St. Louis Blues Will Face Winnipeg Jets In First Round

There were a lot of possible scenarios for the St. Louis Blues on the last day of the regular season. Now, the chips have fallen and we know what’s going on.

The St. Louis Blues won their final game of the 2018-19 regular season against the Vancouver Canucks. Based on the other results the Blues had at the end of the year, that was all they could do to put pressure elsewhere.

The problem was the opponents for their divisional rivals. The Chicago Blackhawks and their porous defense was trying to contain the Nashville Predators.

The Winnipeg Jets were taking on the Arizona Coyotes. The Coyotes were a tougher opponent, but they were already knocked out of the playoffs by the time the final day began.

So, basically it all boiled down to that Nashville game. If they lost, the likeliest scenario would have had St. Louis hosting the Predators. If they won, they won the division.

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When Chicago jumped out to a 2-0 lead, it was an icky feeling. We were excited about it, but how much can you really be on the side of the Blackhawks?

Of course, they could not hold it. Nashville would unleash hell and score five unanswered goals en route to a 5-2 win.

That sealed everyone’s fate. The Predators would get the top wild card seed as an opponent. The Blues and Jets would face one another. The only thing left is the late-night result for the Jets and Coyotes to decide home ice advantage.

Now, it’s up to each fan to decide whether this is a good thing or not. In the regular season, the Blues played the best against Nashville. However, the Predators have a lot of playoff experience lately.

The Blues had bad regular season records against Dallas and Winnipeg. Even so, most fans were more comfortable with them.

Ultimately, the Jets are the team the Blues now have to beat. St. Louis was 1-3 against the Jets in the regular season. They lost by an average of two goals per game.

It is difficult to tell how much any of that means though. All four games were before Christmas, so the Blues never played Winnipeg when St. Louis was at their best.

Nevertheless, the Jets have owned the Blues at times. The losses saw the Blues outscored 18-9.

Additionally, the Jets like to play a similar style to the Blues. They play heavy and have the bodies to back it up, while the Blues are a little smaller but still try to get in your face.

If the Blues are to win this series, they will have to score goals. If the Jets can be had, it is on the defensive end, giving up almost 250 totals goals.

There will be time to go further into this series in the coming days. For now, the team knows what they have in front of them. It’s the Jets and this should be a wild, heavy series.