St. Louis Blues: Keys for Success Against Blackhawks

The St. Louis Blues may have had a great regular season and may have won the season series against their central division rival, but questions still arise for this team’s playoff future.

The matchup we all dreaded is here, our St. Louis Blues will be facing off against the Chicago Blackhawks starting Wednesday night. Will we finally see this team put forth the complete effort and get past a tough first round matchup? What’s it going to take for them to do so?

Today, I am going to tackle what it is going to take for these Blues to do what every Blues fan has been waiting for and to outlast the Chicago Blackhawks on their way to a first-round playoff series win.

More Than Tarasenko

Vladimir Tarasenko did what we all knew he was capable of this season and reached the 40 goal plateau (the first Blues player since Brad Boyes) and he will undoubtedly be a force to be reckoned with in this series. However, the Blues need more than Vlad to step up in this series.

As I mentioned last week, Tarasenko is a tremendous talent but what has made the Blues so dangerous lately has been the fact that everyone else has been putting the puck on net as well. The Blues must have a balanced attack against the Blackhawks in order to get past them in the first round.

Guys like Alex Steen and David Backes are going to have to step it up and provide that extra little bit. Not only that but Jaden Schwartz and Robby Fabbri have to do the same by utilizing their speed to get behind the tough defense of the Blackhawks.

Next: Offense From the Blue Line