It’s Sunday and the time for Game 2 is almost upon us. While it is not a must-win for the St. Louis Blues, they would be best served by having a good game and going home with the series tied.
Could Dallas be a better team than Chicago? According to Ken Hitchcock they are. Personally, I don’t think they are in the overall sense. They obviously scored more goals in the regular season and the playoffs. However, their goaltending is a bit streaky and their defending is a bit more lax.
Much of what Hitch said is likely coach speak to get his team to play up to snuff. He’s basically saying they have to step up their game to the opposition because the St. Louis Blues were simply not good enough in Game 1.
It doesn’t seem like it would have made a difference if they were playing the Stars or the Blackhawks or the Maple Leafs. The Blues were unlikely to get a result playing the way they did in the opener of the series.
The one true thing Hitchcock said was that the Blues have to play better than they did against Chicago. To me, that isn’t so much about playing Dallas. They could be playing the eight seed instead of the top seed and you still need to play better because it’s the second round.
The Blues have some awesome fans and several are going to great lengths to prove it.
We can’t all make the trek to Texas to follow our beloved team and that doesn’t make us any less of a fan. However, it is pretty impressive that people have gone to various levels to even see the Blues in practice during their playoff run.
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It’s also nice to know the team appreciates their road support and isn’t beyond having some fun with their followers as well.
It looks like the Blues are going to have at least one change to the lineup for Game 2.
Upshall is out for warmups, as is Reaves. No Ott.
— Jeremy Rutherford (@jprutherford) May 1, 2016
While losing Steve Ott isn’t something that is always beneficial, Ryan Reaves brings a bit more of an actual heavy presence. Ott will hit anything, but Reaves’ pure size gives him a bit more punch – no pun intended – to his hits.
He has to be itching to get involved as well since he didn’t do anything wrong to be taken out of the Chicago series. It was simply a matter of Ott providing something that matched what the Blues needed at the time.
The tight matchup between the Blues and the Stars isn’t going to have any difference given to either team for the game time either.
#stlblues and #nhlstars are about to take ice for Game 2 warm-ups. Blues are 4-1 in day games this season, Stars are 5-1.
— Jeremy Rutherford (@jprutherford) May 1, 2016
Both teams seem well acclimated to the earlier start times. Most teams would actually prefer an afternoon game to the terribly unusual 8:30 or later starts they’ve had to endure in the central time zone. So with no advantage there, it is down to the players to come out and perform.
More importantly, how do you feel about today’s game? Let us know in the comment section during the game. Get comfy, stay awhile and bring in your friends as well. Keep the conversation going and Let’s Go Blues!