Backes feels Seabrook's hit was exception, not norm

David Backes, via In The Slot, spoke with reporters Wednesday as he and the St. Louis Blues cleaned out their lockers and headed into the off-season.

On shaking hands with Blackhawks D Brent Seabrook:

"I don't know if it's out of your mind like it never happened, but our personal conversations will stay personal.

"We've got eight years of playing against each other in a Central Division where we've had some hard-fought battles. You leave a lot of the games with bruised shoulders, wondering if you got hit by a car or not after the games. I think that was more of the exception -- that hit -- and I don't think he feels very good about it. Obviously I wasn't real happy with it.

"Going forward, we're going to compete our butts off. But to look for vindication with a retaliatory type of hit like that, I think those are the types of things we're trying to get out of the game. I'll battle my butt off; like I said, the best way to get them back for something like that is to win a series and send them home. But that wasn't the case and hopefully again, that can add a bit of fuel to the desire to get the best of our division rivals that have had a lot of success in the past."

Source: Lou Korac, In The Slot