St. Louis Blues Look for Another Upset Over Division Rival Dallas Stars
As the St. Louis Blues host the Dallas Stars on Tuesday, they’ll seek to defeat a team that’s consistently edged them in the standings for the third time this season.
After an impressive two-game “dad’s trip” to Florida where they were able to knock off both the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning, outscoring their opponents 7-4 as Brian Elliott stopped 66 of the 70 shots he faced, the St. Louis Blues begin a two-game homestand at Scottrade Center on Tuesday. They’ll host the Dallas Stars, who retained a tie with the Chicago Blackhawks for first place in the Central Division as they defeated the Nashville Predators 3-2 on Monday.
Despite the Stars’ great success during 2015-16–they lead the NHL with 187 goals, six ahead of the next-best Washington Capitals–they Blues have rather consistently had Dallas’s number this season. The Blues have managed to defeat Dallas twice at Scottrade Center this season, beating them 3-0 on December 12, then beating them 3-2 in a shootout on December 26. The Blues fell 3-0 to the Stars the next afternoon in Dallas’s half of a home-and-home back-to-back, but there’s certainly reason for optimism as they head into their final meeting with the Stars this season at Scottrade.
Though it’s definitely important that the Blues play with a high level of intensity–which has been a problem more than a few times this season–they should have the advantage, with a full day of rest, over a Stars team that went to overtime with the Predators on Monday night, finished up at 9:39 PM, then got out of Bridgestone Arena and flew to St. Louis.
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There’d be no obvious reason for the Blues to shake up the lineup on Tuesday after the two impressive victories they collected this past weekend. Magnus Paajarvi and Dmitrij Jaskin, both of whom are still young and rust with inactivity, are going to need to get into the lineup for a spell at some point, but with the team on a streak right now, it’s likely that they’ll remain healthy scratches against the Stars. Defenseman Peter Harrold will probably also sit for a third straight game after being recalled from AHL Chicago last week.
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Here’s how the Blues’ lineup is expected to look against Dallas:
Jaden Schwartz–Jori Lehtera-Vladmir Tarasenko
Patrik Berglund-Alexander Steen-David Backes
Robby Fabbri–Paul Stastny–Troy Brouwer
Scottie Upshall–Kyle Brodziak–Ryan Reaves
Jay Bouwmeester–Kevin Shattenkirk
Carl Gunnarsson–Colton Parayko
Joel Edmundson–Peter Harrold