St. Louis Blues Pros And Cons From Game 66 Vs. Dallas

The St. Louis Blues have seen plenty of the Dallas Stars of late. They knew this final time would be harder than the last.

The St. Louis Blues should have a bone to pick with the NHL schedule makers. While they’ve grown accustomed to facing teams in clusters, it is extremely odd to face any team three times in the same month, let alone a divisional rival.

That is exactly what has happened with the Dallas Stars. The Blues took on their divisional foe February 8, 21 and now on the 29th. That’s just weird.

However, the good thing about this game was that St. Louis came to play from the start. They were not exactly humming on all cylinders, but they played hard and knew this game was not going to be easy like the 5-1 win the Blues got the last time out.

As sports go though, the Blues were not rewarded for their good start. Dallas was stoned by Jake Allen on a play in the crease, but on the following faceoff, a deflected puck that was originally going wide ended up in the back of the net to put Dallas up 1-0.

The Blues kept with it though. After a great zone hold by Vince Dunn, it appeared as though Dunn had the tying goal on a deflected puck from a cross-ice pass. Instead, David Perron got the goal instead of the assist as it went off a Stars defender to tie it 1-1.

The Blues looked decent, compared to their normal selves anyway, on the power play early in the second period. Unfortunately, they got nothing out of it and the game remained tied.

St. Louis would not be outdone a second time though. After 89 seconds of futility, the Blues finally jammed it into take a 2-1 lead.

Though the Blues came up emptyhanded their next power play too, things kept building for their offense. About three-fourths of the way through the second period, Brayden Schenn scored to make it 3-1.

Then, the seemingly inevitable bonehead play happened. Perron gave it right to Dallas for a breakaway goal to cut the lead down to one.

Overtime ended up being a gut check. Not for the players, but for the fans since everything seemed to be going back and forth and Dallas had a breakaway with a chance to win it.

Thankfully, Jake Allen made the big saves when he needed. Ryan O’Reilly got the only goal in the shootout and Allen made a nice save to finish off a 4-3 shootout win.

Pros: Schenn

Brayden Schenn must have heard me call him out a little bit not long ago, so I take full credit for this turnaround. In all seriousness, his hot streak is very impressive now.

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Schenn has goals in four straight games now. Coincidentally, the last game he failed to score in was against the Dallas Stars.

Also coincidentally, Schenn seems to have found his signature move. Similar to Brett Hull in the past, Schenner has taken quite keenly to the one-knee goal.

That was a mirror image, almost, of the goal he scored his previous game against the New York Islanders. It proved to be a big goal since Dallas would score not long after.

Beyond that, it was just a continuation of Schenn’s improved offensive output. There’s still plenty of regular season left, but he’s getting hot at the right time.

Cons: Perron

I’m not sure what is wrong with David Perron, but he just does not seem right at the moment. Sure, he got credit for the goal, but it was not like he meant to score.

Perron is either sick or injured or something. On a shift shortly prior to his goal, he had an opportunity to pinch along the wall, charge his opponent and create some havoc. Instead, he gently glided toward the man and stuck out his stick in hopes of doing something.

Then, of course, you have the turnover that led to the goal. Even if you ignore the horrendous mistake of the pass, he had absolutely no gas to catch up and even gave up before he got to the blue line.

It’s hockey, you run out of energy quickly. This looked different though. His legs looked like they weighed 100 lbs instead of just being fatigued.

This is not the first game either. Perron has not looked like he had his legs the last couple games.

The team is battling some bug that’s been passed around so maybe he has it and is just fighting through. Whatever the case, he is not making good decisions and the physical ability just does not seem there.

Pros: Dunn

Dunn was originally credited with the first goal of the game for St. Louis. That was taken away, but he was still responsible for that goal.

It was Dunn’s hustle that held the puck in the zone for the rest of the play to even happen. It was his intelligent play to drive the net as an option that put the defender in the spot where it might even go off his stick.

He picked up another assist on the team’s second goal too.

This time it was another intelligent play. Instead of holding the puck too long in an effort to keep it on his forehand, Dunn sensed the pressure was there now.

So, he did a pirouette and backhanded it toward the crease. Tyler Bozak would get the nice tip for the goal, but it does not happen without the play of Vince Dunn.

Dunn’s only blemish was he was on the ice when Dallas scored. However, this time, he was not at fault.

Overview

I saw some people on Twitter saying it stinks to give Dallas a point. That might be true, but as long as the Blues end up with two, I’ll take that trade. It’s far better than the Blues only getting one point and the Stars taking both.

Now, the Blues are up by seven points instead of six. Regardless of score, they have outplayed the Stars quite extensively in two straight games.

That comes in hand come playoff time. If the Blues have to face the Stars again in the spring, they know it won’t be easy, but they know they’re the better team by far.

The only real negatives from the game were the mistakes. The Blues played a pretty good overall game, but they had plenty of bad bounces against them too.

Haters want to say Allen should have stopped the breakaway, but Perron should never gave the puck away. The first goal was a deflection that bounced off the ice and over the shoulder. There’s no telling where a bounce like that will go as a goaltender.

There were a few boneheaded plays and shots that were passed up, but the game was much more in the favor of the Blues than the final score would indicate. The frustrating thing was letting it even get to overtime.

It’s all coincidental, I suppose, but I literally cannot comprehend this team’s play when any net is empty. When the opponent’s net is empty, they cannot even come close to scoring. When their net is empty, they cannot even cross the attacking blue line before they surrender an empty netter.

However, a point is better than a loss and a shootout win is better than an OT loss. It was an important W that gives them seven straight wins and keeps the Colorado Avalanche at bay.