This one's going to hurt a long while in St. Louis.
The Blues' season ended Wednesday night after the San Jose Sharks eliminated the Western Conference finalists in six games to advance to the Stanley Cup Final, and tears were shed.
"I see the devastation in our locker room right now," head coach Ken Hitchcock said in his postgame presser. "Guys aren't even able to speak. I'm more worried about our guys right now, to be honest with you. We got some guys that are pretty shook up right now, so ...
"They need their space with each other. They've bonded together better than any team I've coached in 10 years."
Hitchcock said a postmortem won't take place for a couple of days, once the shock wears off.
"We'll talk at an appropriate time. But right now they need to be with each other," the coach said.
Steen and Pietrangelo had a tough time talking about it because of how close they came. Hurts more than past three years. #stlblues
— Lou Korac (@lkorac10) May 26, 2016
Captain David Backes was especially emotional after the loss when he met the media, especially so as he recounted a story about teammate Steve Ott and how tight the Blues were as a group.
"(Ott) will kill me for telling you this story," Backes said, according to NHL.com's Lou Korac, "but Game 5 I'm not feeling well. Ott brings me something to help me feel better. Knowing that he's the guy coming out of the lineup if I can play. That's pretty selfless, and that's the kind of guys we have in here."
I've covered David Backes since he's been in St. Louis and first time I've seen him break down in tears. These guys knew how close they were
— Lou Korac (@lkorac10) May 26, 2016
