The Blues will take on the Stars in game 3 tonight at 8:30pm at the Scottrade Center. As a refresher, you can find Jammer's game two recap
here and a video recap of game two can be seen
here.
As we head into game three, it appears as the Stars will make a few lineup changes while the Blues will roll with their game two lineup. Antii Niemi left the ice first this morning suggesting that he will be the starter for game three. Of course Lindy Ruff tried a little coaching shenanigans by stating that "we've been going with Lehtonen so we're going to stay with him". I don't believe that and neither should you. What I do believe is that Curtis McKenzie will slide into the lineup in place of Valeri Nichushkin and that Patrick Eaves will not return until game four or five. Also, Tyler Seguin will out until at least game four. Lastly, Mike Heika reported Alex Goligoski is skating and looks good (shot to the knee from Tarasenko on the game winning goal play from game two).
The Blues will start the game with the following lineup:
Schwartz - Lehtera - Tarasenko
Steen - Stastny - Brouwer
Fabbri - Berglund - Backes
Upshall - Brodziak - Reaves
Bouwmeester - Pietrangelo
Edmundson - Shattenkirk
Gunnarsson - Parayko
Elliott
In Dallas line news, Alex Goligoski did not practice with either power play unit. Goligoski was a regular on the power play until game four of the Stars' first round series against the Wild. He didn't see more than 10 seconds of power play time in a game from that point until game two of this series where he played more than two minutes. Is him shifting back off a result of the blocked shot or just altering strategy?
Playoff notes from around the NHL
- Kris Letang was suspended one game for his hit on Marcus Johannsson
- People are talking about Sharks power play (31%). The Blues' is at 28%.
- The Capitals penalty kill is more impressive at 97%
- Blues are averaging 37 shots against per game.
- Matt Murray has the second best save % and GAA of any goalie left. Holtby is 1st.
- Brent Burns leads the league in points per game (1.57).
- Burns is >50% more points per game than the 2nd best d-man.
- Highest Blues forward in points per game is 33rd (Fabbri and Schwartz)
- Blues have 2 of the top 10 d-men in points per game (Shattenkirk and Pietrangelo).
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.
Side note- the Dallas and St. Louis Zoo's also have a bet on the series. More on that
here.
It’s a great day for hockey.
St Louis Blues Blogger • 
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