Blues win ugly over Dallas, get the two points.

Doing good:

Perron as playmaker. He might not be getting goals, but he’s getting assists.

Backes as captain. He’s leading from the front, taking shots, making plays, and hitting opponents hard.

T.J. Oshie as driver. He gets the puck into the opponents’ zone and pressures the goalie. Then he scores.

Ryan Reaves. “My name is Ryan Reaves and I get respect. My cash and your blood is what I expect.”

Jason Arnott as Grumpy Old Man. “Kids these days don’t know how good they have it… in my day we’d score like THIS!” (Arnott scores, horn goes off)

Barret Jackman as Defensive Linchpin. He’s playing the roles of himself, Russell and Huskins right now. He’d be justified in saying “SIR JAXX SAYS HOLD MY DIIIIIICK”

Doing better than before:

Chris Stewart. Is he going along to get along or is he listening to his teammates and buying into the team?

Jamie Langenbrunner. He’s competing with his fellow Grumpy Old Man Jason Arnott and he’s getting the puck into the zone for the shooters.

Jaroslav Halak. Apparently he only lets “bad Jaro” out during October and November. When he gets a competent backup to compete for the number one spot, he goes into “good Jaro” mode.

Sliding down the chart:

Ian Cole. Dude, I love you, but stop giving up the puck in your own zone. That’s three times in three games I’ve seen it happen.

In the basement and/or the doghouse:

Patrik Berglund. What the hell, man? Did you get lazy or something? Scott Nichol would make a better second-liner than you. Dude needs to pull his head out of his backside. He’s not making many hits and is slowly turning into trade material.

nhl acticle says we won 2-1 tonight guys. i’m suprised the nhl admitted a western conference game occured outside of detroit or chicago

But I thought it was a really entertaining game. Then again I enjoy defense so it was fun to see a hard hitting grinding game. I don’t think it was boring, just that Dallas had a goalie that seems to have the Blues number.

Reffing continues to suck in the NHL

Also, I’m indeed sick of hearing about this Crosby concussion thing. I DON’T CARE. Sure he’s the golden boy, but I don’t need to hear about every time he takes a leak. I almost hope he retires so we can quit getting this shoved down our throats.

Great Blues win though.

Via gallagher: “It’s a shame that this had to be a nationally televised game, because it was one of the Blues’ sloppiest and most boring outings in a long, long time.”

I disagree. It was a heavily-contested matchup on each side. To Random Viewer, it may have seemed sloppy or boring, but this kind of play is hard to do well in the NHL — and both teams played it hard and consistent. You did correct this later in your rundown, little g, saying it’s a show of resolve/character for our Blues.

This was a secondary line game, only because the first lines were so regularly hemmed in and on the boards. And our secondary lines (which includes two through four) performed admirably. A game like tonight’s relies on the big error and the Blues, top to bottom, did a great job at avoiding it (breakaway on Halak aside).

Tonight’s was a game that could have been a letdown, but the Blues squad saw a tenacious opponent and played steadily and smartly until (and after) the eventual game winner was potted.

Great effort. Not pretty. Not highlit reel stuff. But a show of a determined team who can play well in all scenarios.

I want Andy Mac back sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo badly.

Also, the game was so boring, shots had to be taken at the bar.

For those mouth breathers, take a good look at what Dallas was doing. THAT was the 1-3-1 neutral zone trap, left wing/right wing lock, a la New Jersey Devils and Jacques Lemaire. It was a turn back the clock moment as pursuing forwards were routinely grabbed and hooked through the zone without any call, slowing them down and keeping the attacking forecheck to a minimum by allowing the defense to get to the puck first and chip it out. One of the ideas behind the “new” NHL interference rule was to reduce the effectiveness of the trap by allowing the attacking team skaters to have speed through the neutral zone so they would have a better chance of gaining possession in the offensive zone. When it doesn’t get called, and you add to that the Nashville gambit (two players in front of the net whenever the puck goes to the slot in the offensive zone, you wind up with games like tonight. The Blues still had 30+ shots nonetheless.

Did you notice that coach matched up Ryan Reaves with Steve Ott for the first period, regardless of the rest of the line? Is it a coincidence that Ott was very quiet throughout the game? Just sayin’.

Oshie on getting hacked, grabbed, tripped, and jobbed by the refs all night: “If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can will ever imagine.” He was a man on a mission tonight.

Berglund: He’s still only 23, and the strongest player with the puck on the boards on the team, except maybe for Alex Steen (who is sorely missed in games like this.) If he sucks as bad as people are saying, he’s not worth anything the Blues need in a trade. If he’s worth something, you think Army wouldn’t pull the trigger if the right deal came along? If the coaching staff thinks he isn’t a valuable piece of the team, would he be getting second-line minutes and PP and PK time since the team is so deep at center? If he doesn’t turn into anything more than a third-line center in another three years, then we can move on. But since he’s not showing up on the scoresheet as much as we think he should, that also means he’s going to be inexpensive during his RFA years.

Perron: when he gets the puck flat on his stick in the offensive zone, somebody on the opposing team is going to end up looking stupid. If he gets a quicker release, he’ll be a perennial all-star and a marquee player. I also like that he’s got PK duties and doesn’t look lost out there.

General observation not specific to this game: the forwards need to get the puck away quicker and on net.

Refereeing: So what else is new? This was called like a pre-strike playoff game. Victory went to the team with the strongest will.

Steen and Mac for the most part.

Stewart was invisible again tonight in my eyes. Imagine if everyone played as hard as TJ tonight. Well let me correct myself, some actually did, but others clearly didn’t seem too….Chris I’m looking at you.