After a 4-0 pounding by the Blues on Monday, The Stars are planning on coming out swinging.
So far this preseason, the Blues are an impressive 4-0. While not the only undefeated team in the Central Division – the Minnesota Wild are also off to a perfect preseason start – they are one of only two teams in the NHL to have won four preseason matches, and the San Jose Sharks still have a loss to their name.
What does this mean?
Well, as a predictor of the Blues’ future finish in the standings, not much. We’ve all been burned by good preseason performances before, and should know enough to not expect preseason to be indicative of the regular season. What fans have seen, though, are contributions from across the board, from regulars and from guys fighting for a roster spot. This might be a sign of the Blues’ continued scoring by committee approach that worked so well last year – especially when the committee was full of 20-plus and 30-plus goal scorers.
Tonight, the Blues face off against the Dallas Stars for the second time this season. They drubbed them 4-0 on Monday with a line-up full of guys fighting for a roster spot. This go round, in Kansas City’s Cable Dahmer Arena, the Blues are icing a lineup that is much more roster-regular heavy. It should be interesting to see how the Stars handle this.
#stlblues lineup for tonight’s preseason game against Dallas …
Buchnevich-Thomas-Tarasenko⁰Saad-Barbashev-Leivo⁰Bitten-Brown-Bolduc⁰Highmore-Alexandrov-Angello
Leddy-Parayko⁰Rosen-Kessel⁰Tucker-Bortuzzo
Hofer⁰Zherenko
— Jeremy Rutherford (@jprutherford) October 1, 2022
The one place where there are question marks are in goal, but both Joel Hofer and Vadim Zherenko have played well, Zherenko especially.