Okay, so the handshake line didn’t go quite the way we wanted it to. But at the very least, it came at the end of an extremely intense, hard-fought, and close – six of the seven games were decided by just one goal – series. If you have to go out in the first round, at least it stayed intense until the very end.
And though it was Troy Brouwer, the former Chicago Blackhawk that scored the series-winning goal, it’s still nice to see him in the handshake line. With so many playoff series between the St. Louis Blues and the Hawks, there’s some animosity built up there; Brouwer’s pretty new to the other side of the rivalry, though, and clearly still has buddies on the team.
The best part of the handshake line, however, undoubtedly went to two Russians: Artemi Panarin and Vladimir Tarasenko.
Tarasenko and Panarin pic.twitter.com/eF013gVR1H
— Stephanie (@myregularface) April 26, 2016
And a reminder that the Hawks did win one thing: Panarin. Because Tarasenko knew Panarin, had played with him before, and really, really wanted the Blues to pick him up…
Hitchcock on Tarasenko: “He told us the day he got here about Panarin. At least once a month. … We all look a little dumb right now.”
— Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) April 15, 2016
… but it was ultimately the Hawks who got him, leading to that very bittersweet moment in the handshake line.