Blues vs. Stars Game 4 Recap
The Blues failed to take commanding control of the series by losing 2-1 in overtime. A video recap of the game can be seen
here.
While the Blues got outshot 8-7 in the first period, they controlled a lot of the play and had the lion’s share of the quality scoring chances. Midway through the period, Jaden Schwartz found Vladimir Tarasenko wide open on the Stars’ side of the neutral zone even though the Stars had an extra skater on the ice. On the breakaway, Tarasenko shot the puck through Kari Lehtonen’s five hole for a 1-0 lead. Kris Russell made a poor decision by jumping down the slot as the Stars were losing control of the puck, creating the seam that Schwartz used for the pass to Tarasenko. Less than a minute later Alexander Steen blocked a Stephen Johns shot at the right point, sending he and Troy Brouwer in on a 2 on 1. Johnny Oduya made a poor play on the 2 on 1 skating directly at Steen, allowing him to hit Brouwer with a pass for a clear breakaway but Brouwer was stopped by Lehtonen.
The Blues had yet another breakaway with about 3:20 left in the period which Jaden Schwartz made a diving takeaway from Jason Spezza, sliding the puck to Tarasenko for another breakaway. Tarasenko again beat Lehtonen but rang the puck off the far post. The Blues had their chances in the period to put Dallas away and out of the game but failed to convert.
Like much of the playoffs, the second period was an issue for the Blues. About 4 minutes into the period, Joel Edmundson was near the bottom of the left face-off circle when he noticed Jaden Schwartz wide open at the far blue line. He tried the long stretch pass but put the puck right on Radek Faska’s stick instead. A more experienced player might have tried the same pass, only using the wall to bank the puck to Schwartz as that seam was open unlike the one he tried. Faska buried the puck past Brian Elliott.
David Backes took a bad tripping penalty at the blue line about 15 seconds later, leading to Patrick Sharp power play goal. On the power play goal, Jamie Benn cut out from the left post with Jay Bouwmeester failing to take the body. Alex Pietrangelo was in good position at the right post but went for the puck and missed, leaving his man (Sharp) to be able to put the sliding puck past Elliott. Both Blues players decline to take the body on the play and it cost them.
Later in the second period, the Blues took advantage of a bad Cody Eakin slashing penalty with Paul Stastny deflecting Tarasenko’s shot from the right point, bringing the score even before the end of the period.
The Blues had a quality chance less than a minute into to third period but Jason Demers got tangled up with Steen, sending them both to the ice and Steen actually blocking the lower part of the goal before Cody Eakin appeared to dive on top of the puck in the crease. I was surprised that Coach Hitchcock didn’t ask the referees over for an explanation as to why they didn’t think that was considered covering the puck in the crease which would have resulted in a penalty shot. He likely wouldn’t have gotten that call but maybe it gets him the benefit of the doubt on another penalty call later. The period remained scoreless and the teams headed to overtime again.
About 3 minutes into the overtime, Tarasenko took the puck behind the net and slid the puck to Lehtera in the slot but Lehtera was in a terrible shooting position so he didn’t get much at all on the shot. Jaden Schwartz got the rebound around or in the crease and was cross checked down to the ice by Jamie Benn without a call from the referee, a big turn of events as the Stars would score shortly thereafter but as I have said before no excuses, win anyway.
As a result of Schwartz and Lehtera having been on the ice at the end of the offensive play, the Stars break out on a 4 on 3 which turns into a 3 on 2 after Backes puts a big hit on a Star in the neutral zone. Some good passing by the Stars puts the puck on Eakin’s stick at the left faceoff circle and he beats Eliiott over his right shoulder and just under the bar. The shot is perfectly placed but Elliott was too deep in the net allowing the puck to find a very small seam into the net.
On the game winning goal play, I would suggest Blues fans should ignore Lehtera going down to the ice as he came around from behind the net as that looked to me like a bad attempt at selling a penalty.
As to Jammer’s Keys, given that the Stars big 4 were not contained (Sharp and Benn with 1g 3a), the Blues rookies were -2 with no points and one bad giveaway that led directly to a goal, and the Stars got more timely goaltending (Brouwer save vs Eakin goal and 92% vs 89%) and special teams were only even 1 for 3 each, you would expect the Stars to have won. The game was there for the Blues to win and they failed to take it.
Expect a few lineup changes but none are posted yet. A good bet might be Ott back in for Reaves. Note that Ott took warm-ups on Thursday. Will Bortuzzo be back in for Edmundson? I hope not as I think that sends the wrong message to the rookie.
Playoff notes
- The last 4 NHL playoff games have gone to OT.
- Pittsburgh has a chance to send Barry Trotz and the Capitals to the golf courses today.
- The Isles/Lightning game was crazy last night – Goalie lost a blade, boards separated, OT, etc.
- I hope some of you watched the 3 OTs of the Preds/Sharks – very entertaining.
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.
St Louis Blues Blogger • 
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