One of the questions for the St. Louis Blues heading into this opening round series against the Chicago Blackhawks is how would their young players, like 20-year old Robby Fabbri perform?
Fabbri scored 18 goals during the season and finished this series with one goal, four assists and a +3 rating. Not only his assist, but his play in the neutral zone was the turning point of Game 7.
The scoring sequence started when Hawks defenseman Erik Gustafsson brought the puck out of the Hawks zone. As he tried to move left around Fabbri, he was checked and lost the puck. Blues defenseman Alex Pietrangelo came over the center line and pitched the puck back into the Hawks’ zone.
Gustafsson was tied up with Fabbri outside the blue line and Paul Stastny was able to race to the loose puck. Brent Seabrook peeled off Stastny and Gustafsson was late in getting back to Stastny. He passed from the near boards in the middle towards Fabbri. With Seabrook in between him and the goal, Fabbri had the presence of mind to find Brouwer who was parked out in front of the net which led to the scramble and go-ahead goal.
I was watching the Fox Sports feed of the game, and didn’t hear Pierre McGuire of NBC sports, but on this replay, he broke the play down perfectly.