Dallas Stars vs. St. Louis Blues: Official Preview
By Marcus Gatto
Oct 25, 2014; Uniondale, NY, USA; Dallas Stars celebrate the goal by center Vernon Fiddler (38) during the first period against the New York Islanders at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports
Good morning Stars fans! It’s a great day for hockey in downtown big D as the Dallas Stars (4-2-2) will try and rebound from a Saturday night defeat when the division rival St. Louis Blues (3-3-1) come to town. The Blues are coming off an impressive Saturday night victory over the Chicago Blackhawks. This will be the first of five meetings between the two teams this season. The Stars took last year’s regular season series 3-2. These are two teams expected to duke it out all season for a playoff position in the wild Western conference. Each matchup this season could go a long way in determining who gets a chance at pursuing Lord’s Stanley Cup, or who will be hitting the tee box first in April. Buckle up, this one’s going to be a dandy!
Records and Scores
The Stars head into Tuesday night with a 4-2-2 record good for 10 points and 3rd in the central division. They had a 5 game point streak snapped with their disappointing 7-5 loss to the New York Islanders on Saturday. If they look to start a new streak tonight against the Blues, they’ll assuredly have to clean up their defensive game.
The Blues come into Tuesday’s showdown with a record of 3-3-1 and sit just behind the Stars in 4th in the central division. The Blues come into tonight’s game searching for a bit of consistency. They have started off slower than expected this year and have alternated wins and losses for the most part early on. Their latest game saw them defeat the Blackhawks 3-2 in what was their best all-around effort of the season. If they are to find some consistency against the Stars tonight, look for goaltender Brian Elliott to be fantastic in net.
Storylines
Team Defence Lacking In Big D
The Dallas Stars have started off the 2014 season with a bang offensively. Only the Islanders (who scored 7 on Dallas on Saturday) have scored more goals this season than the Stars. With all these goals, you must wonder why the Stars have just as many losses as they do wins. Well, it is the defensive aspect of their game that is struggling mightily. Coming into tonight’s tilt, the Stars have given up an average of 3.50 goals a game. Only the lowly Carolina Hurricanes and Buffalo Sabres rank lower than the Stars right now. Not only are the Stars giving up too many goals, they are allowing too many opportunities. The Stars rank 25th in the league in shots against at 32.8 shots against per game. Earlier in the week head coach Lindy Ruff took responsibility for the struggling defensive posture of the team. He vowed to get better and to improve this team immediately. It will be interesting to see if the team makes some adjustments tonight after having a couple days of practice to work on their defensive game.
Blues Ready To Go Streaking
The St.Louis Blues began their season by alternating wins and losses for the first 6 games. They now find themselves once again alternating wins and losses as they fell to the Vancouver Canucks 4-1 last Thursday, but rebounded to beat the Chicago Blackhawks 3-2 on Saturday. The Blues have put together some impressive 60 minute efforts against the Arizona Coyotes, Calgary Flames and Chicago Blackhawks. However, they have also stunk out the joint against the Anaheim Ducks and Vancouver Canucks. It will be interesting to see which Blues team shows up to play tonight. One way or another, you can bet this team is ready to put their slow start behind them and starting finding a consistent winning stride.
Injury Report
Valeri Nichushkin and Sergei Gonchar skated on Monday with the team. Coach Ruff stated that they are both inching closer to a return but would not be available for Tuesday’s game. Rich Peverley is on LTIR for the time being. Patrik Nemeth sustained a deep laceration from a skate blade just over a week ago and is out for the season.
The St. Louis Blues were dealt a huge blow when their big ticket free agent signing Paul Stastny was placed on the IR last week with a shoulder injury. Defenceman Carl Gunnarsson is expected to make his Blues debut tonight. He has been out all season after recovering from hip surgery in the summer. Ryan Reeves will be a gametime decision for the Blues. He has been battling an illness for the past couple of days.
Projected Lines
Dallas Stars
Jamie Benn- Jason Spezza- Tyler Seguin
Antoine Roussel- Cody Eakin- Ryan Garbutt
Patrick Eaves- Vernon Fiddler- Ales Hemsky
Erik Cole- Shawn Horcoff- Colton Sceviour
Alex Goligoski – Trevor Daley
Jordie Benn – Brenden Dillon
Kevin Connauton – Jamie Oleksiak
Kari Lehtonen
Anders Lindback
Scratches- Curtis McKenzie, Jyrki Jokipakka
St Louis Blues
Jaden Schwartz- David Backes – T.J. Oshie
Alex Steen- Jori Lehtera – Vladimir Tarasenko
Dmitrij Jaskin- Patrick Berglund – Magnus Paajarvi
Steve Ott- Maxime Lapierre- Joakim Lindstrom
Jay Bouwmeester- Alex Pietrangelo
Ian Cole- Kevin Shattenkirk
Barret Jackman- Carl Gunnarsson
Brian Elliot
Jake Allen
Prediction
The Stars get their defensive game in order and the Blues continue to struggle to find consistency this season. Final score is 3-1 Stars.
Leave us a comment, question, or prediction below! Enjoy the game tonight and GO STARS!