Dallas Stars Must Put Blues To Bed In Game 7
The Dallas Stars have a chance to host the highest point in their season tonight at the AAC, with high hopes that this is only the beginning.
The Dallas Stars proved Monday that they are nowhere near ready to give up. However, with the weight of the entire season on their shoulders and all their efforts culminating tonight in the AAC in game 7 against the Blues, will the Stars have enough of their trademark staying power to stay alive, or will they crack under pressure?
Puck drop is scheduled for 7 PM from the AAC. Every moment will count tonight, so it won’t be one you want to miss; make sure to tune into NBCSN or 1310 AM/96.7 FM The Ticket.
Records and Scores
Going into game 7, the Blues and Stars each have 3 games under their belt and will be chomping at the bit for the last, most important win. And for the first time, your Stars will host the last game in the series at home. While NHL game 7 wins go 95-68 in favor of the home team and the advantage potential of the situation is incredible, the Stars will still be facing some tough odds.
For starters, this series has taken its toll. Thanks to the Blues’ physical play and ability to keep up, the Stars have yet to win two games back to back this series, something they’ll have to achieve tonight if they want to continue on. While they could find some forward momentum from their valiant game 6 effort and win, it won’t be enough for the Stars to coast on. From here on out, there really is no fallback plan.
Storylines
No time to get comfy
A crucial key to a Stars win tonight will be their ability to maintain one attitude of play for the entire 60 minutes. Obviously, they’ve proven that they can put themselves up early on and then slack off (game 6, anyone?) and pull through. Conversely, they can also come back in the third from some pretty dire straits. However, game 7 is no time to play the fence. If the Stars want to pull off a confident, dominating win, they will simply have to want the win worse than the Blues, and maintain that outlook the entire game.
The real big D
What would it look like for the Stars to maintain a confident attitude for all three frames? Well, it would start with defense and goalkeeping. Kari Lehtonen showed up in a huge way in game 6, making some key stops in the final minutes that kept the Stars in it by the skin of their teeth. The defense, also, has been active this series, and they’ve had to be. The blue line has risen to the challenge of the physically aggressive Blues, and the Stars will need to continue doing so with equal effort whether they are on the good or bad side of the goal deficit.
Powering up
The Stars will also need to achieve consistency in their special teams in order to take this game cleanly. They’ve been up and down as far as power plays go this series- in all honesty, each recent power play has looked pretty much the same. In the last three games this series, the Stars have converted on only 2 out of 6 power play chances. The Stars will have to stop relying on mistakes from the Blues to present them with chances; at this point in the series, each team pretty much knows what the other has up its sleeve. So the Stars need to work out some new approaches and throw some creativity into the mix if they want to have the upper hand.
More stars: Dallas Stars Must Shape Up Or Ship Out
Injury Report
The Dallas Stars will go without Tyler Seguin (lower body) and Travis Moen (hand).
The St. Louis Blues will have a full bench and no injuries.
Projected Lines
Dallas Stars
Jamie Benn –Cody Eakin –Patrick Sharp
Mattias Janmark –Jason Spezza –Valeri Nichushkin
Antoine Roussel –Radek Faksa –Ales Hemsky
Colton Sceviour –Vernon Fiddler –Patrick Eaves
Alex Goligoski –John Klingberg
Kari Lehtonen
St. Louis Blues
Jaden Schwartz –Jori Lehtera –Vladimir Tarasenko
Robby Fabbri –Paul Stastny –Troy Brouwer
Patrik Berglund –Alex Steen –David Backes
Scottie Upshall –Kyle Brodziak –Dmitrij Jaskin
Jay Bouwmeester –Alex Pietrangelo
Kevin Shattenkirk –Robert Bortuzzo
Carl Gunnarsson –Colton Parayko
Next: Dallas Stars Finish Easy Part, Now Comes Real Test
Predictions
The Dallas Stars have proven that they know how to pull out wins when their backs are against the wall. They’ll feed on good home barn energy and exhibit the essential do or die attitude tonight in game 7, knocking the Blues out of the playoffs in a 4-2 win.