Liveblog: Stars vs. Blues 10/16/08

Hello everyone.  I am here for the first Shootout liveblog of the 08-09 season.  As I said in a previous post, the Stars are in St. Louis tonight, coming off a much needed and deserved win against the Nashville Predators last night.  Let’s get this shit started.

PREGAME
They are doing a story on Stu being an assistant coach, I’m pretty sure I saw this on Stars Insider, but that’s okay.  I do not mind watching it again.  (Dear lord please don’t let my laptop die before I find somewhere to plug this thing in in the living room.)  This is my first liveblog on this laptop, so I am enjoying being able to lounge on the couch while blogging.  I guess I kinda got off subject, didn’t I?  Stuie looks so proud of his Traverse City plaque, which the Stars won.  Because they’re awesome.  Aw they are going to talk bout Boo-Boo!! Yay Boo-Boo.  They are previewing the goalies, Marty and Legace.  I love Legace, well, not tonight.  But otherwise I like him.  He was so awesome last year in the All-Star game, all five-foot-nothing of him.   HELLO RALPHIEE!!  I do wish they’d fix this IFB stuff, because the delay is a tad annoying.  AW LUDY JUST CALLED HIM BOO-BOO!  I love it.  Why they have to mention Russian being out, because that is not something I want to be reminded of.  Injury update….oh boy.  Jere Lehtinen (groin) and Steve Ott (undisclosed) did not make the trip, uh oh.   Ludy is a big fan of the injury policy, in that other teams don’t automatically know what injured certain players, I agree with you Ludy.  Because I know personally that if Brenden had injured a foot, I wouldn’t want everyone going after that certain foot as soon as he’s back in the line up.   At least I have a cat to entertain me during breaks.

1ST PERIOD

20:00: I will use this time to say that…no one wins the tie battle.  They are both equally awful.  Let’s get this game goin guys!  Opening line is Neal, Modano and Crombeen.   D-men are Grossman and Robi.

19:00: Next on the ice is Eriksson, Morrow and Ribeiro.

18:48: Neal takes an interference penalty.  Whatevs.  He is too young to interfere with anyone!  Blues have the number 1 PP so far.  Wow, after a whole week.  You must be proud.

18:28: Boucher lost his stick! OH NO!  Got it back but now only has one glove!  DO NOT HURT HIS HAND!

17:50: I have a weird love for Kariya, I don’t know why. BUT I HATE PLAYING HIM.  GET THE PUCK AWAY FROM HIM NOWWWW.

16:48: Penalty Killing is getting back on track…

16:20: Some Blues player got really close to getting a goal, but it went behind Turco and past the net.  Thank goodness.

16:00: BRUNNSTROM IS ON THE ICE YAYYYYY

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Stars take on the Blues tonight

Stars will be taking on the St. Louis Blues for the first time this season in St. Louis.  It will be an interesting game after the greatness of last night. 

I might do the first liveblog of the season tonight, we’ll see. 

Also, the Mike Ribeiro billboard has been found; Pres. George Bush Turnpike near Midway, you can see it if you’re going westbound.  This one says “Allergic to Kryptonite”.  It’s 10 kinds of awesome.  I might make a field trip this weekend to get pictures of them all.

If the house is rockin….

Oh was it good to hear that song again.  I attended my first game this season Saturday against the Blues.  I wore my Conner jersey, thinking I would get it in now, just in case they send him away after pre-season, only to find Midget was not playing.  Boo.  Brunnstrom wasn’t playing either, I was hoping to get to see him in action.  The good news?  Princess Avery was also no where to be seen.  *small cheer*

Anyway, THE STARS WONNNNNN.  Yes yes, 4-3!!  (Notice the only pre-season game they’ve won is one I attended?  Just sayin Stars, I would not be against preferential treatment if it guarantees a Stars win.)  The Blues were up by 1 after the first, when Crombeen got a sweet shot and made it 1-1 in the second, with Barch and Grossman getting the assists.  The third period had crazy scoring; the Blues made it 2-1.  Then later, in less than 5 minutes the Stars managed 3 goals!  First Otter from Fistric and the rookie Stafford.  Then, James Neal was all alone in the offensive zone, help was on the way, but he just went behind the net then BOOM, in the puck goes!  That is a good kid that Neal, I hope he earns a spot on the team.  Brenden Morrow then got the last goal, the game winner, from Robidas and Grossman.  The Blues came back to make the score 4-3, but the damage had been done.  Stars win, and Morrow was the first star, followed by Neal.

One shocking stat from Saturday’s game was that Brad Richards led with 7 shots on goal.  I am absolutely astounded, because he seemed reluctant to shoot the puck at all.  He’d hold onto it and give everyone time to get between him and the net before shooting it, and usually was stopped by a Blues defenseman.  I do hope he plays better in the regular season.  I love you B-Rad, but I hope we’re not paying you almost $8 million a year to do that…

Stars played tonight (well, I guess technically last night since it’s 3am) in Chicago and lost, 4-3.  Crombeen and Conner both got 2 assists.  Goals were scored by Niskanen, Lundqvist and Eriksson.  I don’t feel like elaborating, since I did not see the game and we lost.  I hate losing, as I’ve mentioned many times.

I also have the first person to add to the shitlist this season, but sadly do not have photoshop yet.  So the Shitlist will return as soon as I am able to photoshop stuffs.

We lost, but I really wish I’d seen this game.

Stars lost 3-2 in their opening pre-season game against the Blues last night.  Darn no local channels and the NHL Network not airing this game, because judging by the penalties, it seems like it would’ve been an exciting game to watch!

Krys Barch lead everyone in penalty minutes with 24, yes TWENTY-FOUR, 17 in the first period alone!  He receieved 2 fighting majors, a instigator minor, a tripping minor and a 10-minute misconduct.  Sean Avery was not far behind, getting 18 minutes himself; 2 hi-sticking minors, an interference minor, a roughing minor and a 10-minute misconduct.

Avery wasn’t all bad, he did manage to score the Stars second goal of the night, with assists from Steve Ott and Brad Richards.  Loui Eriksson got the first goal, assisted by Joel Lundqvist and Matt Niskanen.

Thursday night’s game is HOME against the Avs, and don’t forget if you go to take canned food for Hurricane Ike victims, you’ll get free tickets to another pre-season game!

Stars rally in the 3rd to beat the Blues

First off, I will start this by announcing how Rhadigan made himself look like the biggest idiot ever in the universe. Just because they have notes on their jerseys Mr Rhadigan, does not make them the “St Louis Blue Notes”. And secondly, as far as the Edmonton-Wings game goes; yes the Wings seem to be struggling being down 1-0 into the third. But remember, they are playing Edmonton. Despite what you might think, Mr. Rhadigan, Edmonton does not equal Calgary.

Now onto the actual game. I’m going to put this bluntly, the Stars were awful in the first. They couldn’t see to get it together. The only one who had it together was Marty, and he managed to keep it 1-0 through the first two periods. Keith Tkachuk got the first goal of the game, with an assist from Eric Brewer.

The Stars didn’t give up and came out swinging in the third. Otter of course, literally, getting into a brawl with Yan Statsny. Loui Eriksson got the scoring started 2:27 into the third with a goal from Mike Ribeiro and Brenden Morrow. Lehtinen got one past poor 5 foot nothing Manny Legace a little over 5 minutes later with a goal from Mike Ribeiro and Mike Modano. Apparently Lehtinen is such a good player, it’s like “nailing Jello to a tree” per Razor. Okay Razor. Eriksson bookended Lehtinen’s goal less than 2 minutes later with his second of the night. As I said before, Turco was their best player making some fantastic saves.

The penalties tonight were insane. Stars had 9 called against them including Ott’s fighting major while St. Louis only had 4. If I didn’t know better, I’d say someone in the Blues organization approached the Refs telling them they need to get to the playoffs, handed them some money and told them to go buy themselves a new whistle because they sure used it tonight. I forgot to mention; tonight was officially Boucher’s first game back. He wasn’t expected to return until the home game against Chicago, but Grossman got hit in the face with a puck and Nisky has a bruised foot. So Boucher came back early and Stars recalled Dan Jancevski from Iowa.

Three stars of the night are

1. Loui Eriksson
2. Mike Ribeiro
3. Marty Turco

Now, onto other things. After the initial shock I am thinking, of course, that this trade for Brad Richards is not a bad one. He is almost a point a game during his entire career, so that can’t be bad, at all. I know, I am stating the obvious. But I just wanted to get it out there. I am excited to see his first game Thursday when the Stars take on the Chicago Blackhawks.

Update: Detroit and Edmonton went to a Shootout, with Edmonton coming out with the win. This puts Dallas 5 points behind Detroit for first place in the league.

The good news…. Stars @ Blues

Okay so first off.  Wow.  That’s all I can say about the game last night, seriously.  You can find a LiveBlog from Caitlin over at Hockey Coma.

So instead of writing about a game that I really didn’t enjoy, I am going to find the good that occured last night (yes, believe it or not, there were some good things that happened in regards to certain players)

• Antti Miettinen: His goal and assist last night now gives him 4 points in his last 3 games.  Way to go Mittens!
• Mike Modano: His assist last night gives him 4 points on this roadtrip so far, and that’s only 2 games in! 
• Steve Ott: He has surprisingly now gone 4 games with no penalties; his last penalties was during the Wild game on January 3rd, when he racked up 14 PIM including 2 minutes for abuse of officials and a 10 minute game misconduct for abusive language.
• Mike Ribeiro: Last night was his 400th NHL game!  Congrats Ribbons.  He managed to grab 2 points and now has 4 points over his last 3 games
• Marty Turco: This one wasn’t your fault Marty, so rest easy.

Stars Edge the Blues in shootout, 5-4

Modano helped the Stars to secure a win; a win that early on in the game looked as though would come no problem. Paul Kariya and the Blues had a different plan.

It was the first meeting between the Blues and Stars this season. Last season, Blues had won 3 of 4. The Blues were looking to end their 2-game shutout streak and try to get a win under their belt. The ice was questionable last night, there having been a Dallas Mavericks game earlier in the day. The AAC crew were able to convert from basketball court to ice in a record breaking one hour and twenty minutes.

Paul Kariya took a penalty about 6 minutes into the game. The Stars were unable to convert, but didn’t give up; 5 seconds after the power play ended, Niklas Hagman got the puck in the net with the help of Jussi Jokinen and Jeff Halpern. Finn on Finn crime as Razor put it. It quickly became 2-0 less than a minute later with a little luck; Stu Barnes was attempting to pass across the ice, only to have it bounce off Keith Tkachuk‘s skate into the net. Ten minutes into the period, Antti Miettinen got a breakaway, only to have it stopped by Hannu Toivenen; more Finn on Finn crime. About 3 minutes later, the Stars became scrambling in their own zone and St Louis took advantage. David Perron got a goal (from Keith Tkachuk and Lee Stempniak) past Mike Smith. At the end of the first, we all got a scare when Robidas appeared to be in a lot of pain.

Luckily, Robidas returned for the second period looking as good as usual. Jussi Jokinen, however was nowhere to be seen; he left in the first with a lower-body injury. Despite 5 penalties in the second (2 on Dallas, 3 on St Louis), both penalty kills were awesome, not letting one goal in the second. One interesting thing during the second, was Razor joking that maybe our rink is a little short than 200 feet; mostly because in the last game Halpern slide almost head first into the board and a Blues player did the same thing this game. “That’s how you turn a doberman into a pug,” he said. Which made me laugh, being the proud owner of a Pug.

Four minutes into the 3rd Mike Modano made it 3-1, with help from Jeff Halpern. But just a little over a minute later, Paul Kariya started what would be a great third period for him, scoring unassisted to give the Stars a 1 goal lead. He got the puck past Smitty again just 5 minutes later, tying the game with assists from Brad Boyes and Keith Tkachuk. Ribeiro gave the Stars another lead 4 minutes later, with help from linemate Brenden Morrow and D-man Stéphane Robidas. It looked like the Stars were going to be able to pull out the win. But with 2 minutes left, Matt Niskanen took a roughing penalty and Perron took a slashing penalty. Blues pulled their goalie, and it was 5 on 4 for the rest of the period. It looked like the Stars were going to be able to hold off Kariya, but with 11 seconds left in the period, he scored again to give him the hat trick, and tie the game at 4. Stempniak took the assist on it.

Overtime was full of chances, but no one able to convert. So the best shootout team in the league took to it again.

• Mike Ribeiro is up first with no luck
• Brad Boyes first for the Blues, which Smitty had an answer for
• Sergei Zubov was unable to get the puck in the net
• Paul Kariya tries but Smitty makes a fantastic stop
• Mike Modano gets the only goal, a beauty
• Lee Stempniak tries but hits the post

Stars took the win, despite Paul Kariya. Now don’t get me wrong, I am actually a Paul Kariya fan (he is my favorite non-Stars player) but not when he’s playing us. I’m sure my neighbors could hear my cries of “DON’T LET KARIYA HAVE THE PUCK!”

The Three Stars of the night were:

1. Paul Kariya – 10th career hat trick
2. Mike Ribeiro – 1 goal, 5 game point streak
3. Jeff Halpern – 2 assists

Stars take on the Nashville Predators tomorrow night, New Years Eve. I will be in attendence, thanks to Caitlin at Hockey Coma. So everyone have a save New Year!