Don Cherry has never been shy about his nostalgia for the rough-and-tumble style of the Big Bad Boston Bruins that he coached in the 1970s.
And when the St. Louis Blues executed the dump and chase to perfection to open the scoring in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final against the Bruins on Monday, Cherry was overjoyed.
“That’s how you play the game,” he said on the Coach’s Corner segment on Hockey Night in Canada.
“Listen: Yes, but you give up possession of the puck,” said Cherry, mocking a popular refrain in the hockey analytics community.
“Yes, I heard that. I heard that. Over, and over, and over and over again. Don’t you understand, you don’t give it up, you put it in the net.”
The Blues’ first goal was scored by Brayden Schenn after teammate Jaden Schwartz deftly fired the puck from his own zone into the corner of the Bruins’ end so that Vladimir Tarasenko could beat out Boston’s Zdeno Chara for the icing.
The Blues kept possession and it eventually resulted in Schenn’s marker.
“That’s how you play the game,” said Cherry.
“Must’ve been a nightmare to play us like that, and that’s the way to play it,” he said reflecting on his years behind the Bruins’ bench.
Cherry also admonished Boston defenceman Charlie McAvoy for firing a long-distance shot from the blue-line on Blues goalie Jordan Binnington.
“Binnington loves getting a feel of the puck, because you get in the game,” he said.
“If you’re going to shoot it, shoot it hard.”
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