Lightning Vs. Blues Recap: Just The Tip, Tampa

The Blues played a nationally televised game against the Tampa Bay Lightning tonight at Scottrade. The Blues welcomed back both Upshall and Fabbri to the line up. Shattenkirk didn't come back tonight as originally thought. My guess is that he makes the return Thursday. The Blues lines would start out: Steen/Lehtera/Tarasenko, Jaskin/Backes/Upshall, Fabbri/Gomez/Brouwer, and Ott/Brozdiak/Reaves. Your defensive parings were: Bouwmeester/Pietrangelo, Gunnarson/Parayko, and Edmundson/Bortuzzo. Jake Allen would make the start for the good guys. Our old friend Ben Bishop would get the start for the Lightning.

First Period:

Ben Bishop vs. Jake Allen. Stamkos vs. Tarasenko. Steve Ott vs. himself. Who would win this epic showdown?!?! Well if you watched most of the first you would have thought it was going to be Tampa Bay. The Blues were playing in their zone a lot. Or at least it seemed like it. Jake looked to be up to the task tonight:

Colton Parayko. The kid has a cannon for a shot. He's a great defender. It's easy to see how he won a roster spot out of camp. Obviously, he's making an impact already in this young season. He's also been told to shoot more. Well he's listening because the first goal of the night would belong to the Blues. Scott Gomez would deflect a shot from Parayko past Bishop to make it 1-0 good guys.

Mandatory veteran acquisition paying off for the Blues so far.

Second Period:

Fabbri came back into the lineup tonight and didn't look like he missed a beat. In fact he would draw the games first penalty here:

He was still able to get the shot off and Bishop still had to make a more than average save. However, the power play flat out SUCKED tonight. It just didn't look good. It was almost as if they were still missing a key component to it or something...

I hope Gomez/Fabbri sticks. They looked good tonight.

Third Period:

The third could really be summed up by this statement:

Whoever wants to play just go. - Hitch. Maybe. #stlblues

— Justin Williams (@justin03) October 28, 2015

I mean what did I miss that Jaskin had to double shift at one point. Ott was on the third line. Our pets heads were falling off! Ok, maybe not the last one, but really Hitch? From all accounts (Twitter, NBCSN, or otherwise) no one was out or injured. (For once) I didn't understand all of the line shifting. Except it's Hitch and that's what he does. Right. Tampa Bay would put the pressure on again. 1-0 was not a score that was in comfort zone territory. Allen would hold his own though. Tampa would pull Bishop with about 1:30ish left. It wouldn't pay off though as Troy Brouwer would seal it for the home team with this empty net goal:

The Blues go on to beat the East champs 2-0. In what was a tough test for this injury plagued team they pulled off the win. Tampa seemed plenty better at times, but the Blues would get the breaks tonight. The even better news was no one got hurt. Brouwer went off for a little bit at one point, but he would come back.

Three Stars:

Third Star: Ben Bishop (23 saves, 2 goals allowed, St. Louis guy or something)

Second Star: Scott Gomez (Game winning goal, Awesome person...probably)

First Star: Jake Allen (26 Saves, Shutout, Not a wrestler)

The Blues play again Thursday at home against Anaheim. (Who blew a 3-0 lead to Dallas, lost 4-3)