St. Louis Blues: Central Division To Return To Toughest Division Status
The St. Louis Blues have long had good or great teams in their franchise history. Unfortunately, the teams that have been better have regularly resided in the same division, making it even harder to progress in the spring.
The St. Louis Blues have always had two major problems throughout their history. The first problem was often themselves, always seeming to stumble over their own feet at the wrong time. The second has been their division.
Regardless of the name, whether it was the Norris, Smythe or Central, there was always someone from that division standing in the Blues way. Chicago, Minnesota (North Stars) and Detroit are the ones that spring to mind most readily.
The more things change, the more they stay the same it seems. While the Blues are now getting chastised for being more inactive than some of their counterparts, people forget they did not need sweeping changes.
However, we circle back to the same points. Regardless of how good you feel the Blues can be, they have some very tough opponents to take on within the division.
Nashville just went all the way to the finals. Minnesota will be tough again. Chicago is always Chicago and the rest have improved, for the most part.
So, why not take a quick peek at each team and the trouble they are going to pose to the Blues and the rest of the divisional teams?
Might as well hold your nose and take the plunge. We’re going straight into the deep waters.
Colorado Avalanche
We’ll start off with the easiest one. Apologies to the Avalanche fans, but the once proud team has become somewhat of a joke.
I don’t say that with malice either. The Avs used to be my second favorite team when they had my favorite player of all time, Patrick Roy, on their roster.
However, their rebuilding efforts are currently making the scuffling of the Edmonton Oilers look like Edmonton was moving at light speed. It is just hard to figure out what the Avalanche are doing since they move certain guys for picks/prospects but ask for too much for others.
Several teams, including the Blues, were interested in Matt Duchene. Instead of turning him into a haul of picks or prospects, Joe Sakic held onto him in hopes that he can still be the cornerstone of the franchise.
Duchene has talent, but it is beginning to look like his 70 point season was a one year wonder. At this stage, even at 26, he might be more in that 50-60 point mold.
The Avs do have some good talent, but there is not nearly enough depth to really include themselves in any kind of division talk. When you’re taking Nail Yakupov off the Blues hands, your present is not looking that great I’m afraid.
Sorry Avs, but it is going to be another long year in the mile-high city.
Winnipeg Jets
The Winnipeg Jets continue to be the enigma of the division. They have the top-end talent to take everyone down, which they proved by scoring the second most goals in the Western Conference last season.
They have seen to their own, re-signing Mark Scheifele, who is coming off an 82 point season. Finnish sensation, Patrik Laine already took the league by storm with 36 goals and 64 points and had room to improve.
Defending is their problem though. They scored 249 as a team, but allowed 256. It’s a rare year when you make the playoffs allowing more goals than you scored.
It almost happened though. Winnipeg only won one fewer game than Nashville did. Turn some of those losses into overtime decisions and you might have a fight on your hands for that eighth spot instead of a seven point gap.
The defending and goaltending will still be the question mark of this team though. Steve Mason was brought in, but how much will he help? Mason is an upgrade, but he’s still a middle-of-the-road goaltender unless he hits his stride at 29, which is possible.
The Jets are going to give everyone problems. They already gave St. Louis problems, taking all five games last year.
They still seem like they are a couple years and a few pieces away. It is great to have all those goals, but they have to figure out a way to keep more out.
Dallas Stars
Dallas is another odd team to consider. They took it to the Blues in 2016, giving St. Louis all they could handle before the Blues eventually finished things off and went to the Western Conference Finals that year.
Then, inexplicably, the Stars took a major step backward. They finished 2016-17 ahead of only the Colorado Avalanche in the division.
They only won 34 games and were a whopping -39 in goal differential. Surely, those totals can’t be right can they? They were.
Dallas, admittedly, had a lot of issues last season. They were ravaged by injuries to top players for lengthy amounts of time. Yes, every team has injuries and some deal with it better than the Stars did, but it can’t be ignored.
Going into this year, it is hard not to plan on a significant bounce back from the Stars though. They already had leading scorer candidates in Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin.
Then they went and added Alexander Radulov. If you can keep him in the states the entire season, he’ll score 50 points for you. He can be problematic for a team, but it might be worth the risk for Dallas.
Additionally, the team brought in Ben Bishop to solidify their goaltending problem and brought back Ken Hitchcock. Bishop will have more of an impact on the ice, but Hitchcock should not be ignored.
Despite coming off a bad year, with injury, Bishop has the talent to be a top-five netminder in this league. He’s been to the finals as well.
Speaking of finals, Hitchcock returns to the only place where he won the big one. He’s going to do big things for that team, make no mistake.
Blues fans can think what they will of him, but when the message is fresh, players respond. People forget, he took a team on the cusp of floundering in 2012 and led them to their first division title in almost a decade and 97 points.
By the end, he had just been around the same group of players too long for things to be worked out. Give him new enthusiasm and new players and watch out.
Defending will still be somewhat of an issue for Dallas even with some additions. They’re going to be very tough tough.
Minnesota Wild
The Minnesota Wild had a dream season melt into somewhat of a nightmare. Don’t get me wrong, most teams would take their year in a heartbeat.
However, they raced out to what seemed like an insurmountable lead in the standings and then faded at the end. They let the Chicago Blackhawks pass them up in the standings. The Wild almost slipped enough that the Blues could have gained home-ice advantage.
Ultimately, that did not happen and did not matter since St. Louis won anyway. However, the Blues had the Mike Yeo factor, which probably gave more of a boost than anyone will ever admit. Getting revenge for your coach can be a motivator.
Despite the inauspicious end for the Wild, they are going to be a tough team again this year. The question will be how tough.
Can you depend on Devan Dubnyk to stand on his head the entire year again? Can they expect five guys in their 30’s to have 40-60 point seasons again?
The Wild made sure to re-sign some key pieces, including their first and fourth best scorers. They also added Tyler Ennis, who will be an intriguing piece.
Call me a fool, but I just get a feeling the Wild are going to regress to the mean. That is not based on anything, just a feeling.
I just feel they will be the Stars of this season and take a step back. That does not mean missing the playoffs, but winning the division might be out of their reach.
Their biggest question, like with many, will be their defense. It’s not so much a question of talent, but more whether their season last year was due to their defensive corps or Dubnyk’s stellar year.
Chicago Blackhawks
Who knows what the Chicago Blackhawks are doing. Who cares.
The dirty s.o.b’s manage to get the job done regardless. Yes, that is jealousy pouring through my fingertips. Three Stanley Cups after not having won for over 50 years, while the Blues still await their first will do that.
Personaly pettiness aside, the Blackhawks had a strange offseason to view as an outsider. According to Hawks fans I know, they are no less puzzled either. They are simply taking the route of trusting a management team that has given them one of the league’s best teams this entire decade.
Every year, the Blackhawks lose a piece and those looking upward hope that will the piece that knocks them off their perch. So far it has not happened.
This offseason might be different. Chicago has a knack for finding the diamond in the rough with names like Panarin coming out of the woodwork.
However, this past summer had a slightly different feel. The Blackhawks actually felt crunched by their salary cap issues, despite having the same issues seemingly every summer since winning in 2010.
Despite being second on the team in scoring, Artemi Panarin was dealt away before his contract could become an issue. Now, the Blackhawks are going Back to the Future, so to speak.
They’ve brought back Brandon Saad and Patrick Sharp. Looking to their glory days seems like a misstep for us outsiders, but the Hawks seem to know what they are doing. Who can argue with their results.
Again, many of us might hope the sweep at the hands of the Predators and an uninspired offseason might be the harbinger of doom for Chicago. Until it happens though, we can only assume they will find a way to win and be right in the mix to top the division again.
Nashville Predators
Speaking of the Nashville Predators, we come to last year’s Cinderella team at last. Nashville had a heck of a run. One not seen since…oh, 2012 when the L.A. Kings did the same thing. The Kings won it all though.
I kid. I have no real beef with the Predators, other than their fans’ obnoxious behavior during the playoffs. Be careful Nashville. It might be all in good fun, but you can quickly take over for Chicago in terms of your hardcore fans being more annoying.
On to the team. Nashville is a tough one to peg. I spent last year reveling in their struggles. Not so much because I had anything against them, other than being a divisional rival. More because so many were predicting them to storm the division.
Sometimes it takes a bit to integrate new players into a team, so you can’t just automatically hand teams anything due to an offseason. That was the case for Nashville during the 2016-17 regular season. They sure figured it out once the playoffs began.
I won’t lie. I took a little pleasure in watching them destroy the Blackhawks until the Blues had the misfortune of running into that buzzsaw.
Going into this year, there are many question marks about the team. Not season altering questions, but still minor little details that are hard to predict.
How will the team fair without the leadership of Mike Fisher? How much of an impact will Nick Bonino have without the comforts of having guys like Crosby or Malkin around? He’s not a world-beater, with only 37 points last year.
Will Pekke Rinne start to break down? He’s got his ups and downs, but is still a premier goalie. However, he’s played 60-plus games the last three seasons, combined with 34 games in the playoffs over the last two years. That can wear on a big body. Not saying it will, but it can.
The last question is the biggest. Can the Predators get rid of the post-final hangover?
We don’t see it in the NHL nearly as much as the NFL, but the loser of the final doesn’t always take the next step. For every team like Pittsburgh in 2008 that would win the next year, you have one like Vancouver in 2011 that somewhat disappear the next.
Nashville seems poised to make another run and have the talent, top to bottom, to do so. However, we thought the same of Dallas, so the season can play out in mysterious ways.
St. Louis Blues
Last, but definitely not least, we come to our own St. Louis Blues. The Blues are right where they usually are. Lost in the mix.
As a fan, that’s fine. Players enjoy being the underdogs and it suits the Blues personnel better anyway. The team doesn’t have a bunch of alpha-dogs, so taking it a game at a time is more in their wheelhouse.
People forget that the Blues can beat anyone on any night. Predlines is over there chirpin‘ that the Blues aren’t flashy. I see you there Predlines. I’m watchin’ you.
The Blues might not be flashy. They get the job done though. Only Pittsburgh has more playoff wins and/or regular season wins over the last five years than the Blues.
For whatever reason, St. Louis can never find that last bit of energy to get them over the hump. However, I disagree with this assessment that the Blues were too inactive during the 2017 summer.
They added a top-six forward in Brayden Schenn, who will definitely help a woeful Blues powerplay. If the Blues do anything on their powerplays in the playoffs, Nashville might have been signing a different tune.
People also forget that it took a truly awful stretch in December and January to put the Blues as low as they were in the standings. Some could argue it took as good a stretch to get them back in, but the Blues are not usually a hot and cold team.
If you even things out in the winter days, the Blues are in the mix with Chicago and Minnesota to take the division last year.
St. Louis does not have the first through fourth-line talent of some other teams, but each line performs its role well. With a full offseason to implement Mike Yeo’s style, the Blues will definitely be in the mix this year.
They do still have one of the best scorers in the league with Vladimir Tarasenko too. He might not have improved at the clip the Blues fans want, but he’s gotten better just about every year in one aspect or another.
Next: Early Guess At Blues Forward Line Combinations
The trouble for St. Louis, as with man other teams, is the PGA effect as I call it. In golf, you can have a great tournament and still finish out of the money if there are too many players to leap over.
That could be the case with the Central Division. You might have a really good season, but with six of the seven teams potentially being playoff quality, you might have too many to leap over to get to the top.
One thing is for sure, it is going to be an exciting season. That is the one good thing about the summer for a hockey fan. We all have hope.