Follow @stlgoalie The Blues hope to continue slaying the titans of the Western conference tonight when they travel to Dallas to take on the Stars tonight at 8pm. A regulation win will catapult them into first place not only in the Central division but in the conference as well. Both the Blues and Stars are fresh off 5-2 wins against other Western Conference titans last night with Blues besting the Ducks and the Stars beating the Blackhawks. This will be the third game in a row for the Blues that likely will have an electric, playoff feel.
The Stars have gone 3-0-1 in their last four which suggests they may have broken out of their slump which saw them go 1-5-2 before their 4 game point streak. The Stars success this season is largely them do to being the highest scoring team in the NHL (goals per game) helped by their 4th ranked power play and putting the 3rd most shots per game on their opposing goalies.
Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin are second and third in the NHL in points respectively. Benn is on a 3 game point streak with 1 goal and 3 assists while Seguin had gone 5 games without a point until his goal and assist last night. The Stars are dealing with their own injury issues and will likely be without Patrick Sharp, John Klingberg, Jason Demers, and Jordie Benn. This might be an issue for the Stars with the back to back games and with the fact that Kris Russell played over 27 minutes last night and Johnny Oduya put in more than 23 minutes. Rookie Stephen Johns played over 17 minutes in his NHL debut. Compare that to Pietrangelo who played just over 24 minutes last night and Kevin Shattenkirk who played under 22 minutes.
Given that Kari Lehtonen played last night, expect Anti Niemi to start tonight. Niemi has average numbers against the Blues from his 9-9-1 record to his 90.1% save percentage. Even though Jake Allen played last night, he will get the start again today. Allen has been exceptional against the Stars with a 94.1% save percentage and a 1.42 GAA.
My guess for the Blues lines are as follows: Schwartz –Lehtera – Tarasenko Berglund – Backes - Jaskin Fabbri – Stastny -Brouwer Upshall – Brodziak – Reaves Bouwmeester – Pietrangelo Gunnarsson – Shattenkirk Edmundson – Parayko Allen
Notes from last night: - Congratulations to Carl Gunnarsson for his 3 year, $8.7 million and celebrating it with a brilliant assist. Speaking of him, he had his arm taped in the post game interview and he only played a little over 13 minutes. Is there a correlation? - Hitchock’s take from last night – “Both teams struggled against the other’s forecheck. We scored 3 goals because of it. They (Ducks) come at your really hard. They got a lot of speed, lot of size.… - More from Hitchock – “I mean with everything we’ve gone through, we wake up tomorrow morning in a hockey game for first place. I mean nobody would have thought of that because of everything these guys have been through. That’s a real feather in their cap.… - More from Htichcock – “I meant this is 3-0 against top teams. A chance to go 4-0 tomorrow. Tough opponents but pretty impressive we’ve been able to maintain that competitive level despite missing key guys all year. We’ve played with no memory and no rear view mirror … - Best part of the Hitchcock press conference – “I like the fact that uh [motions with his hand toward the area where the arena horn is going off signaling a win]… - Gunnarsson has his arm taped in the post game interview and he only played a little over 13 minutes. Is there a correlation? - Tarasenko came through for Blues fan Brendan Buehler with 2 goals, an assist, +3 and 5 shots. - Allen has a 93.6% save percentage during the Blues 5 game win streak.
It’s a great day for hockey.