Hughes, projected to be the No. 1 pick in the 2019 NHL Draft in Vancouver on June 21-22, was checking out the stick rack in the Blues locker room in the morning when he came upon O'Reilly's. Hughes could only shake his head at its shape, which he compared to the letter L.
"I have no idea how he can use that thing," Hughes told the handful of fellow prospects who were also in town attending the game.
He does now.
"I couldn't use that thing, it's so stiff," Blues defenseman Vince Dunn said. "But I'm so glad he can."
O'Reilly understandably was selected the game's First Star. The second was Pietrangelo, who played 29:37, had two assists and was a physical presence throughout.
"I've said it before, things don't really seem to faze us," Pietrangelo said. "Obviously, [Game 3] got out of hand and we weren't too proud of that. I felt like last game we actually did start pretty well; the first five, 10 minutes, we just do the same thing.
"We use everybody and put teams on their heels. We get a lot of momentum opportunities from that."