On Thursday, the Blues lost for the 1st time in February and the 1st time in a month as their last prior loss was on the 21st as well, January 21st. The Stars bested the Blues 5-2 including an empty net goal.
Blues killer Jamie Benn opend the scoring just under four minutes into the 2nd period after a great pass from Miro Heiskanen. The pass went through Alex Pietrangelo’s feet, right to Benn who had an easy goal as Blues goalie Jordan Binnington seemed to move causally toward the back post rather than exploding to the back post. At first I thought he didn’t read the pass well but after further review he just didn’t get much drive and explosiveness into his push.
A little over five minutes later, the Stars doubled the lead to two. Jaden Schwartz makes a poor pass into Colton Parayko’s skates, creating the turnover near the Blues blue line. Then the team complicates things by providing poor defensive coverage even though they are fine number wise allowing Radek Faska to score the rebound goal.
A little over a minute later, the Stars scored again to take a three goal lead on a great play by Alexander Radulov and what appeared to be a very poor read by Binngton. Radulov makes a creative move and shoots through Joel Edmundson’s legs. Well after the shot goes through Edmundson, Binnington goes down into the butterfly on the high shot. He also backs in a bit while going down, taking part of his angle away and opening the net, allowing it to go over his shoulder into the middle of the net. If Binnington doesn’t go down incorrectly, it’s an easy save off his shoulder. Perhaps he never picked up the shot and went down playing the percentage game but his head seemed to track puck.
Around three minutes later, Vladimir Tarasenko would get one back thanks to a brilliant forecheck and pass from Ryan O’Reilly. Also, get on board now for O’Reilly for the Selke. He’s earning it.
Benn restored the lead just three minutes later when rookie Robert Thomas makes a very poor wall play, creating the turnover that leads to a Benn deflection goal.
O’Reilly would try and make a game of it, cutting the lead to two with 23 seconds left in the 2nd period.
Tyler Seguin would add the empty net goal to finish the game off.
While the Blues outshot the Stars 45-25 and Anton Khudobin played extremely overall, they were doomed by significant lapses at various times in their own end and a regressing in their goaltending.
In the game Thomas was -2 with a giveaway and only one shot in over 15 minutes. Zach Sanford continues to struggle generating no shots in 13 minutes while being -1. Edmundson and Pietrangelo were each -3 though they did combine for 8 shots.
Blues fans shouldn’t be too concerned. While you would have rather seem them lose to the Maple Leafs and beat the Stars, you knew they were not going to win all of their remaining games. The key is to end the losing at one game by beating the Boston Bruins today in St. Louis.
The Bruins have been trying to catch the Lightning in the Atlantic division and have been as good as the Blues lately, in the middle of their own seven game winning streak and points in each of their last 12 games and being 10-2-3 in their last 15 games. They are also 8-1-1 in their last 10 road games.
The Bruins are only 15th in goals per game but 2nd in goals against per game. They have the 2nd best power play and the 15th ranked penalty kill.
Brad Marchand leads the Burins with 71 points in 60 games while David Pastrnak has 31 goals and 66 points in 56 games. Patrice Bergeron has 56 points in 45 games. Torey Krug leads the defense with 42 points in 50 games. Jake DeBrusk has scored in five straight games with 10 points in those games.
Jaroslav Halak and Tuukka Rask both have been strong in net with a 92.4% and 91.8% save percentage respectively.
Jaden Schwartz and O’Reilly both have 12 points in 10 games against the Bruins. Jake Allen has been amazing against the Bruins with a 93.3% save percentage but has been much better on the road on the road this year with a 92.4% save percentage. Will he get the start today vs the Bruins or tomorrow in Minnesota?
With Schenn expected out again, I’m not sure the lineup will change. If it doesn’t, it should look like this:
Schwartz - O'Reilly – Tarasenko
Thomas - Bozak – Steen
Sanford - Sundqvist - Maroon
Fabbri - Barbashev - MacEachern
Edmundson - Pietrangelo
Bouwmeester - Parayko
Dunn - Bortuzzo
NHL Champions for Charity
We’ve gotten some traction on the charity wager among the Central Division bloggers. One charity I’ll highlight is Best Buddies Tennessee
https://www.bestbuddies.org/tennessee/from your Predators’s Blogger
Paul McCann. 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.
St Louis Blues Blogger • 
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