St. Louis Blues: NHL Central Weekly Review (Last Week of April/2nd Round Opens)

The St. Louis Blues got the monkey off their back by defeating the Chicago Blackhawks and winning their first round matchup for the first time in four years. Unfortunately, you could tell they had spent a lot of energy, both mental and physical and weren’t ready out of the gate in round two.

The St. Louis Blues opened up their second round series with the Dallas Stars last Friday and things did not get off to a good start. The Blues seemed to almost think they had slayed enough demons by knocking off Chicago and were going to cruise from then on.

They got a rude awakening pretty quickly. The Dallas Stars came to play in Game 1 and got off to a good start.

The Blues were surprisingly outhit by a team most considered to be a bit smaller overall and definitely not as strong on the blueline. The Stars played the Blues’ game and played it better by smothering St. Louis defensively and not allowing them to create any space or get in transition.

While St. Louis held fast for much of the game, they did exactly what our keys to the game said they could not. They relied way too much on Brian Elliott in Game 1 and to an extent in Game 2. Elliott was peppered with 42 shots in the opener and turned aside 40.

Despite the Blues tying the opening game up early in the third period, they weren’t in it as much as the score would indicate. If not for Elliott the game would have been out of hand long before Kevin Shattenkirk scored a goal.

By the same token, if the Blues could have gotten more pucks past both Kari Lehtonen and Anti Niemi, the Stars would have been toast long before their own comeback attempt began.

The Blues came out sluggish in the first four minutes and it began to look like a short series when the Stars scored the initial goal of Game 2. The Blues rattled off the next three though and looked in command.

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Despite finally keeping a team off the board in the second period (first time since Game 1 vs. Chicago), the Blues took their foot off the gas. They played dump and chase, minus the chase, in the third period and were made to pay for their absolute lack of any offensive output.

The Stars tied the game late in the third forcing the fourth overtime game between both teams all season. The Blues powerplay sputtered in the overtime despite a man-advantage goal for Troy Brouwer earlier. However, they were afforded another powerplay when Antoine Roussel took an interference penalty and the Blues’ captain made them pay.

David Backes’ overtime goal was his second game winner in extra time in the playoffs and his third overall. It tied up the series and though the Blues could have easily been down 2-0, they could have been up 2-0.

That’s how close the series has been so far. Similarly to the Chicago series, neither team has been overly rewarded for their dominance in certain parts of the games. Differently than that go around though, the team that deserved to win has won so far.

Blues’ Weekly Stats

David Backes – 1G 1A 2P
Patrik Berglund – 1G 1A 2P
Jori Lehtera – 1G 2A 3P
Robby Fabbri – 0G 2A 2P
Alexander Steen – 0G 1A 1P
Troy Brouwer – 1G 1A 2P
Scottie Upshall – 0G 1A 1P
Kevin Shattenkirk – 1G 2A 3P
Colton Parayko – 0G 1A 1P
Joel Edmundson – 0G 1A 1P

View from the Midwest Weekly Division Recap

Looking forward

The Blues now come home facing the same series numbers they did when going on the road to Chicago. They’ve been outplayed at times, dominated at times and ended up with a split.

Now they must guard their home ice like they did not manage to do early in the series against the ‘Hawks. If St. Louis can mimic their previous series and have some of their best games overall on home ice, they could very well see themselves up three games to one by the time the series shifts back to Dallas.

The difference here is that although Chicago gave fans fits and scared the hell out of everyone, that series always felt like it was going to go the distance. This series honestly feels like it could be over in five if things go certain ways or the puck bounces just right for either team.

Since the Blues answered in Game 2, there won’t be a true must-win for either team for a bit. Game 3 is one the Blues really do need to take though.

For whatever reason, Scottrade Center has not been overly friendly to the team this season and you don’t want to have the pressure of having to win a Game 4 just to keep the series tied going to Texas.

Next: Blues Time For Wake-Up Calls Is Done

That said, the somewhat backhanded comfort to take from the Blues’ play so far is they have been far from stellar outside of a couple periods the entire two games and have still been in the game no matter what. If we ever finally see a full 60 minutes of Blues hockey, then they can really take control.

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