The fact that there wasn’t a stream for Thursday’s preseason game didn’t turn out to be much of a bad thing for most Dallas Stars fans.
Y’all wouldn’t have wanted to watch it anyway, as the St. Louis Blues smoked the Dallas Stars 6-0 behind a four-goal second period.
The game looked like a mismatch on paper going in, with the Blues bringing some of their best offensive talent and the Stars putting out a very young defense and forward group to match. And it was a mismatch on the ice, especially in the second period when the Blues ran rampant.
Vladimir Tarasenko had a pair of goals for St. Louis, as did Paul Stastny. Petteri Lindbohm and Joel Edmundson had the others. The Stars were outshot 30-22.
Without video, it’s really hard to tell what exactly happened in this one and how much of a problem goaltending was versus the defense in front of Kari Lehtonen. Two power play goals against, a tip and two rebounds could just as easily speak to really problematic defense as it could bad goaltending.
It’s also worth noting that the Blues rolled out their top line against a Stars defense that featured none of the projected top four defensemen. Jordie Benn was the leader in terms of experience and statistics last year, and he held his own in the possession battle as did Patrik Nemeth, Mattias Backman and Ludwig Bystrom.
The pairing of Jamie Oleksiak and Stephen Johns, well, didn’t. They were both destroyed in possession totals, at least least in the game, and while it’s hard to tell via game tracker, it appeared they spent a large chunk of their time on the ice against the Tarasenko-Stastny-Steen line. That’s a challenge for your best defenders in the league, let alone a rookie and a bubble player, no matter how talented those guys are.
For what it’s worth, Oleksiak finished a minus-8 in Corsi and Johns’ at minus-11. Ludwig Bystrom was the closest defenseman comparable at minus-2, then Patrik Nemeth at minus-1, Jordie Benn at plus-2 and Mattias Backman at plus-5.
Perhaps the most interesting thing to come out of this game will be Ruff’s comments and any potential highlights. It’s so hard to tell anything at this point without video that it’s almost not worth analyzing beyond the obvious. Six goals on 30 shots ain’t good.