David Backes

The Blues were predicted by many national outlets to play in the Stanley Cup finals. As it turns out, the club won't even play in the Western Conference semifinals. The Blues were either grossly overrated or they severely underachieved. Their first-...

Defenseman Robyn Regehr’s face is a road map of the Kings’ playoff series against the St. Louis Blues. His nose, broken in Game 1 when he was hit in the face twice by David Backes’ skate boot, was again swollen on Friday because he...

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Mouth agape, Ken Hitchcock struggled to process the buzzer-beater that crushed the St. Louis Blues' season. Goalie Brian Elliott sank to his knees in disbelief. For the second straight playoffs, the Blues finished with four...

Blues 2, Kings 1 The Blues followed their script perfectly for 59 1/2 minutes. They swarmed the Kings and forced turnover after turnover. The delivered big hits all over the ice and wore down the LA defense. "They played a warp-speed game," Kings...

The entire St. Louis community did not travel to and from Los Angeles, but the hockey-loving part of it has serious jet lag right now. How could something so promising, so exciting disintegrate so rapidly? It took The Arena longer to implode than it...

When one of the St. Louis Blues' lines is struggling, coach Ken Hitchcock knows he can provide an instant jolt of energy by inserting winger T.J. Oshie. "Wherever we put him, that line plays the right way," Hitchcock said of Oshie, who has been...

Chris Porter finally was in the right place at the right time. Most people probably thought the 28-year-old Porter would be on the opening-night roster when the Blues started the 2012-13 season. But things never have come easy for Porter in his NHL...

LOS ANGELES -- Years from now, Los Angeles Kings fans will fondly recall the 53-foot goal that Dustin Penner scored just ahead of the buzzer ending the second period of Game 6 in the first round of the playoffs against the St. Louis Blues on Friday night....

The disappointment level for Blues' fans in the playoffs continues to have no boundaries. After the excitement of a two-game lead in their best-of-seven Western Conference quarterfinal series against LA, the Blues bowed out of the postseason Friday...

Dustin Penner's long shot from the left wing with two-tenths of a second remaining in the second period Friday gave the Los Angeles Kings a 2-1 victory over the St. Louis Blues, clinching the first-round playoff series for the Kings. The shot...

I'll elaborate with more opinions and thoughts in Sunday's Post-Dispatch and here online at STLtoday .... but for now, here are some quick-take reactions to the Blues' season-ending 2-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings: 1. For years now, various management...

An unfortunate sequence of events led to the Los Angeles Kings' game-winning goal in overtime of Game 5 against the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday. The play began when Kings' forward Dustin Brown poked the puck loose from Blues' center David Backes. Brown...