Ed Belfour not only accepted his backup`s role in Game 3 Wednesday night, the goalie welcomed Dominik Hasek`s start as a chance to take a deep breath.
”I`ve been tired the last couple days,” said Belfour, who allowed four goals on 11 shots in the Blues` 5-3 victory in Game 2. ”Maybe after the long layoff, you come back and hit a conditioning peak and fall off a little.”
Belfour had an easy workout Wednesday morning. Hasek and Jimmy Waite handled the workload.
Keenan said he thought Belfour had performed poorly in Tuesday`s practice.
– Keenan returned defenseman Frantisek Kucera to the lineup Wednesday after scratching him in Game 2. Kucera`s failure to stand up better to the Blues`
physical tactics prompted Keenan`s to yank him out of the lineup and go with Bryan Marchment.
”Frankie has to learn to deal with it,” Keenan said. ”So what if a Sutter gives you a black eye; who gives a darn?”
Rich Sutter tried to intimidate Kucera last week in the teams` final regular-season meeting. He whacked him in the face. Keenan didn`t want Kucera to retaliate in the playoffs, but he wanted to see him play hard in the face of adversity.
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