The Dallas Stars didn’t have much going in a frustrating 3-1 loss against the St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center in St. Louis on Saturday.

Not so good

Thomas Harley is playing through an illness tonight. And as much as I applaud his grit to battle through, you can tell he is nowhere near 100 percent.

Harley looked a bit lost at times, specifically when he was beaten up the ice by Mathieu Joseph, who nearly opened the scoring on a breakaway. But there were other plays too. Bobbled pucks, turnovers, and a couple of blown coverages or mental mistakes. Hey, it happens.

And as someone who gets sick far too often, I understand how hard it is to try to do much of anything, let alone play an NHL game, when under the weather. So again, I applaud his effort.

I assume the decision to play Harley was a combination of the skilled defenseman saying he was good to go — they can be awfully convincing sometimes — and also the fact that Nils Lundkvist is out with a lower-body injury. If Harley was unable to go, Dallas would have had to send Justin Hryckowian down to the AHL before calling up some backup, likely Kyle Capobianco or Trey Taylor.

So, was Harley healthy enough to play? Was he just healthy enough to make the pain in the ass transactions avoidable? Or maybe some combination of things. Either way, the Stars could use a little better play from Harley in a game that is sure to be tight checking and low scoring.

Others were also not very good. Jason Robertson turned pucks over, Mikko Rantanen took penalties, Ilya Lyubushkin got beat for a few chances, et cetera, et cetera. Did you know that was two words? I didn’t.

Some goals, but for the wrong team

The second period was really not any better than the first. In fact, it was probably worse. Definitely worse if you look at the scoreboard.

Dallas created a few chances. Robertson missed the net on a breakaway, Wyatt Johnston was stoned in tight when Jordan Binnington seemed to tell the future and know exactly where that shot was going, keeping his glove up and ready on the short side.

After that, it all started going downhill against Dallas, and St. Louis began teeing off and doing pretty much exactly what they wanted.

Jordan Kyrou danced Matt Duchene, who nonchalantly attempted to block his shot from the high slot… sort of like you would try to “block” a shot in a pickup game. Kyrou buried it glove side on Jake Oettinger after the move to make it 1-0, and Minnesota Golden Gopher man himself, Jimmy Snuggerud, found a loose puck behind Oettinger to extend the lead not much later.

Dallas had NOTHING going on. Other than icing the puck, chasing the Blues around the defensive zone, and getting beat through the neutral zone, that is.

It looked a heck of a lot like the win in Colorado. Except they had the “excuse” of altitude and not having legs against the Avalanche. What’s the excuse tonight in St. Louis? No team is ever “not trying” in an NHL game. Well, no good team, at least. But the Stars do look like a frustrated team that can’t get anything going in the right direction tonight.

10 shots through two periods? Not going to cut it.

I mean…

This will be pretty quick because… well, not much happened.

I give Dallas credit for the effort. They did push harder in the third period. But they were stopped cold by a Blues team swarming and playing above the puck. St. Louis stacked the blue line and made it nearly impossible for Dallas to get through.

I said not much happened, eh? And I put it in italics because something did, in fact, happen.

As Luds, Owen, and I applauded St. Louis for how they defended their blue line and in the neutral zone, Rantanen decided to dance through multiple Blues and play give-and-go with Johnston to get Dallas on the board. It was a BEAUTY.

Dallas had another minute or so where they looked like they could potentially swing this and tie the game. But an incredible diving effort by Pius Suter pushed the puck just fast enough to cross the goal line before Roope Hintz could catch it. And that was it.

The Stars will be disappointed with how they played tonight, no doubt about it. But give St. Louis credit too… they heard their coach’s fiery words this morning and played a simple, north-south game worth of two points on home ice.

And after the game… more bad news: