Bruins' Carlo: St. Louis newspaper blunder 'put a fire in us'

The Boston Bruins were well-aware of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch accidentally anointing the Blues as Stanley Cup champions, and defenseman Brandon Carlo says his club used it as motivation.

"We saw it," he told WBZ after Boston forced Game 7 with a 5-1 win in Game 6 of the Cup Final. “(It) put a fire in us for sure. We don't like that kind of stuff. We don't want that to happen in Boston by any means. We're focused on the next shift and going from there, not focused on winning or losing. Just focused on the next shift and working our asses off."

On Sunday, mere hours before Game 6 and with St. Louis holding a 3-2 series lead, the Post-Dispatch prematurely published ads in its subscriber-only online edition congratulating the Blues on a Stanley Cup championship.

Fellow Boston blue-liner Torey Krug said Monday that the error was hard to miss "because it was everywhere," according to The Athletic's Fluto Shinzawa, who reported that printouts of the ads were made available for the players to read.

The newspaper apologized shortly after the mistake began circulating.

Boston has seen this before. The City of Vancouver reportedly planned a Stanley Cup victory parade before the Bruins defeated the Canucks in Game 7 back in 2011.