According to oddsmakers at Bovada.lv, St. Louis is the slight favorite on the road, as the Blues are getting odds of -110 to win, while the Stars are getting a money line of +100 at home.
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The Blues, in the playoffs for the 40th time and still in search of their first Stanley Cup, will have home-ice advantage in the Western Conference finals against Nashville or San Jose – and for the Stanley Cup as well if they advance. He was pulled during the first intermission after allowing three goals on just eight shots, as well as one more that was eventually called back on a coach’s challenge. “I think there’s maybe a 0.5 percent of guys who aren’t nervous, and they’re in the Hall of Fame”, Demers said. But the lack of their second best player, and the complete lack of consistency between the pipes cost them that chance. “It was my first crack at a Game 7 and hopefully there are going to be more opportunities like that to play at a high intensity level like this”.
Hitchcock has signed a series of one-year deals during his five years in St. Louis.
But as brilliant as Stars goalie Kari Lehtonen was in Game 6, he was bounced around big time by the Blues in Game 7. He came up just as bit in this one as he did the last.
Teammates rallied around Lehtonen after the game.
Brian Elliott was the first goalie off the ice at the morning skate and will be the starting goalie for the Blues in the elimination game in Dallas.
No coach likes to admit publicly that his team is unable to overcome bad goaltending, but nothing will sink a ship faster.
“We’re in it either way. win or lose, we’re in it”, Childs said.
“A lot of times you learn from your losses”.
Dallas has played only one seven-game series since, losing at Vancouver in the first round of the 2007 playoffs.
The Stars opened the scoring thanks in large part due to some puck luck as Colton Parayko’s shot from the right point went off Mattias Janmark’s shin pads and right to Valeri Nichushkin who fed a pass to Janmark. Not even a reprieve could help the Stars dig themselves out of their troubles.
But instead of feeding off the energy and the roar from the crowd when the goal was nullified, the Stars fell asleep at the wheel. After Stars defenseman Alex Goligoski was sent to the penalty box for hooking, Blues center Robby Fabbri cashed in and found the back of the net for the first goal of the game.
St. Louis also needed seven games to win its first-round series this postseason, beating the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks 3-2 on Brouwer’s winning goal in the Game 7 clincher at home.
David Backes made it 4-0 Blues when he scored at the 16:10 mark of the second period as St. Louis continued to separate itself from the Stars.
The Blues cut the lead to 3-2 with about 11 minutes remaining in the 3rd period on a great pass from Jori Lehtera to Patrick Berglund who cut strong to the net and put the puck around Kari Lehtonen.
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So, here we go: Goaltending is 75 per cent of any good hockey team – unless you don’t get any. “We need to be better in front and take of our business so he can take care of his”.
