Dec. 23: Postgame Interviews

Hear from St. Louis Blues forward Robert Thomas, defenseman Justin Faulk and interim head coach Drew Bannister following a 7-5 comeback win over the Chicago Blackhawks.

Yeah it took everyone uh I mean exciting game um you know we can’t get down like that but um you know what a comeback and what a character win from from everyone um I mean from you know faler Jakey solder hazy getting those two big Power

Play Goals and then you know torpo lays it down and blocks him with his face like um you know it took everyone so it’s an exciting win yeah when you see when you see him go down like that so that’s that’s the kind of effort you guys are looking for right just plays

Little plays like that yeah I mean maybe try and use your body next time but um I mean just an exciting exciting game um you know he deserves a big pat on the back for that it’s a it’s a gutsy play and um you know that’s what it took to

Win tonight and um you know super happy for for his effort down 52 was there a level of belief was there yeah I think great when solder scored I think we really we really felt it um you know we go up the next shift and Cappy draws a

Nice penalty and um you know we score right away on the power play again and um you know that’s huge um you know obviously our power play has been struggling but um you know they really came through for us tonight and um just just an exciting win I just took a peek

And it looked like we had one of our forwards Drive in the middle there uh or both or two I guess and uh yeah I just uh tried laying at the net I think it might have went off the d man stick a bit and uh maybe even Dove down by the

Time it got there but uh got got a break and I think our our group will take that when it’s 5 to two what are you guys thinking as a group there just scratch and Claw find a way um I mean uh obviously it’s not a good

Feeling we we weren’t uh too pleased with with ourselves but uh we were able to get on the power play and uh Power Play came up when we needed to um that’s that’s what you want and just give us a little life and momentum and and go from

There and um you know it’s uh it’s a hard thing to do but you have to you have to stick with it and keep them on their heels if uh if you get a chance and the group did a good job that why I mean I I thought we had a good a

Good start to the third period and obviously we draw the penalty but you know there we had a couple good looks I think we hit the post at one point and then it ends up going down the other way in in the back of our net but um we go

Back out our power play gets to work we draw another penalty we’re able to score on it uh our power play kind of got us momentum we score again on the power play and it seemed from there that we started to you know take control of the

Game um I don’t know I think the shots were 22 to and the you know we we were able to play in the offensive zone and it put a lot of pressure on them and obviously with them playing last night we were able to kind of wear them down I

Think we saw that in the third period was there a second why was your second group as effective on the yeah I I mean I don’t want to say that our first group wasn’t effective I think they had some really good looks um you know but uh you

Know I thought I thought hazy had great patience with the puck on the highfall and made some real good plays um you know obviously that that the tip that that solder at the side of net it’s a highly skilled play it’s a good look um but from there it just you

Know our guys grabbed the momentum they felt you know they felt felt it swing themselves and they just kept going north with pucks and we played behind them and we forced those guys to play D here tonight so you said a good start to the third but was it playing smarter was

It Better Effort what was it uh I just I thought we were more connected you know when we got in on pucks we had numbers around it we shot the puck more there’s there’s no question about that that created some chaos around their blue paint I thought

You know in the second we had some we had some real good looks and there were some looks that we overpassed on you know and I thought in the third we just decided to start putting Puck to the blue blue paint we made some highly skilled plays too but I thought the

Chaos that we created in their end with just getting pucked in net and bodies you know kind of turned the momentum for us FKS go I guess just a perfect example of throw the puck at the net anything that happened yeah I mean um I I didn’t

See the one that Jakey tipped I thought that was directly in but I could you know that one seemed to be a little bit of a knuckle Puck that one that caught the goalie off guard I you know I haven’t I haven’t seen it yet but um but

Again you know it’s good things happen when you put the puck to the net and you know a lot of times it’s not the initial shot it’s what it creates after and I think we saw that tonight want to gete of yourself can that be a type of win

That gives you a pretty good boost and Carries On I mean that’s you know I think the easiest thing in to do is you know we’re we’re down 42 they score to make it 52 short-handed like we could pack it in easily you know and they showed a lot of character coming back

There there there’s no doubt about that and you know uh they got to start you know I think there’s I believe in this team I know that group group believes in them I think tonight kind of solidifies that that regardless of who you are and we

Don’t for us we can’t look at the standings and who we’re playing like for us it’s we have to Win Hockey games and it doesn’t matter who we play every night we come we have to be able to win does that say something too because talking to Soder he said there was

Always the belief even at 4 to2 that you you could still win that game and then give it up another go there so early tough to overcome that it is but I mean you know I think our mindset was just you know try and cut the lead in half

Cut the lead in half as we went into third and you know it didn’t go our way early but we were playing good hockey um and we were playing our game and eventually it started to started to work with us and the guys stuck with it you

Know they they stuck with it you got to give that group in there a lot of credit like like I said the easiest thing to do is just you know finish out the game and you know pack up your bags and go home for Christmas for three days and rally

And try and have a Better Effort the next night but they found a way they dug in um and they deserve a lot of credit for that thato block too there just another example and that’s you know that that that’s typ I don’t want to say typical

Of of him but it was typical of the third period of our group and how we played and you know we did some really good things offensively our power play came through for us and when we needed a block or we needed somebody to sacrifice

Their body guys were there to do it what were your recting words when you talk to them send them off col just I mean you know I know we talked about when I was first coming in as you know making sure that we’re feeling good about ourselves

Going into the break here you know they’ve that group in there has has been through a a tough time here in the last you know week to 10 days with what’s everything that’s gone on and they’ve found a way to dug dig in uh and and play some some really good hockey

There’s obviously still things that we have to correct and get better at but they weld their way to you know a 4-one record over or five games so I think now it’s it’s for them they can they can go home they can enjoy their families they

Can kind of put press a little reset uh take a deep breath and then get back here uh on Wednesday morning and and ready to work because you know January is a tough schedule but I think we’re going to find out a lot about ourselves

I think it’s it’s what we need we need we need hard and you know I think we’re going to rise to the occasion can decompressing now I guess that could be a good thing I think it’s good you know because you know they’re probably in the initial shock to everybody you know so

Now it’s like okay we can take a deep breath and we can decompress and you know enjoy some time with their family which everybody should uh you know enjoy the Christmas uh and then you know the 3 days then kind of reset themselves and back to work what did you think of Bard

Schol have you seen a m yeah I was an elite I mean I’ve I haven’t seen one live to be honest with you uh and I thought that kind of took the window out of our sales at I thought we were playing by I mean we we we scored early

You know and I thought we were playing okay I didn’t think you know we were carrying the game but I thought when that happened it kind of we took a step back and you know from from what we were doing uh I don’t I I don’t know if you

Can defend that like it it it happened so quick and it was clean you know you know B he didn’t he didn’t have a chance you know I I thought we could have been quicker to close when he was behind the net that might have stopped that from happening but that’s that’s a

Really highly skilled player by by a good player you got to give him credit