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Blues vs Stars Game 1 Recap

May 1, 2016, 10:49 AM ET [57 Comments]
Jason Millen
St Louis Blues Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT


The Blues look to rebound from their Friday night game one, 2-1 loss when they take on the Dallas Stars at the American Airlines Center at 2pm CST on NBC. A video recap of the game can be seen
here.

The Stars heavily controlled the first two periods, putting 31 shots on goal during the first two periods with 17 coming in the second period. Brian Elliott seemed to be fighting the puck and rebounds a bit but was able to keep the Stars off the scoreboard until Antoine Roussel’s goal midway through the second period. The Blues got caught deep on a rush with Jay Bouwmeeester crashing the left side of the Dallas net only to put a shot into Stephen Johns. The play shouldn’t have created a lot of problems as all five Stars had collapsed down below the face-off circle to defend the four Blues. Unfortunately, Robby Fabbri and Bouwmeester make very bad decisions and plays that allow the goal to occur. First, Fabbri doesn’t recognize the situation and slide back to the high part of the zone when Bouwmeester comes in deep. More importantly, Fabbri gets badly beat back into the defensive zone, causing a 4 on 3. Equally as important, Bouwmeester follows Alex Pietrangelo to the two Stars on along the boards (one being Roussel) instead of helping Scottie Upshall cover the two Stars in the middle of the ice. This allows for the Stars to pass the puck for a high quality shot in the slot. Pietrangelo tries to get back to the middle to defend this slot shot as you finally see Fabbri enter the zone to defend. Luckily Elliott is able to stop the slot shot but for some inexplicable reason Bouwmeester has completely lost Roussel coming off the wall and he is easily able to put in the rebound. Bouwmeester is left in a terrible position, trying to block the rebound shot, standing alone at the left goal post, basically in the crease. If he is out on Roussel like he should have been, he could have tied up the man and or his stick, had a better chance to block the shot, clear the rebound, etc.

As has been the case all playoffs, the Blues came out with a strong push in the third period, evening the score midway through the period. The Blues controlled play in the Stars zone with Jori Lehtera getting a couple of chances, putting the second one over the net before the puck was moved backed out to Colton Parayko at the point who then moved it over to Kevin Shattenirk at the left point for a blast past Kari Lehtonen who appeared to be screened by Colton Sceviour.

The Stars got the game winning goal with less than five minutes to play with what again should have been a harmless play. The Stars were coming out of their own zone with Paul Stastny on the forecheck. Unfortunately, Fabbri and Troy Brouwer were ill positioned at the Stars blueline. The outlet pass goes straight through the middle, creating a 3 on 2. Was this a miscommunication? Was this a misread? One of the two of them have to deeper in the neutral zone. Bouwmeester gets beats wide with a pass, allowing the best option for the Blues, a shot/play from the wide angle with plenty of time for Elliott to respond. Unfortunately, Bouwmeester again misses his coverage after the initial shot. He does not cover Radek Faksa who he was covering on the 3 on 2, allowing Faksa an easy rebound goal. Bouwmeeester has struggled in this game and the latter part of the Blackhawks series. Is he hurt? Are the minutes catching up to him? Regardless, the Blues will need him to be better.

In an illustration of why plus/minus is sometimes telling an sometimes not, Fabbri and Bouwmeester were both -2 for the game as you would expect given their direct contribution to the goals against. Pietrangelo also was -2 even though he did everything he could to prevent the goals but couldn’t overcome the mistakes of his linemates.

Anyway, let’s look at how the Blues performed relative to Jammer’s Blues Keys.

Timely goaltending
Both goalies seemed to be fighting the puck and rebounds at times but in the end, they both posted save percentages above 95%. Given the save percentages, you might argue that Lehtonen was more timely but Elliott faced more quality chances against.

Contain the Stars Big 4
The Blues were able to keep the big 4 off the score sheet but Patrick Sharp, Jamie Benn, and Jason Spezza had 8 shots and a number of quality scoring chances. Benn also had a physical impact, getting the better of David Backes on a number of checks and delivering a cheap shot cross check to Pietrangelo’s arm.

Special Teams
Both teams couldn’t core on their combined five power play chances. No difference here in this game.

Rookies
Colton Paryako again played a strong game, playing over 18 minutes, getting 4 shots and setting up the Blues only goal. Joel Edmundson provided over 13 minutes of solid play including 7 hits. Robby Fabbri struggled in this game with defensive lapses and only one shot on goal. Of the Jammer Keys, Fabbri’s play likely had the biggest impact. Look for Fabbri to be back to the Berglund and Backes line where I think this should stay for the rest of the playoffs.

Stats of the game
- 71 of 74 shots saved
- Stars blocked twice as many shots as the Blues (22 to 11)
- Stars outhit the Blues 32 to 26
- Tarasenko with over 21 minutes of ice time, leading all Blues forwards
- Carl Gunnarsson with less than 15 minutes of ice time.

NHL Champions for Charity
In what I hope becomes a hockeybuzz tradition, Bill Meltzer and I placed a wager on the series. If the Blues win, Bill has agreed to make a donation to Safe Connections (@SafeConnections on twitter) whose mission is to reduce the impact and incident of relationship violence and sexual assault through education, crisis intervention, and counseling services. If the Stars win, I will donate to Snider Hockey ( @SniderHockey on twitter) whose mission is to build lives and unite communities, helping educate young people to succeed in the game of life.

I'm going to work on starting NHL Champion for Charity which I hope will get players and fans to pledge donations for each win their team makes in the NHL playoffs. For the players, it would be great if they would agree to donate a small percentage of their playoff bonuses to charity while fans could donate an amount per win, perhaps both upping it if their team won the Stanley Cup. As a simple example, a player could pledge 0.25% per win with a bonus 1% if they win the Cup, bringing their total to 5%. I likely won't get any traction on this until next year if ever but at least wanted to put the idea out there now.

It’s a great day for hockey.
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