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The home and home games are a fun way to come back from the holidays. The schedulers couldn't have known this, but featuring two of the best teams of the Central Division against each other in back to backs is a perfect return to hockey action. Everything that happened last night will surely carry over to tonight. Both teams had to travel last night, with the Stars arriving just a half-hour ahead of the Blues. All things should be pretty even.
Back to back games, and two songs that are usually played back to back as a single one. And a shootout that took a Long Time to complete.
It's been such a long time
I think I should be goin', yeah
Wow .... 9 rounds, eh? I don't remember the last time a shootout ran that long. Last night tied the franchise record for longest shootout, according to the NHL.com recap. There was a part of me that was hoping we'd get around to Ryan Reaves getting a chance.
Speaking of Reaves,
You'll forget about me after I've been gone
well, the gif says a lot:
Reaves checks Nichushkin's nameplate after some faceoff jousting s/t @Nate_Hamilton pic.twitter.com/A641iKJEOB
— Stephanie (@myregularface) December 27, 2015
I just hope that doesn't come back to bite us in the ass tonight.
This is going to be another hard-fought game tonight. The Blues have won the previous two matchups, but those were both in our own barn. This is the first meeting in Dallas, where they get the last line change. That will certainly affect things, and you know that the Dallas team will be motivated and the fans will be behind them.
No word yet on lineup changes, so keep an eye out for updates on the twitter feed below. Dallas is pretty healthy, so they have a full complement of players to choose from. The Blues have kept Kyle Brodziak sidelined with his cut leg, but he's skating and seems ready to go at any time. Until he returns, they've continued with the Dmitrij Jaskin as center experiment. That's still a work in progress, but shows some potential.
Where we will see some change is in net. Not a shocker, with how long the game and shootout went. The Blues will start Brian Elliott tonight. He is currently rocking a .913 save percentage, but is only .897 in his career against Dallas. If the Stars make a similar change, we'll be facing Kari Lehtonen in goal. He is sporting a .910 save percentage, and has a career mark of .922 against the Blues.
And I take what I find, I don't want no more
Special teams will be important, of course. It's important to seize those opportunities when they come. We can't live or die on those, however. The Blues were generating plenty of chances, and just not cashing in. If normal shot percentages hold true, we'll see more of those go in. We can't wait for "perfect" scoring chances - just take advantage of the ones that you already have.
There's a long road, I've gotta stay in time with, yeah
Further Reading:
Dallas Morning News Stars blog
Blues vs Stars coverage
GameDay Twitter Feed
Tweets from https://twitter.com/CrossCheckRaise/lists/gameday
Final Verse: Early start tonight, with the puck dropping at 5PM St Louis time. The GDT should drop shortly beforehand. Please do drop buy and hang out with us. The TV broadcast is on Fox Sports MW, and the radio call will be on KMOX 1120 AM. Here's an amazing cover of today's tune, with one guy playing all of the instruments:
LGB!!!