Even though I spent the whole game saying “this game sucks”, at least the Stars pulled out a win. I have to say, Loui Eriksson is really surprising me lately. He’s scored five goals in his last three games! Who would have thought! Kudos to you, Swedish Fish! Also, I admit that I totally adore his silly accent. Ralphie and Razor interviewed him after the game, and he was completely adorable. This is disturbing - is Eriksson becoming a favorite player of mine? I’m going to tell myself it’s the trade stuff, and I’m all discombobulated.
This is going to be a hard game recap to write. I’m being faced, constantly, with the lack of certain numbers on the game summary. No longer will there be “41 - G - Smith, Mike” on the goaltender summary. I won’t see numbers 11 or 36 anymore, and the names “Halpern, Jeff” and “Jokinen, Jussi” will never appear. It’s tremendously sad, but I’ll push my way through it.
First up, there were a couple of important defensemen out tonight, and one very important defenseman in. Nicklas Grossman was out with a facial bruise, and Matt Niskanen was out with a bruised foot (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). However, this means that one Philippe Boucher came back one game early! I squealed “BOO-BOO!” when he skated out on his first shift. The Stars called up Iowa Stars defenseman Dan Jancevski, and goaltender Tobias Stephan to back Turco.
The first goal was scored by the Blues (what a shocker), a minute and a half in. It seemed like the Stars were totally out of it for the first period, and even the second to an extent. Apparently something was said in the locker room during the second intermission, though - I don’t know if No Lip Tipp yelled at them, or if Brenden yelled, or what, but they came on offensively in the third period. Loui Eriksson scored one at even strength, and then Jere Lehtinen got a power play goal, followed by another even strength goal from Eriksson! Marty Turco gave a great performance, saving 27 of 28 shots.
I would like to voice a complaint, my first non-trade-related complaint of the day. What the hell, referees? I definitely noticed some obvious penalties that the Blues committed that went uncalled, and yet you call a bunch of crap on the Stars? If the Stars didn’t have the best penalty kill in the league, I would have been unbelievably worried. I’m still upset with you, referees.
I’m sending get-well vibes to Grossman, Niskanen (!!!), and Russian, and a big congratulations goes to Philippe Boucher for coming back and giving a great performance!
