St. Louis Blues What If The NHL Playoffs Began Immediately?

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ST. LOUIS, MO – OCTOBER 21: Vladimir Tarasenko #91 of the St. Louis Blues takes a shot against the Colorado Avalanche at Enterprise Center on October 21, 2019 in St. Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Joe Puetz/NHLI via Getty Images) /

Second Round

Blues vs. Colorado

All the series I have predicted are prime examples of why the league should re-seed teams in the second round. St. Louis vs. Colorado should easily be a Western Conference Final.

However, much like the Blues having an emotional series against Dallas, prior to playing San Jose last season, St. Louis would have to play the Avalanche prior to any western team this year.

Things were looking very much in the Blues favor in the early part of the regular season. After winning their last four games against the Avs, the Blues took two more to start 2019-20, winning by impressive scores of 3-1 and 5-2.

Both of those games came at the Enterprise Center. When the scene shifted to the Pepsi Center, the mood changed. Colorado became the dominant team and took the Blues behind the woodshed with a 7-3 and 5-3 drubbing.

There were plenty of times where the game was not even that close. The Blues were just outplayed and overmatched in Denver.

That is why home ice is such an important thing. For this series alone, the Blues would need a potential seventh game to be on their home ice, in their building, in front of their fans.

That is not to say neither team could not or would not steal a game on the other’s rink. Actually, I think both teams would steal a road game in the first four and it would be 2-2 after four games.

That would put pressure on the Blues to win Game 5 at home because I’m not sure St. Louis would get two in a row over the Avs. When they play their best, the Blues are still a better team, but that’s a tall order.

This series would basically come down to the Blues having been there before. Colorado is immensely talented, but the shoe would be on the other foot in our favor for once in history. For once, the Blues would be the team standing in the way of the up and comer.

Like Detroit and Chicago always stood in the Blues way, it would be St. Louis’ turn to deny an opponent and it would be Colorado here. Blues in in seven

Vegas vs. Calgary

This has the potential to be a heck of a series. However, I get the feeling it won’t be.

Calgary is going to use up a lot of emotion to beat Edmonton and I think they might accidentally empty the tank. Though Vegas might be physically tired from seven games against the Jets, I feel like they’ll get a boost from that.

Though you can often chuck the regular season out the window, Calgary has not fared well against Vegas this season. The Golden Knights took all three games prior to the stoppage, winning 6-2, 6-0 and 5-2, so things were not even that close.

Vegas is still an excellent team. They have holes and they have issues, but they dispose of the Flames in six games.

Calgary is still young, even after adding some depth and grit. Their goaltending is too unproven. Cam Talbot is Cam Talbot and David Rittich is not this year’s Jordan Binnington.

Boston vs. Tampa Bay

This series would a tough one to call. You have the defending conference champion against the presumptive favorite from last season.

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You have a team that seems unstoppable at times. They would be playing a team that, in today’s standards, is almost impossible to score against at times. Though they got there in different ways, these teams are quite even having won 44 and 43 games respectively prior to the break and at plus-53 and plus-50 in goal difference.

As well as the Bruins have played all year long, Tampa has beaten them more times than not. Tampa is 2-1-1 against Boston. The Lightning won 4-3 in a shootout and 3-2 before the Bruins got a win. Boston won 2-1 in early March and then lost to Tampa 5-3 two days afterward.

I could easily see a rematch of St. Louis against Boston in the final. However, for the purposes of this, I will say Tampa Bay gets it done.

Though Boston is so solid defensively, they have just enough breakdowns to cost them the series. The fact they lost both home games during the season gives Tampa too much hope and the Lightning steal a couple games in Boston in the playoffs to win 4-3.

Washington vs. Philadelphia

This is another blast from the past type of rivalry. While we got used to Philly vs. Pittsburgh or Washington vs. Pittsburgh, these two had some battles back in the day when they had guys like Eric Lindros or Dale Hunter.

This one could be a classic or it could be a clunker. Much of that would depend on how much gas Philadelphia had left and how their goaltending went.

Any cracks in the foundation and Washington gets back to the conference final. However, Philadelphia picked off Washington several times during the year.

The series was 3-0-1 in favor of the Flyers. Washington won a shootout back in November, but all the games played in 2020, two of which came in February and March, were won by the Flyers.

I honestly believe this series determines who comes out of the Eastern Conference. If Washington wins, they go to the final. If Philly wins, Tampa makes it to the final.

While my head tells me the Capitals win, my gut says to go with Philadelpha. Unless the stoppage demolishes their momentum, I think they can take down the Capitals. They’ve done it and rather impressively with 7-2 and 5-2 wins.

Oddly enough, the winner changes how many games too. I think Washington would win in six, but Philadelphia in seven. So, we’ll go with the latter and the Flyers moving on.

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St. Louis Blues: What If The NHL Playoffs Began Immediately?

By Todd Panula | Mar 17, 2020