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BRIDGESTONE NHL WINTER CLASSIC GAME: BLACKHAWKS VS BLUESJanuary 2, 2017Jake AllenAlex PietrangeloVladimir TarasenkoSt. Louis, Missouri Chicago - 1, St. Louis - 4 Q. Vlad, what you had going for you in the third period, just is incredible. First of all, you have a break away which Crawford stopped, then you hit the post, then you bounced one off the Chicago player, and then finally, score another one. Take us through those plays and how that all evolved for you. VLADIMIR TARASENKO: It wasn't on purpose, so. The second one, my line just created a good chance for me and it's really important win for us and I'm excited about my goals. We have a great team, we have a great goalie, and we really needed those two points, especially against Chicago. Q. Vladimir, how did it feel when you scored that goal? Could you sense the excitement in the crowd? VLADIMIR TARASENKO: No, crowd was too far away. Yeah. When we can hear the noise, and the fireworks, and then especially when all our families are in the building. And like I said, it's really a great win for us, and I think everyone played our best today. Q. Pietra, can you discuss the atmosphere, the moment, this perhaps once in a lifetime for you as a captain of the St. Louis Blues? ALEX PIETRANGELO: It's pretty cool. Obviously, being the captain, being able to have the first Winter Classic is a huge honor. I mean, I speak for these guys and everybody else, I think the first real awe was yesterday in practice, having our family on the bench and the family skate afterwards was, that was pretty cool. We're lucky we had that, kind of got the emotional side out of the way. And when the game got going is just pretty much felt like a normal game for us, I think. Obviously a little bit different. But you get so into the game and playing against our biggest rival it's just business as usual. But I think after the game when you stop and take a look, we salute the crowd, I don't know about these guys, but it's probably the coolest thing I've been a part of. Q. Talk about the ice conditions, how it changed from the first to third period. A couple of the Hawks mentioned it. It was starting to deteriorate for the goalies especially in the third. ALEX PIETRANGELO: First was tough, obviously, with the rain. That was -- it was tough when sticks get wet, everything's puddling around. But I think once the rain stopped second period, everything froze over. It actually wasn't too bad. Boards weren't quite as lively as they normally are, but pretty impressive the way they can get the ice in that condition. Didn't really feel all that different from normal. A few bumps here and there, but overall, I think it was good enough. A lot of guys were able it make plays and no complaints. Q. Jake, what was the vision like with the fans being so much further away from the playing surface as they are, say in the Scott trade center or other NHL arenas? JAKE ALLEN: I thought it was a lot easier to see pucks than most arenas. Because as a goalie, a lot of arenas are, seats are either dark or different colors or different shades of blue, and usually a lot of shots get blended in with seats. And to be honest, today, I thought it was pretty easy to see pucks, me and Hut even said that yesterday in practice and overall, it was nice. And overall, it was good out there. Q. Vlad, did you have a lot of family here today, did you have anyone come from Russia over for this game? And how did this compare to those, you were talking about those morning practices where it was minus 25, it was still good enough to practice? VLADIMIR TARASENKO: Yes, my family was here, but nobody comes from Russia. So we have a couple friends here and like Pietra said, we're, like, I'm expecting very worst ice, so the people did a really good job and it was really a cool experience for us. Q. Vladimir, if you remember the things you have done in your career, where do you think this ranks being how big the stage was and what you were able to do here? VLADIMIR TARASENKO: I don't think you can rank this more. It was just different. A different experience than what we have, maybe, once in a lifetime and there is no way to rank it. It's just to say that it's really cool and I was really happy to win tonight, especially to make all our Blues fans happy here. And it was probably the most, best feeling when you win the game. And now you can go and hang out with the families and get it done. So, thanks fans for support and it was really good. Q. Jake, I know coach is going to come in here and say that this was a playoff game. So with that being the case, how big was it to get Vladi's second and make it 3-1 against a team like Chicago? JAKE ALLEN: Yeah, you know, their skill set and their history and the their ability to come back late in games, for Vladi to get that third one and just give us a little bit more space, a little bit more breathing room. It was, we had a chance to get a fourth one there, but we had the puck in the crease and could have put it in the empty net. And then Steener sealed the deal. So even though you're up 3-1, it's still a tight game and with their ability over on that squad, so that was huge. And then, obviously, just the empty netter made us to be able to enjoy that last minute that much more. Q. Alex, you guys have been in so many of these games lately where the game's been in the balance in the third period. What tilted it in your favor today? And did you feel like as a defensive group, you were able to limit their fire power and how were you able to do that? ALEX PIETRANGELO: Jake, obviously, was fantastic again. I think we did a good job as a group of six back there limiting the second opportunities, that was something that we made sure of. You could see the bounces, you didn't know what was going to happen, a little unpredictable, you look at that first one. So that was a bit of an eye opener for us and really the goal was to limit the amount of pucks that they were going to get to the net. I thought we did a pretty good job and when we didn't do our job, Jakey was there. So stuck with the game plan. I mean, I said it to you guys all year, it's been a bit of an issue. And any time you got Vladi on your team, usually helps. He's able to take over the game for us and shut them down after that. Q. Jake, there were a couple of interesting plays where it seemed like you found yourself underneath the puck to catch it, kind of like an infielder would in baseball. Did you find that kind of interesting those two plays presented themselves. I think one was behind the net. JAKE ALLEN: Yeah, it was like Alex and Vladi says, it was a little bit bouncy out there and a little bit unpredictable at times and I think my objective today was just to slow the game down as much as I could and freeze as many pucks as I could. And those ones that were high up in the air and I could sort of tell no one was going to go up and grab it, so I figured I would take it out of play and we were down in the batting cages yesterday throwing some balls around, so that might have helped. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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