The Blues lost what was effectively a one-goal game on Saturday (empty net adjusted). The Blues and Stars have combined to play 13 of 16 effective one-goal games this playoffs.
The Blues doomed themselves with poor four on four play and some bad defensive breakdowns, at least in large part to yet another poor start.
Roope Hintz got the Stars on the board a little over seven minutes into the game. Hintz stars the entire sequence with a good stick check on Pat Maroon.
Maroon needs to find a way to get the puck out of the zone on the play and can’t. Things go further awry for the Blues when Joel Edmundson loses an edge, appearing to get trip over Jordan BInnington’s stick and/or pad, taking Edmundson into the wall and out of the play.
Edmundson never fully gets back into the play and Maroon doesn’t get low enough to cover Hintz, leaving him open in a very dangerous spot for the goal.
The Stars would push the lead to two after Jamie Benn and Vladimir Tarasenko get coincidental roughing penalties. The play starts with Alex Pietrangelo on the rush. Note where Pietrangelo is when the play starts coming back the other way (he is the glove you can see on the far edge of the screen).
It’s Hintz that beats Pietrangelo down the ice (notice how he also pulls up outside the blue line) while Robert Thomas makes matters worse as he once again gets beat getting back (a common theme in the playoffs) and the man he is chasing scores.
Less than a minute later, the Blues would get this poor goal right back when the Stars don’t really challenge Colton Parayko at the right point.
Unfortunately, the bad miscues would continue with the Stars scoring just 26 seconds later. Vince Dunn would make a poor challenge on the wall, trying to support Brayden Schenn in what was basically a 50/50 puck situation. He doesn’t win the puck battle and the Stars come back with the odd man rush. Jaden Schwartz complicates things as he also goes to the wall to support Schenn, putting three Blues chasing a puck battle that they don’t win, something that cannot happen on four on four hockey. Pietrangelo does his best but does an awkward and ineffective slide to try and break up the play.
The Blues would press and get one more back on a Schwartz deflection of a Parayko point shot that the Stars and their fans thought was goaltender interference. Of course, nobody really know what goalie interference is these days. Hintz would later add an empty net goal.
The Blues had their chances to even the score but couldn’t beat Ben Bishop. They controlled the last part of the 1st period, the 2nd period and a lot of the 3rd period. People will point to the Stars 18 shots in the 3rd period but effectively 10 shots were a result of a weak penalty call on David Perron. The Blues had 24 shot attempts in the 3rd period. Dallas had the same number but 10 were within a 2:01 stretch.
Some Blues fans may be looking to direct some of their frustration toward the officiating. Both calls on Perron were weak given how the rest of the game was called and the embellishment by Bishop but the Blues lost the game on their own with their poor four on four play. While the officiating in the series so far has been poor, it has been poor both ways and good teams win regardless of officiating.
The Blues arrived late to the party yet again, struggling at the start, and then got off their game, seemingly distracted by some of the Stars shenanigans and barking at the officials a lot. It was nostalgic in a bad way with the team looking more like it’s version from years ago and early in the year rather than the poised, mature team we had seen through most of the playoffs.
Perron was a central offender in barking at the officials so it didn’t surprise me when the weak call was made against him in the 3rd period. I hope the Blues go back to their more controlled ways for the rest of the series.
The Blues lost the special teams battle, going 0 for 5 on the power play and Bishop went back to a 94.1% save percentage, allowing the Stars to win without a goal from their top line. The power play struggled in the face-off circle and in its breakout.
Edmundson struggled and didn’t even see 10 minutes of ice time. Expect Robert Bortuzzo to dress for him tonight and the lines to get slightly modified like this:
Schwartz-O'Reilly-Tarasenko
Schenn-Sundqvist-Perron
Maroon-Bozak-Thomas
Fabbri-Barbashev-Steen
Gunnarsson-Pietrangelo
Bouwmeester-Parayko
Dunn-Bortuzzo
Binngton
With Bortuzzo in, Dun will be allowed to go to his natural left side. Perron will now be back on his preferred right wing side.
The game held true for the round in that the team that scored 1st, won the special teams battle and threw less hits won. For once, the Blues need to come out strong to start the game. Getting the 1st goal and winning the special teams battle will be key tonight. They also need to minimize the odd man rushes, something they struggled to do at various times in game two.
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.
St Louis Blues Blogger • 
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