St. Louis Blues takeaways from a 2-1 loss in opposition to Dallas Stars in preseason opener

The St. Louis Blues opened the preseason with a 2-1 loss in opposition to the Dallas Stars at American Airways Heart on Saturday.

The Blues, who will take a brand new group to Des Moines, Iowa on Sunday to tackle the Utah Hockey Membership, had some moments within the recreation that they will take away nicely.

Notably, goaltending — for probably the most half — was sharp for a primary recreation. The highest-end gamers the Blues took to Texas had some good moments however total, it was a typical first preseason recreation for each groups, full of a lot of penalties, so it was robust at occasions to gauge the 5-on-5 play.

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The nice:

* Jordan Binnington seemed in mid-season kind, stopping all 10 pictures he confronted within the first interval and enjoying these pictures like Velcro. Not a lot received unfastened when the preliminary shot received by and Binnington, who’s vying to signify Canada at not solely the 4 Nations Face-off in February however the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy in 2026, appears to be centered within the early going.

* The penalty kill was an ideal 5-for-5 within the recreation.

* The Zack Bolduc-Pavel Buchnevich-Jake Neighbours was most likely the simplest on the night time for the Blues, who had 22 pictures within the recreation. Bolduc was tied with Jakub Stancl with three pictures on aim and every was a harmful scoring probability, and Neighbours was sprung unfastened for a breakaway halfway by the third interval that was turned again.

* Defenseman Samuel Johannesson was spectacular. He led all Blues in ice time at 23:16 and transported the puck nicely, poised below stress and feathered the move to Neighbours for the breakaway within the third interval. It is a sneaky participant to control as camp continues. He and Pierre-Olivier Joseph, who performed 21:42, had been one of the best Blues d-pairing for the sport.

* They had been having a ho-hum recreation till the Mathieu Joseph-Zach Dean-Kasperi Kapanen line had a menacing forecheck that arrange the lone Blues aim, scored by Kapanen at 14:42 of the third interval, to make it a 2-1 recreation.

The tweeners:

* Colten Ellis, who relieved Binnington after the primary, was sharp himself within the second interval particularly when the Stars arguably had their greatest moments.

However what amounted to be the game-winner, scored by Colin Blackwell at 10:46 of the third on a shot from the lefthand boards, might be one the tendy want to have again and gave Dallas a 2-0 lead. Nothing Ellis may do concerning the first aim, scored by Kyle Capobianco, a shot that pinballed twice, lastly off Blues defenseman Matt Mayich and in at 17:25 of the second.

* You must just like the physicality of defenseman Quinton Burns, who comes as marketed as a skater that does not shrink back from contact, as evidenced by a battle with Dallas’ Justin Hryckowian at 7:57 of the second interval, however Burns took two minors within the recreation, and the final one is one which simply cannot occur, a holding penalty with 2:57 remaining within the recreation that each one however worn out any probabilities to get an actual sixth-attacker probability. It is a tape Burns can watch and take away quite a lot of instructing factors from the teaching employees.

* Since we do not have an terrible class, cannot overlook how atrocious the Blues had been on face-offs. They received simply 19 of 56 attracts (34 p.c) for the sport. Solely Hugh McGing (3-for-6) was at 50 p.c. Buchnevich (6-for-17, 35 p.c), Dean (4-for-17, 24 p.c) and Nikita Alexandrov (6-for-17, 46 p.c) all had robust outings and the Blues had been chasing the puck loads in consequence.

* The facility play was 0-for-3 and did not produce a lot.

Hear what Kapanen and defenseman Tyler Tucker needed to say for the Blues, who did arrive late to the world resulting from climate points and had been rushed in preparation, therefore why puck drop was delayed to six:20 p.m.: