St. Louis Blues vs. Dallas Stars: Game Preview
The St. Louis Blues will look to pick up their fourth straight win on Tuesday night, facing their division opponents, the Dallas Stars, for the third time this season. The sixth-place Stars come into St. Louis fresh off a 4-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday, though they had won three straight prior to that loss, including an impressive victory over the New York Rangers.
On December 27, the last time the two teams played, it was arguably the lowest point of the season for the Blues. With regulars like Carl Gunnarsson, Jaden Schwartz, and Brian Elliott on the shelf, the Blues lost 4-3 as Jake Allen delivered one of his least impressive goaltending performances of the season and defenseman Petteri Lindbohm showed his inexperience on an embarrassing turnover in front of the Blues’ net.
In the teams’ first meeting of the season, the Blues won 4-3 in overtime as Vladimir Tarasenko recorded his first career hat trick and picked up the game-winner in OT.
More from St. Louis Blues
- An early projection of the St. Louis Blues’ opening-night roster
- St. Louis Blues sign Klim Kostin to three-year, entry-level contract
- St. Louis Blues: Nail Yakupov signs with Colorado Avalanche
- St. Louis Blues: An homage to Chris Butler
- St. Louis Blues agree to one-year contract with Oskar Sundqvist
Though Alexander Steen and Jori Lehtera missed practice on Monday, while Steve Ott and Patrik Berglund suffered injuries during the practice, the Blues aren’t expected to have any personnel changes in their lineup on Tuesday night. The only significant adjustment is the anticipated swap of Lehtera and Paul Stastny, with Stastny moving back between Jaden Schwartz and Vladimir Tarasenko, as he did when Lehtera was injured, while Lehtera will be paired with Dmitrij Jaskin and Berglund. It may serve as a wakeup call for Lehtera, who has not scored a goal since January 8 and has only two goals since November 18. Prior to the assist that he added on Jaden Schwartz’s goal on Sunday, Lehtera had gone six games without a point while registering a plus-minus rating of minus-5 during that span.
Notably, Barret Jackman will move into sole possession of second place on the Blues’ all-time games played list behind Bernie Federko as he plays in his 780th game in a Bluenote. Jackman tied Brian Sutter on the list during Sunday’s contest.
Brian Elliott, who put together one of his best performances of the season on Sunday in Florida, stopping 40 of 41 shots, will get another start on Tuesday.