Game 1: BLUES at STARS
Western Conference Second Round
TV: 8 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, TVA Sports
The last time the St. Louis Blues and Dallas Stars met in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Blues coach Ken Hitchcock was coaching the Stars, and Brett Hull, who scored 527 of his 741 NHL goals for St. Louis, was with Dallas.
It was the 2001 Western Conference Quarterfinals when the Blues swept the Stars 4-0 en route to the conference final. When the Blues and Stars play Game 1 at American Airlines Center on Friday, St. Louis will be looking to get back to the conference final for the first time since then.
"Everything needs to go up," Hitchcock said. "Dallas is [the] No. 1 scoring team in the League for a reason. They've got it right throughout their lineup. They've really got it on the back end. They've got great mobility back there. They're dangerous if you let them get loose. To me, they're a deep team that can score throughout their lineup and you're going to have to pay attention. If you fall asleep, any line falls asleep, we're going to be in a vulnerable position. Their record in the Central was terrific, their record against playoff teams was even better. We're going to have to be sharp. We're going to have to be sharp in every aspect. One thing we can't do is take penalties. We can't put them on the power play the way their power play was the last two or three games. That's not one we want to be looking down the barrel of very much."
The Blues advanced by defeating the Chicago Blackhawks in seven games in the first round; the Stars defeated the Minnesota Wild in six games.
"Our game, which is a speed game, a game where we can generate the type of chances that allow us to put the puck in the back of the net, get to the holes real quick, get to the net front," Stars coach Lindy Ruff said. "I thought we did a great job in the later part of the Minnesota series of getting people in front of the net and scoring some of the little bit uglier type goals."
Blues team scope: Forward Scottie Upshall was the lone regular who did not participate in practice Wednesday before St. Louis departed for Dallas. Hitchcock said Upshall is fine and is expected to be in the lineup. "Other than Upshall, who needed one more maintenance day, we're 100 percent and good to go," Hitchcock said. The Blues are expected to use the lineup that defeated the Chicago Blackhawks in Game 7. "We knocked the rust off," Hitchcock said. "We had good tempo. Execution was to be expected with two days off, but we got our 50 minutes in and we'll take that and get that pregame skate in tomorrow and we'll be ready to go."
Stars team scope: Dallas right wing Tyler Seguin will miss at least the first two games against the Blues with a lower-body injury. Seguin, who sustained a partially cut Achilles tendon in his left foot on March 17, played in Game 2 of the first round against the Wild but has not played, nor skated, since. Ruff said he wasn't sure when Seguin might start skating. "I really can't [say]," Ruff said. "I don't even have a guesstimate on it. I don't even think it'd be fair if I guessed and if I'm off, everybody else will be wondering, why did he guess that?" Center Jason Spezza did not skate Thursday, but Ruff said it was for a family matter and he will be ready to play.
Your pregame musicFRISCO, Texas (AP) -- The irony is not lost on Lindy Ruff as his Dallas Stars prepare for their second-round playoff series against Ken Hitchcock and the St. Louis Blues.
These coaches have a much different relationship after two Olympic gold medals together with Team Canada.
''I learned a lot, learned actually at the end to like him,'' Ruff said, acknowledging the two had some philosophical arguments when they roomed together in tight quarters.
Long before they were on their home country's coaching staff for the 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympics, Hitchcock was coach of the Stars when the franchise won its only Stanley Cup in 1999, complete with a disputed clinching goal in triple overtime of Game 6 against Ruff's Buffalo Sabres. Then came a first-round playoff series in 2006, when Hitchcock was with Philadelphia, when they two had a spat after a fight-filled Game 2. Ruff accused the Flyers of playing like ''idiots'' and Hitch responded with some expletives.
''We had a rough start with the Stanley Cup Final there and smoothed it over,'' Hitchcock said. ''We became good friends through two Olympic games. Being roommates with a guy for two and a half weeks, you get to know a lot about a guy.''
Ruff is now in his third season coaching Dallas, the top seed in the Western Conference just ahead of the Blues. The Stars are hosting a second-round opener for the first time since 2003, a year after Hitchcock was fired during a season in which they missed the playoffs. Game 1 between these two fast, hard-hitting teams is Friday night.
''Yeah, it's a full about-face. I like where our team is at, I like where our team has got to and I'm sure he's sitting in the same place,'' Ruff said. ''It's not about him or I. It's about how the teams are going to play.''
Dallas survived a frenzied finish for a 5-4 win in its Game 6 clincher at Minnesota after taking a 4-0 lead into the third period last Sunday. The Blues are in the second round for the first time in four seasons after a seven-game thriller against the Chicago Blackhawks, the defending Stanley Cup champion.
''Just think what this team is capable of,'' Blues defenseman Alex Pietrangelo said. ''Whether it was Chicago or anybody else, I think we showed a lot of resilience out there in that series.''
Some things to watch in what the Stars expect to be a physical series against the bigger Blues:
DALLAS DOMINATED
St. Louis won four of the five regular-season matchups, though two of the victories were in overtime and a third came in a shootout. Each team also posted a 3-0 victory.
GOALIE WATCH
Dallas and St. Louis both routinely used two goalies in the regular season, and all four goalies won at least 23 games. The Stars have kept that pattern in the postseason, switching goalies after both first-round losses. But the Blues have gone exclusively with Brian Elliott, who had at least 30 saves in six games against Chicago.
''It's experience. I think you soak it in through osmosis,'' Elliott said. ''It's not the kind of stuff you can write down. It's those feelings, it's those rising to the occasions.''
The Stars' Kari Lehtonen had a 2.27 goals-against average and .911 save percentage in four games against the Wild; Antti Niemi had a 3.36 GAA and .877 save percentage in two games.
''Both goaltenders got us wins inside the series, a lot like the regular season,'' Ruff said. ''They both held up well when it comes right down to it.''
OTT TO KNOW
Left wing Steve Ott, in his third season with the Blues, played 566 of his 795 career regular-season games and 34 of his 51 playoff games while with Dallas for 10 years (2002-12).
''I have friends over there,'' Ott said. ''It's no hidden message, but there's no friends when the playoff series starts, and I would expect the same thing from them.''
NICKED UP
Dallas All-Star center Tyler Seguin still isn't skating after missing the last 10 regular-season games and playing only Game 2 against Minnesota. Seguin had his left Achilles tendon cut by a skate March 17, and apparently suffered a different but related lower-body injury when getting back in a game after missing a month.
STARS TO WATCH
Jamie Benn, the Stars captain and their other All-Star center, led all NHL players with 10 points (four goals, six assists) in the first round of the playoffs. Jason Spezza, another Stars center, was second with nine points (four goals, five assists). Left wing Jaden Schwartz led the Blues with seven points (three goals, four assists). St. Louis star forward Vladimir Tarasenko will be closely watched after his ice time was down against Chicago; he appeared to confront Hitchcock at one point, though the coach shrugged it off and said simply that Tarasenko plays a demanding game.
Your pregame motivational speech