St. Louis Blues: Dallas Stars Proving You Just Need To Get Hot

The St. Louis Blues and Dallas Stars were equally bad in the round-robin. Yet, one is still playing and the other is not. It’s all about getting hot.

Sports are a funny thing. Just when you think you’re at the top of the world, like the St. Louis Blues were around a year ago, it all comes crashing down.

Or, sometimes it doesn’t. Just when it seems like everything is collapsing, you get hot at the right time.

All it takes is for a few guys to step up to the plate, play like they’re supposed to or even slightly above. The Blues got that kind of performance when they won. A rival is getting it now, so far anyway.

The Blues and the Dallas Stars both looked pretty awful in the round-robin portion of the Edmonton bubble. Despite a lot of talent, there was not much to show for it on either side.

More from Editorials

The Blues lost to Colorado 2-1 on a last second goal, had a track-meet loss to Vegas 6-4 and then lost to Dallas in a shootout, 2-1. The Stars lost to Colorado 4-0, had a 3-1 lead over Vegas before losing 5-3 and then beat the Blues.

The game between one another was a prime example of how behind both teams were. They both seemed to labor through the 60 minutes.

There were moments during the contest where you honestly wondered if either side wanted to win the game. The Blues scored the first goal and tried to hang on the rest of the time. They surrendered a late goal and then lost in the shootout, because that’s what the Blues do.

Regardless, it seemed as though the Blues were still in a decent position to get through the first round, simply because everyone figured they would turn it up a notch in the actual playoffs. Dallas, meanwhile, seemed headed nowhere.

They were not getting scoring from their top guys, they had some injury issues and they were not getting good goaltending. Here we are a few weeks later and the Blues are sitting at home and the Stars are still playing.

In fact, barring a miracle comeback, they are going to advance to the conference final. The Stars, at publish time, lead the Colorado Avalanche 3-1 in their series.

Quite frankly, the Stars had an opportunity for a sweep. It was the absence of defense by either team that led to a 6-4 Colorado win.

Nevertheless, the Stars are getting hot at the right time. Despite allowing a lot of goals, which any team would against Colorado, they are getting timely goaltending, if not good goaltending. That can be just as good.

The Blues got none of that. Their big scorers were too silent for much of the playoffs.

Their defensive stalwarts had too many miscues, allowing guys in behind them. Jordan Binnington had a very bad playoff run and Jake Allen was good, but it was too late by that time.

The Stars are getting contributions from players they might not have expected going in. Joe Pavelski has managed to look like he did three or four years ago with the San Jose Sharks. He’s scoring goals (7) and has a lot of jump and energy.

Corey Perry is drinking from that fountain of youth too. He has two goals and six points.

John Klingberg was not 100% when the playoffs began. He’s still going out there and doing his job as a player and leader.

Meanwhile, the Blues rolled four lines in your face in 2019. In 2020, due to injury and poor performance, they barely got three lines out there. They did not get the bottom six scoring we saw en route to a Stanley Cup.

Even taking the rivalry out of it, if you’d told me the Stars would not only beat the Calgary Flames but dominate the Avalanche, I would have laughed in your face. The way Dallas looked in the round-robin, they seemed like they would lose in five or six games in the first round.

Instead, they found their game. Their coach, Rick Bowness, found a way to get them motivated in this eerie, empty arena situation.

The Blues just couldn’t get over that hump. The pandemic pause just took too much out of them.

This all just goes to show you never can tell. The Blues lost all their round-robin games, but we fooled ourselves into thinking it was all just a warmup. The Blues are not playing now.

dark. Next. Draft Prospects: Justin Barron

We fooled ourselves into thinking Dallas was no good, they had some players that were washed up and they might need to think about a rebuild. They are one win away from playing in the conference final.

All you need is to get hot at the right time. Dallas did and the Blues did not.

Home/Editorials