If the St. Louis Blues are going to get back into their series with the Los Angeles Kings after falling behind 2-0, quite a bit needs to change. With Alex Pietrangelo’s health in question and Jaroslav Halak out for the series, much of the weight will fall on captain David Backes - one of the best (if least publicized) power forwards in the NHL.
Backes told Jeremy Rutherford that the team’s adjustments will be more about intangible changes than anything Ken Hitchcock can draw up on a chalkboard.
“We’ve got some looking in the mirror to do, some regrouping,” Backes said. “We need to make some changes so that we’re better. I think X’s and O’s and film, we’ve done that to death. It’s about intestinal fortitude and coming together as a group.”
Good stuff. By the way, memo to whoever first uttered the phrase “intestinal fortitude": kudos to you. If you never uttered that phrase, we’d all be one well-worn cliche poorer.
Update: Lou Korac presents a director’s cut of the Backes quote that I cannot help but pass along and paraphrase.
“It’s about intestinal fortitude and coming together as a group, going to the hard areas and showing some cojones.”
Not literally, of course.
