Follow @stlgoalie The Blues failed in their attempt to take a strangle on their series with the Dallas Stars Wednesday night falling 4-2 in another game filled with dives and drama.
The Blues took an early lead on a Vladimir Tarasenko power play goal a little over five minutes into the game.
The Stars would even the game a little over 6 minutes later when Jay Bouwmeester would struggle with the puck. Jason Dickinsin would take advantage of Robby Fabbri beating him to the front of the net for the easy goal.
The Stars would really seem to take control of the game in the 2nd period, outskating the Blues, winning the puck battles, etc. They finally extended their lead midway through the period after Bouwmeester makes a poor play in the neutral zone.
With no time left in the period, Jamie Benn makes a spearing type motion toward Jordan Binnington who takes exception and goes out to Binnington. Normally this would be a coincidental minors situation but as Binnington is going off, he makes a slashing motion near Bishop. The camera angle was so poor on NBCSN I couldn’t tell if he connected or not but it doesn’t matter as Binnington gets the extra minor. Binnington was likely mad at Bishop for flopping yet again on David Perron’s slashing penalty. Bishop went down like he was stabbed with a machete, definitely selling a call that didn’t need to be sold.
The Blues would get within two from a nice Robert Thomas goal with a little over six minutes left. The goal illustrates exactly why Thomas needs to shoot more and defer less.
Overall, Robert Thomas had his best NHL game while Jay Bouwmeester had his worst game in months. Ben Bishop’s save percentage moved back up to 93.1%, the Stars were better on special teams and had more shots so they won, just like most of this series has gone.
The Blues were out-worked and out-hustled for most of the night. They again seemed distracted by the Stars shenanigans and are not focused on playing hockey. If they don’t change their focus, they will be golfing soon.
The Blues will bring Joel Edmundson back into the lineup and slide Robert Bortuzzo out. As such the lines should look like this: Schwartz-O'Reilly-Tarasenko Schenn-Sundqvist-Perron Maroon-Bozak-Thomas Fabbri-Barbashev-Steen Edmundson-Pietrangelo Bouwmeester-Parayko Dunn- Gunnarsson Binnington
This series is much like the last for the Blues with it tied 2-2, them having been beating badly for most of one of the four games and the other three games being pretty close. Blues fans hope they will have the same outcomes for Games 5 and 6.
For the Stars, expect Fedun back in and Hanley out as it appears Hanley is injured.
NHL Champions for Charity Given that the Predators pulled out the division title, all be it not without some controversial officiating in the last couple of games, Best Buddies Tennessee https://www.bestbuddies.org/tennessee/ is the beneficiary. Best Buddies Tennessee is dedicated to establishing a volunteer movement that creates opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment, leadership development and inclusive living opportunities for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. As a side note, I recently got to experience a Best Buddies even in the St. Louis area that was led by the Eureka high school football team. It was a lot of fun and brought a lot of joy to those involved.
It’s a great day for hockey.