The win on Monday night was huge for Dallas, and the momentum now shifts in their favor. Dallas had some bad goaltending, but a lot of energy and the Blues proved they were the better team by playing a full game of Blues hockey. Ruff is 0-4 in Game 7s as a coach.
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“I … I can’t answer that question”. The Blues jumped out early and blew out the Dallas Stars on the road, winning 6-1.
But there truly is no handicapping this series. Even after their win over Chicago in the first round, the Blues don’t have a ton of Game 7 experience. Note that all of them came off the ice at the same time today just to keep everyone guessing.
“You are doing something to help the team”, Hitchcock said. I knew they were going to have a good push. “But after that, I think it’ll be fun”. The problem stems from the fact that the Stars only mustered 14- yes, 14- shots on goal in Game 6 and they still came away with the victory. So who’s my “Pick to Click” for the Stars in the winner-take-all game Wednesday night? And everybody was Gretzky at some point. “We’ve really come together as a team”. The Senators lost them all. “Several of these games have become three-line games, and the guys that are going best, you want to try to play the most”. “Scoring that final goal, making up the fake trophies”.
“We wouldn’t here without Kari”, Stars captain Jamie Benn said. And the dream was the National Hockey League. “Neither was memorable. Those disappointments had a lot to do with General Manager Jim Nill”s decision last summer to create a two-goalie system with the arrival of Antti Niemi, a Stanley Cup victor six years ago in Chicago, from San Jose.
“You always have to believe”.
“The situations I’m talking about aren’t the careless ones where we’re giving up breakaways and two-on-ones. It’s the only way to prepare yourself”, he said.
Hitchcock is being coy with his choice of goaltenders for Game 7, saying he will make that decision Wednesday. If we’re looking for reinforcement of that point, we might turn to star winger Vladimir Tarasenko. You can feel the nerves on the bench.
St. Louis did more than survive Game 7 this time. David Backes, as he has done in several big moments this postseason, put the team on his shoulders and gave them even more insurance. “Everybody sees, everybody knows he’s been lights-out for us”. “That’s something I remember”. They’ll take the lead and then immediately go into “prevent” mode in an attempt to simply seal the game with defense. They will all remember this one.
In all, Ruff yanked his starter three times in seven games; Hitchcock just once.
The Stars and Blues will have their turn in the spotlight Wednesday night in Dallas with the victor moving on to the Western Conference Finals. Tarasenko played fewer than 20 minutes in six of seven contests against the ‘Hawks, with the lone exception coming in Game 5, which went to double overtime (Tarasenko played 21:28).
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Chris Leyden with Seat Geek said ticket prices for the deciding Game 7 have an average resale price of $199 – the highest price for a Stars ticket in the past 5 years. His streak dates back to 2011 with the Blackhawks, and five seven-gamers while with the Washington Capitals. And in the final seconds of the period, Patrik Berglund scored from long range to leave the crowd in a hush.
