St. Louis Blues At Dallas Stars Morning Open Thread: Here We Go Again

Normally when I write game day pieces for a game against the Dallas Stars, I mention something about Vladimir Tarasenko's scoring touch against them, or how their goaltending is the world's most expensive sieve.

Today, well, today it boils down to this: have the Blues evaluated what is causing their scoring drought and can they fix it tonight? Surely they've looked at tape and tried to figure out why this team has had such issues scoring goals. Tuesday night against the Rangers was a clunker, and clunkers happen. But when you combine poor defensive performance with a literal lack of offense - and it happens in the middle of a dry spell - those clunkers stand out more.

We'll see some new lines tonight, as Ken Hitchcock tinkers with his players in the hope that scoring can be sparked.

They began with a change to their line combinations, swapping centers Paul Stastny and Patrik Berglund. Stastny is now in the middle of Robby Fabbri and Nail Yakupov, moving Berglund in the middle of Alexander Steen and David Perron.

"Paul has played very well with Fabbri and for a long time (Dmitrij Jaskin)," Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said. "So we’re hoping that that chemistry comes back."

One day, we'll see Stastny centering Tarasenko. One day.

This is your morning open thread. Check back later on for your preview, your GDT, and while you're waiting say hi to the good folks over at Defending Big D.