St. Louis Blues Are Staying Alive In A Mediocre Conference
By Jason Martin
The St. Louis Blues are smack dab in the middle of a playoff race in the Western Conference, and the biggest reason why is the underperforming West.
It is no secret that the St. Louis Blues have been one of the worst team’s in the National Hockey League leading up to the All-Star break. It seems as though the Blues have turned the corner this season, but the results may be more of an indication of other underperforming teams.
The Blues have played the fewest games in the Western Conference and currently trail the Minnesota Wild by four points for the second wild-card spot and trail the Colorado Avalanche by five points for the third spot in the Central Division.
St. Louis needs to chase down four teams to claim a playoff spot by the time the regular season ends in April. This may seem like a big ask for a team that has been aggressively mediocre this season, but lucky for the Blues, the teams in front of them have been equally mediocre.
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The biggest thing helping not only the Blues but the seven teams in the West who are less than eight points out of a spot in the playoffs is the top-heavy Pacific Division.
The Calgary Flames, San Jose Sharks and Vegas Golden Knights are all within five points of each other for the top spot in the Pacific Division title.
Calgary leads the way with 65 points and are the top team in the West. Vegas is currently in third place with 60 points, and the Edmonton Oilers are the closest team to catching them, but sit with just 49 points on the year.
The Anaheim Ducks are also sitting at 49 points, but they have seemingly forgotten how to play hockey and went through a stretch of losing 11 straight games. They have already made some trades signaling the inevitable Ducks demise.
Minnesota and the Dallas Stars also stand in the way of the Blues making a push for a top-3 division spot. These two teams look like much more polished teams than the Blues at this point in the season, and they will be harder to catch than the teams from the Pacific.
There is a clear opening for the Blues to go on a run and push for either a wild-card spot or a spot in the division. It may seem like a longshot, but the Blues have played very well on the road and have a long stretch of road games on their upcoming schedule.
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Out of all years, for the Blues to underperform, this might be the best year for them to do it. Outside of the top-3 in the Pacific, the Winnipeg Jets, and the Nashville Predators, the Western Conference is aggressively mediocre, and the Blues are staying alive and have an opportunity to make the playoffs after all.