St. Louis Blues: 3 Reasons To Fear The Dallas Stars And 2 Why Not To

ST. LOUIS, MO - MARCH 02: Dallas Stars leftwing Roope Hintz (24) passes the puck under pressure from St. Louis Blues leftwing Alexander Steen (20) during an NHL game between the Dallas Stars and the St. Louis Blues on March 02, 2019, at Energizer Center, St. Louis, MO. (Photo by Keith Gillett/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
ST. LOUIS, MO - MARCH 02: Dallas Stars leftwing Roope Hintz (24) passes the puck under pressure from St. Louis Blues leftwing Alexander Steen (20) during an NHL game between the Dallas Stars and the St. Louis Blues on March 02, 2019, at Energizer Center, St. Louis, MO. (Photo by Keith Gillett/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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St. Louis Blues
ST. LOUIS, MO – MARCH 02: Dallas Stars leftwing Roope Hintz (24) and Dallas Stars leftwing Jamie Benn (14) celebrate after scoring in the second period during an NHL game between the Dallas Stars and the St. Louis Blues on March 02, 2019, at Energizer Center, St. Louis, MO. (Photo by Keith Gillett/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Big D Dominance

Clearly this is a continuation of the last two categories. Player performance usually equals wins when your best players are playing at their best.

Still, perhaps the biggest reason Blues fans did not want to see Dallas is the fact of how the games went. St. Louis went 1-3 against Dallas this year, but that is only have the picture.

St. Louis was outscored 12-4 in the losses. The only thing that sort of evened out the goals per game between the two teams was the Blues winning 3-1 and having two goals in one of the losses.

On top of the scores, the style was not good to watch. The Blues were getting outmuscled, outhustled and outgunned.

More from Bleedin' Blue

You could argue some of those games came early in the 2019 calendar, but the Blues were starting to turn things around in that period and still lost. A 4-1 loss in early March was particularly harmful to the Blues postseason hopes at that time.

Things were not quite as bad in 2017-18, but St. Louis still lost the season series 2-3. The Blues were the better team on their home ice, which maybe gives them a little hope, but got doubled up every time in Dallas.

As poorly as the Stars can play at times – they did miss the playoffs just like the Blues last season – they still seem to get in St. Louis’ head at times. Benn is a particular irritant in that aspect. The fact he scores too makes it worse.

The Blues are going to have to find a way over this mental hurdle that has been the Stars in 2018-19. Top to bottom, the Blues probably have the better team. We have seen that means very little in the playoffs. Just look at Tampa Bay.