Follow @stlgoalie On Thursday night, the Blues took a 1-0 series lead, defeating the Stars 3-2. The Blues were able to achieve a number of things that I see as keys to this series. They limited the Stars top line to a single goal, already bested Nashville’s futile 1st round power play, and Ben Bishop’s performance regressed to below normal.
The Blues opened the scoring about 6 minutes into the 1st period when Robby Fabbri scored on what appeared to be a pretty harmless shot from near the wide side of the face-off dot, somehow beating Ben Bishop through his 5-hole.
The Blues responded well, only allowing 1 shot for the rest of the period and drawing a penalty on Jamie Benn. They would capitalize on that power play, already surpassing Nashville’s power play goal total in the entire 1st round. You simply cannot give Vladimir Tarasenko this much time and space. He picks his spot and beats Bishop 5-hole yet again.
Blues fans will likely feel optimistic as Bishop’s save percentage as a below average 85%, the Blues converted their power plays at a 50% rate, Vladimir Tarsaenko seems really engaged and productive, and Dallas big four forwards (Radulov, Seguin, Benn, and Zucccarello) combined for only 9 shots and 1 goal. Jordan Binnington had a decent game, making a couple of spectacular saves but didn’t face a ton of high quality chances.
Stars fans will be optimistic shining a light on the third period, claiming the Stars dominated the period as they outshoot the Blues 17-6 but that would be oversimplifying the issue. The shots were almost dead even when the Blues scored to take a 3-1 lead. Much like the 3rd period of Game 6 in the 1st round, the score and situation impacted the shot totals significantly.
Both teams looked a bit tentative in the game with the Blues controlling much of the 1st two periods and the Stars controlling the latter 5 or so minutes of the 3rd period.
Not surprisingly, Heiskanen, John Klingberg, and Esa Lindell played over 77.5 of the 120 defensive minutes in the game. For comparison sake, Colton Parayko, Alex Pietrangelo and Jay Bouwmeester combined for 73:19. Will those added minutes impact the Stars defense as the series goes on? I think this is possible but only if the Blues focus on getting pucks deep and using an aggressive, supported forecheck.
Defense wasn’t the only place where the Stars had concentrated minutes. The Stars had four forwards (Benn, Seguin, Radulov, and Zuccarello who played 82:41. The Blues top four (O’Reilly, Sundqvist, Schenn and Tarasenko) played just 76:10. Some of that is driven by score and circumstance but part of it is a reliance on the top few players. Will that reliance impact their legs and thus their play?
Don’t expect the Blues lineup to change. It should start like this: Perron-O'Reilly-Tarasenko Schwartz-Schenn-Sundqvist Maroon-Bozak-Thomas Fabbri-Barbashev-Steen Gunnarsson-Pietrangelo Bouwmeester-Parayko Dunn-Edmundson Binngton
Similar to the Blues 1st round, the team with the most shots and most hits lost the game. Unlike most of the 1st round, the team that scored 1st won. In the Stars 1st round, the team that scored 1st lost four of the six games. Even with the playoff history in the 1st round, I think it is key for the Blues to again score 1st and keep applying pressure to the visiting Stars. The Stars and Blues have played 13 playoff games with 10 of those games being one-goal games.
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.