Dallas Stars Look to Get Back in the Win Column vs St Louis Blues
The Dallas Stars are coming off a shutout loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs at home on December 23rd, but they’ll look to get back into the win column against the St. Louis Blues tonight. The four-day Christmas break hopefully provided the much-needed rest and relaxation for the team, which will help them in their match-up with an elite opponent at the Scottrade Center. The game starts at 7PM CT and can be seen on Fox Sports Southwest or listened to on 1310 the ticket.
Records and Scores
The Stars (14-14-5) got back over .500 with their impressive four game winning streak and 3-0-0 road trip in Canada last week; however, they’ll look to get their offence going again being that they didn’t convert on any chances in their 4-0 loss to Toronto. Goaltender Kari Lehtonen had a rather solid performance in the loss, but didn’t get much help from the Stars defense and surrendered the first goal of the game on the first shot for the Leafs. Dallas will look to get a better start against the Blues tonight.
The St. Louis Blues (21-10-3) have had an impressive season thus far, as expected with their grade-A line-up. Despite their overall record, however, the Blues are winless in their last three, most recently a 5-0 loss against the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday. They will look for offense from elite forwards T.J. Oshie, captain David Backes, and 2010 first round draft pick Vladimir Tarasenko against the Stars.
Story Lines
Goose Egg Games
Both teams failed to score in their final games before the Christmas Break, which should fuel their fire to convert in the game tonight. No team enjoys being shut out and there is a very small chance that this game will have a similar result. Both clubs will aim to take full advantage of their offensive opportunities, while limiting their defensive mistakes.
Team Defense
Speaking of defense, it has been the Dallas Stars Achilles heel this season. They’ve failed time and time again to help out whichever goalie is defending the crease and it has led to Dallas giving up a handful of goals in multiple games. The best thing for this Dallas Stars group is to simplify their defensive zone play and have all five skaters to help out by covering their man and not be caught staring at the puck. Breaking out of the zone has also proven to be an obstacle for the team, which can be solved rather easily with awareness and accurate passing.
Slow Starts
Another negative trend for the Stars has been giving up goals early and often. Playing from behind is drastically different than playing with a lead and it’s something Dallas has become all too familiar with. Not being able to get through the first five minutes, or shots, of a game without giving up a goal is an incredible disadvantage and makes winning that much more difficult. Again, as with any one of their other bad habits, the Stars have to learn how to change this trend and quickly make the necessary adjustments.
Injury Report
Dallas is still without Patrick Nemeth (arm laceration), Valeri Nichushkin (hip), Rich Peverley (heart), and Patrick Eaves (foot).
The Blues are playing without Jaden Schwartz (foot), Carl Gunnarsson (concussion) and Brian Elliot (lower body) in their line-up.
Projected Lines
Dallas Stars
Jamie Benn – Tyler Seguin- Colton Sceviour
Erik Cole – Jason Spezza – Ales Hemsky
Antoine Roussel – Cody Eakin – Ryan Garbutt
Shawn Horcoff – Vernon Fiddler – Travis Morin/Travis Moen
Alex Goligoski – John Klingberg
Jyrki Jokipakka – Trevor Daley
Jordie Benn – Jason Demers
Kari Lehtonen
Anders Lindback
St Louis Blues
Alex Steen – David Backes – TJ Oshie
Steve Ott – Jori Lehtera – Vladimir Tarasenko
Patrik Berglund – Paul Stastny – Dmitrij Jaskin
Chris Porter – Maxim Lapierre – Ryan Reeves
Jay Bouwmeester – Alex Pietrangelo
Barret Jackman – Kevin Shattenkirk
Chris Butler – Ian Cole
Jake Allen
Martin Brodeur
Prediction
The Dallas Stars learned what it was like to have team defense, an elite goalie, and timely offense while also managing their longest winning streak of the season last week and they’ll get moving back in the right direction tonight. Although the Blues are a great team in the Western Conference, the Stars will beat them in overtime by a score of 4-3 most likely with a goal or two from Tyler Seguin.
Do you think the Stars will pull off a win and get the two points tonight? Leave your thoughts in the comments down below.
As always thanks for reading and be sure to follow us at @BlackoutDallas on twitter for live coverage of the game! The post game report will go up after the conclusion of tonight’s match-up so check back for that as well!