Sunday, March 4, 2018

Blues Blow Late Lead, Lose 3-2 in Dallas

St. Louis Blues vs Dallas Stars - Game 66 Recap
Goals: Barbashev (5) and Schwartz (19)
Record 35-26-5
My thoughts on the game


  • With Basketball taking over the Scottrade Center for the next 2 weeks, the Blues left home for a 4 game road trip that started in Dallas and will take them to San Jose, LA, and Anaheim. All four of those opponents are in front of the Blues in the race for the playoffs, so they all are "must-win" games.
  • The game started with a fight just :11 seconds in. Chris Thorburn and the Stars' Antoine Roussel were having words before the puck drop.  They managed to contain their emotions so that the game could start, but just a few seconds later, things had elevated again. When the officials regained control, both players received 5 minutes for fighting, 5 more for game misconducts, and Roussel got 2 extra minutes for being the instigator. The Blues started with a power play.
  • To no avail, as the Blues' unit is a dismal 15.5%, good for only 29th in the league. They were 0 for 4 on the power play in the game. In the last 6 games, they are even worse, scoring just two goals in 23 chances for an 8.7% success rate. It's obviously been a problem all season. They even had a 5 on 3 for 20 seconds in this game and didn't score. If memory serves me correctly, they are something like 0 for 7 or 0 for 8 when having a 2 man advantage this season.
  • The first period played out scoreless with the Blues having more of the better chances to put the puck in the net.
  • Petro had the first good chance when a pass from Schwartz from beneath the goal line was right on target allowing the captain to wind up for the one-timer but Bishop made the save. The play was a near mirror image to the goal Petro scored in the last game.
  • Alexander Steen had a breakaway and put a wrist shot at Bishop that fell to the ice a second later, but a quick whistle prevented any additional chances.
  • Schenn had a steal at his offensive blue line and got in on Bishop first, but was trying to manage a bouncing puck and couldn't really put the shot where he wanted. 
  • The best chance, or shall I say, what should have been the best chance came later in the period when Jaskin led a 3 on 1 break with Schenn and Schwartz. With two of the teams' top scorers on each wing, instead of passing the puck, Jaskin decided to shoot the puck and it wound up right in the chest of the big Dallas goaltender. As regular readers of this blog are aware, I don't call out players by name, but I felt like this was the first of two pretty poor decisions by Jaskin in this game. Bishop smothered the puck and no rebound was given, killing any chance of a goal on this one.
  • The other play from Jaskin was another odd-man rush. This time it was a 3 on 2. With Jaskin in the middle, Schenn on the left and Schwartz on the right and the defenders choosing to pair up with Jaskin and Schenn, Schwartz looked to have a lane to the goal with nobody in between. Jaskin tried to work the puck to Schenn instead of the open man and the pass failed to connect and was broken up by the Dallas defense.
  • I don't see Dimitri Jaskin as a first line player and felt that his play in this one wasn't up to par with two of our better forwards in Schenn and Schwartz.
  • Dallas ended up taking the puck the other way after the 3 on 2 rush described just above, and Tyler Pitlick's wrist shot beat Carter Hutton over the blocker to give them a 1-0 lead.
  • It would take 6 minutes, but St. Louis tied the game when Vince Dunn's shot rebounded out to an open side of the net where Ivan Barbashev was waiting. His 5th goal of the season was also aided by the screening effort of Steen in front of the net.
  • The Blues took the lead when Schwartz raced up the left side and beat Bishop on the short side for his 19th goal of the season.
  • The clock wound down and the Blues were within 3 minutes of sneaking out of town with 2 very valuable points, but Dallas wasn't finished.
  • They turned up the pressure, desperate to tie things up. Captain Jamie Benn's shot from the point was high and went off the end boards behind the net. Tyler Seguin found the puck and centered it to a waiting Alexander Radulov who buried it in the twine, tying the game.
  • A go-ahead goal by Dallas was waived off after a review showed the puck was kicked into the net and the game would go to overtime.
  • The Blues got caught with tired legs and unable to make a change as Dallas maintained pressure in their offensive zone for what seemed like an eternity. When the Blues finally could change and get fresh guys on the ice, it meant just dumping the puck into their zone and racing to the bench. As it turned out, Dallas dominated the overtime period.
  • Their comeback was complete when Benn scored his 22nd of the season at 3:04 of overtime, sending St. Louis packing with not 2, but just 1 point after they were less than 3 minutes away from stealing one. 
  • Carter Hutton was strong in net and made 31 saves on 34 shots. My guess is that he will be the go-to goalie from here on in until he falters. I'm not sure where that would leave Jake Allen, but it is definitely an issue that will need to be dealt with when this season is over.
  • Berglund, who was a healthy scratch in the last game and in watched the game from Mike Yeo's doghouse, got back in the lineup today as Nikita Soshnikov was sick and didn't make the trip. Bergie played 17:24, had 5 shots on goal, 2 hits and lost 1 faceoff. 
  • Not to be left out of the injury report, Scottie Upshall and Jay Bouwmeester both left the game in the 2nd period and did not return with lower body injuries. 
  • I imagine the team will return to St. Louis for regrouping and practice as they have 4 days off before playing in San Jose Thursday, LA on Saturday and Anaheim on Monday.  They're still in it, but everyone else who is competing for the same playoff spots don't seem to be fading, so the Blues need to find their game if a 7th straight playoff appearance will be a part of this year's story.
#AllTogetherNowStL #LGB

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