Blues Play Stronger, Still Can’t Defeat Dallas

The St. Louis Blues (21-11-3) lost to the Dallas Stars (15-14-5) 4-3 tonight in St. Louis.  The Blues returned home after a disappointing road trip where they lost all three games.  The Stars have had trouble of their own as they were last in the Central Division prior to the game and had a .500 record in their last ten.  Both teams came to the game following shutout losses.  The Blues were without Jaden Schwartz, Carl Gunnarsson and Brian Elliot.

Tonight’s loss has pushed the Blues farther from the fight within the Central Division’s first three teams by allowing the Nashville Predators to bump their hold on second and by, at worst, letting the Chicago Blackhawks to maintain their wide lead in first.  The Blues are now going to have to try to chase these two teams while holding back the Winnipeg Jets who are in a close fourth place.

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GAME RECAP

The teams went back and forth in the early minutes but at 2:08 Travis Moen scored on an empty net to give the Stars an early 1-0 lead.  At 2:35 Alex Pietrangelo snuck the puck through the five-hole to tie the game at 1.  Paul Stastny and Dmitrij Jaskin earned assists.  At 5:13 Jason Spezza took a hooking penalty.  The Blues only managed one shot in the power play.

The Blues controlled most of the game over the next 10 minutes.  However at 14:46 Ryan Garbutt scored on a giveaway to give the Stars a 2-1 lead.  Then at 16:03 Vernon Fiddler went to the box for slashing.  Vladimir Tarasenko scored seven seconds into the power play to tie the game at 2.  Alexander Steen and Kevin Shattenkirk received assists.  The period ended with the score tied at 2.

The Blues started the second period with strong offense.  After 5:05 of play Antoine Roussel was called for interference.  A minute in to the power play Tarasenko took a hooking penalty.  After the Stars killed their penalty, Trevor Daley scored a power play goal at 7:41 to give the Stars a 3-2 lead.

At 12:17 Stastny was called for hooking.  The Blues killed the penalty and even made some offensive plays.  Then at 14:40 T.J. Oshie went to the box for tripping.  The Blues didn’t play it too well but still killed the penalty. The Blues took another penalty at 17:28 for having too many men on the ice. With :47 left Jason Demers scored a power play goal to increase the Stars’ lead 4-2 which they carried into the third period.

The teams played an even game in the early parts of the third period.  At 5:40 Jay Bouwmeester took a shot from the blue line that David Backes deflected into the goal to close the Stars’ lead 4-3.  Oshie received the second assist.  At the start of the next play Roussel was called for tripping.  The Stars killed the penalty.

The Blues mostly controlled the game for the remainder of the period and continued to record shots on goal.   With 1:10 left the Blues pulled Jake Allen from the net.  With one second left David Backes and Jamie Benn dropped their gloves which earned the Blues a late penalty.  The Stars closed the game with their 4-3 lead.

HOW THEY PLAYED

Penalties, penalties, penalties.  These have been a steady problem for the Blues for over a month and have been the cause of goals allowed and lead to a few losses.  It was looking like the Blues had adjusted their play style to take less penalties and left the first period clean.  But the second was a mess.  They allowed a power play goal on their first penalty then took three more in a little over five-minute’s time.  While the Blues made some short-handed plays and did well in killing a few of their penalties, they can’t break leads or gain any sort of momentum when they earn 8 of 20 period minutes in penalty time.

The Blues may have had an easier time this game because the Stars have a similar shadow defense style as the Blues.  That is they follow their opponent in the defensive zone and react to plays instead of creating pressure.  In the past the Blues have had problems taking shots against an aggressive defense.  Fortunately, tonight they were able to make slower plays and led in shots for most of the game.

Overall, the Blues played an average game.  Nothing terrible but nothing stellar.  While the Blues outplayed the Stars most of the game even though they were behind, with the exception of the final 5 minutes they didn’t create the scoring opportunities we’ve seen in the past.  They also made some fumbles and giveaways.  While it wasn’t the best we’ve seen, it is still an improvement from the performance the Blues gave on the road.  It is good progress but as far as tonight’s game goes, it wasn’t enough for the win.

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