The St. Louis Blues have under 20 games to go in 2019-20. They will see a lot of the other conference, which is both good and bad.
The St. Louis Blues are in the home stretch now that March has begun. They have played 66 games as of the start of the month, which means there are 16 games remaining on the 2019-20 NHL schedule for the Note.
In another odd twist, thanks to NHL schedule makers, the majority of the games are against teams the Blues don’t have any feelings about one way or the other. The Blues have one more game against Chicago and then end the season with a potentially pivotal game against the Colorado Avalanche.
Other than that, the only rivalry type game left is against Minnesota. The rest are almost all against Eastern Conference teams.
The Blues have 10 of their remaining 16 games against teams from the opposite conference. The other non-eastern games are against the Anaheim Ducks, which is the makeup from the Jay Bouwmeester scare, the San Jose Sharks and the Los Angeles Kings.
The fact the Blues have so many games against eastern teams has pros and cons. As the title would suggest, it is a double-edged sword, meaning it cuts both ways.
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On the positive side, the Blues have a pretty easy week to start March. That does not mean the games are easy, but they play the New York Rangers following two days off and then have two days off before playing the New Jersey Devils.
Since those teams are separated by 14 miles, you’re not going to be taxed by travel. The Blues could theoretically stay in the same hotel the entire time. Who knows if they will, but they could.
Their other east coast swing has a bit more travel, since they start in Philadelphia, go to Carolina, down to the Miami area to play the Panthers and then back north to face the Capitals. Even then, it’s short trips. Without looking at the actual distance, it feels like less ground to cover than actually flying out west to play the Kings.
The other positive about playing Eastern Conference teams is the fact you don’t get as large a swing in the standings. For example, when the Blues beat the Dallas Stars to end February, the Blues ended up seven points ahead. If Dallas had won, the difference would be either five or four points.
Playing teams out east, you don’t get that four-point swing. The negative side to that, however, is you don’t have the chance to put even more gap between you and your challengers.
The only reason the Blues were not up by eight points was because it went to overtime, giving the Stars a point. You don’t control the destiny of point distribution when you are not playing teams within your own division. St. Louis could win every game left and still end up in second place if Colorado won every game, due to the fact the Avalanche have games in hand. That’s ignoring the fact those teams play one another too.
Additionally, the negative side of this “sword” is that it can be hard to get up for non-conference games. We have seen games against eastern teams take on a rivalry aspect and have lots of physicality, but that does not always happen. Subconsciously, you know you’re not going to see any of those guys again unless you both get to the Stanley Cup Final.
Also, the Blues have not been as dominant against the east this season as in seasons past. 12-6-4 does not sound bad, but it isn’t great either.
It all depends how you slice it. The Blues have won twice as many games as they outright lost, which is good.
They picked up points in 16 games to this point, which is also good. However, you can look at it as they lost 10 games in total, which takes some of the smile away. 12-10 doesn’t look as good as 12-6-4, so you’re basing a lot of your positivity on point production as opposed to pure wins.
The last problem with the schedule is the teams the Blues are playing. With the exception of Ottawa, New Jersey and Detroit, the Blues are playing teams that are either red hot or at the top already.
Boston and Washington are top of their divisions, Philadelphia is both hot and good since they have risen to the second spot in their division as March begins and the New York Rangers have won seven of their last 10 games. Oh, and the Panthers are clinging to their playoff lives, which always makes teams hungry to take you down.
Ultimately, there are not any of these games you really fear. Ironically, in an article talking about games against the Eastern Conference, the only truly nervous game left is that last one against Colorado and mainly because it is in Colorado.
Nevertheless, the Blues have to find a way to win these games. They could potentially be easy points without the worry of losing ground.