Recap - Blues Vs. Stars - Taking The "D" Out Of Dallas

The St. Louis Blues started a brief two game road trip in Dallas tonight. The Blues came into the game having dominated Calgary 4-1. The Stars on the other hand lost to Calgary 5-3 on Monday night. With Jake Allen getting the start last night, the Blues would go back to Brian Elliott. For the Stars, Kari Lehtonen would be in goal. As far as the line combos go, they would stay the same as last nights game...for the most part. Line combinations would see one change: Chris Porter would be in for Olli Jokinen. On the defensive side, Carl Gunnarson would be in for Barret Jackman. Hate that Jax is out tonight, but the Blues have too many defensemen and not enough spots. That and it doesn't hurt Jax to get a night off.

First Period:

Needless to say the Blues looked like they were standing still. Most people know, that the Stars are damn fast, but early on they looked like they were flying. It didn't help matters any that Jori Lehtera would get called for a hook about a minute into the game. Elliott would look sharp (as he had to with the slow start) early.

Speaking of slow starts and Elliott, the Stars would score or so we thought. It was immediately waved off as Jason Spezza would interfere with Elliott. Oops. Fans didn't like it. It was obviously the right call to make. Kudos to the officials (shocking I know) for blowing it dead right away. Some alarming play from Gunnarson in the first though. Two turnovers in the first, one that almost led to a Spezza goal. Maybe he wants to be the new Ian Cole? Not sure. I am sure that his play is gonna to get him right out of the lineup if it keeps up. Moving on, the Blues would continue to play slow. That wouldn't matter though as Patrik Berglund would make the game 1-0 on a beautiful tip in. Berglund has been on fire as of late. Did someone tell him he was in the Olympics again? (I kid...kind of)

Late in the period fuckery would again resume. The Stars had a chance, Elliott would stop it. Seems normal enough. Michalek did what he could to save a goal, but alas the Stars would get a penalty shot. Ells was also hurt on the play. He was smacked in the head by a Stars stick. Okay fine. This happens on the ensuing shot, because of course.

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The Blues were lucky to be tied at one after 20 minutes. Sloppy start.

Second Period:

You can call Berglund butter because he's on a roll!

His SECOND goal tonight. Only needed all of 15 seconds. Maybe they really did tell him he was back in Russia. Jaden Schwartz didn't want the party to end either.

So as slow as the first was, the second started out twice as fast as the first did. Jamie Benn had enough of the Blues shit though.

Berglund would almost have a hat trick in the second but Lehtonen would deny him that opportunity. Things would finally settle down. Those three goals would be scored in a matter of seconds from each other. The Stars settled down after a time out and would get that chance from Benn.  Speaking of that timeout, That's about the time the wheels in the second would start falling off. While yes the game did slow down, the Blues might have slowed down too much. I mean what is Ells supposed to do here though?

Hey another bad bounce. Seriously. Speaking of bounces. Right off the post and in.

Ok, we get it Stars, can you fucking not now? Apparently, they didn't hear me.

As the Blues Twitter was imploding, and hair was turning grey as the game was going on, Hitch called a time out. Might not have thought of anything of it, but something right was said, because then this happened.

What a shot. Momentum swings back the other way ever so slightly at the end of the period.

Third Period:

Brian Elliott may not have had his best game tonight (frankly, not a lot of players did) but he showed up when he needed too. Albeit, shaky.

Thirty seconds after that Ells save, Big Z, Zbynek Michalek would tie the game. I don't even...what?

I could have sworn this puck went off of Jori, but who cares honestly? (Fantasy owners might) So, with all the fuckery that the Blues put us through in the second, this game has somehow become tied off of a luck bounce of the Blues own. But wait. There's MORE. Alex Pietrangelo would make it 6-5 on a broken play after yet another powerplay for nothing.

Last but not least...SPACEBALLS: The Hat trick!

Whew. What a game. A spectacular failure of defensive effort, but somehow the Blues would pull their heads out of whatever it was they were in and find a way to win. A game that ends 7-5 had no powerplay goals. The Blues were 0-3 on the powerplay and the Stars were 0-4. I also found it curious that the Stars would switch up goatenders with 7 minutes to go. I mean, isn't that pretty much what you have at this point? Whatever. Blues get the W tonight folks. And I hope they never win that way again. Off to Chicago for a big game on Sunday.