St. Louis Blues Thoughts From The Common Fan: Dunn Power

The St. Louis Blues are ready to take on the Dallas Stars for the fourth time this series. They’ve made small tweaks, but are forcing more from their opponent.

As the St. Louis Blues gear up for Game 4 against the Dallas Stars, the fans are trying to figure out how to keep their lunch – dinner in this case – down. St. Louis and Dallas have played tight games every single time out and come close to overtime every time.

None of the games have gone to the extra period, but they’ve all been close. Even the 4-2 Dallas win was tight until the very end when the Stars managed to pop in a long-range empty-net goal.

So, fans hoping for a quiet night have had to take advantage of the off days. Game days seem to be nothing but stomach churning.

Hopefully the Blues can find a way to get a lead and hold it. That has not been the case for either team so far as leads have been precious commodities. Going up by two goals would be nice instead of trading goals back and forth, but we will see how it plays out.

Power Play Switch

So, the Blues are finally making some tweaks to their power play. St. Louis has gone 1-11 and looked really bad on eight or nine of those too.

With that in mind, they are swapping the defenders with their respective power play units. Vince Dunn, who is a much better skater and potentially better puck handler, moves to the top unit.

More from Editorials

• St. Louis Blues Need Kasperi Kapanen To Be On Best Behavior
• Hayes’ Debut And Other Bold Predictions for the St. Louis Blues
• St. Louis Blues Captaincy Is Suddenly A Huge Problem For 2023-24
• St. Louis Blues National Games Cause More Problems Than They’re Worth
• St. Louis Blues Brayden Schenn Has To Be An Impact Player In 2023-24

Alex Pietrangelo, the team captain who has struggled to get going offensively on the man advantage against Dallas, moves to the second unit.

The only drawback to this is Dunn’s defensive liabilities. He is a faster skater, so he can catch up to guys, but he also makes more mistakes.

However, the upside could benefit the Blues. Dunn has shown the ability to move into space and his passes have been a little more decisive.

Two of Dunn’s three points this playoff run have come against the Stars. The Blues are clearly hoping that will put a little jolt into the top power play unit, should they get onto the ice.

As long as Dunn can hold the zone, it should be a wash at worst.

Stars Forced To Change

One of the best things you can do as a team is to force your opponent to make changes. The Blues have accomplished that, at least in terms of the lineup for the Dallas Stars.

Dallas is going to swap their first and second line centers. It is an interesting choice given how hard the top line of the Stars has made life on the Blues despite a lack of offense.

Now, they’re trying to see if Roope Hintz can bring some of his offensive pop to the top line. Alexander Radulov is going to be on the second line.

Hintz has done some damage against the Blues, but I’m fine with these changes. If you can force the other team to re-think what they are doing, then you are doing something right.

Considering how poorly the Blues have played for much of this series, I chalk that up to a win. The flip side of that is it might force the Blues to re-think some of their defensive assignments, but we will deal with that.

More Of The Same

Other than the Dunn/Petro swap, the Blues are sticking with what worked in Game 3. They will roll out the same lineup as far as five-on-five hockey goes. Here is the projected lineup according to the NHL.com:

Forwards

Schwartz – O’Reilly – Tarasenko
Schenn – Sundqvist – Perron
Maroon – Bozak – Thomas
Fabbri – Barbashev – Steen

Defense

Gunnarsson – Pietrangelo
Bouwmeester – Parayko
Dunn – Bortuzzo

Goalie

Binnington

I’m still a little iffy on the swap of Robert Bortuzzo and Joel Edmundson, but if the staff thinks it is the right choice, so be it.