rush develops, the bench is usually calling out to the puck carrier what's happening," Blues coach Davis Payne said. "It went from, 'Hey, you've got two, three, four, and then someone goes FIVE.' Then there was a quick realization that if this doesn't go in the net, we're on the wrong side of things here." As you see in the video, L.A. creates a 4-on-2 rush, but the Blues forced a turnover. Kevin Shattenkirk came up with the puck and pushed it ahead to Adam Cracknell, who leads it ahead to Patrik Berglund. "I saw so many guys in front of me that I thought, 'I'll just change,' Cracknell said. "Right when I changed, I looked at our whole bench and everyone was just pointing, 'Go.' (Ryan) Reaves was already on the ice and he was changing for me. So we both looked at each other like a deer in headlights. We both stopped, then went, then we both stopped. And then I just pushed him to get going." So now the Blues are on a 5-on-1. Berglund came across the blueline with the puck and sent a cross-ice pass to Roman Polak - yes Roman Polak. "There's probably some guys on that 5-on-1 that are good options for the puck and there are some others," Payne said. Nonetheless, Polak had the puck before feeding it to Chris Stewart, whose shot had zero mustard on it and was easily turned aside by Kings goalie Jonathan Quick. " Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/sports/hockey/professional/article_354ca848-5272-11e0-8eb2-00127992bc8b.html
