St. Louis Blues: What If There's Playoff Play-in Games?

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Division Finals

Here’s where it gets interesting. The Western Conference stays the same for me, but I’ve made some tweaks to the East.

Blues vs. Colorado

To reiterate what I mentioned in my other article, of all the series I have predicted, this one is a prime example 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 farther western team this year.

The Blues won their last four games against the Avs coming into this season. St. Louis took two more to start 2019-20, winning by impressive scores of 3-1 and 5-2.

Both wins came at the Enterprise Center. When the scene shifted to west to Denver, things changed. Colorado became the dominant team and took the Blues behind the woodshed for a 7-3 and 5-3 drubbing.

There were plenty of times where the game was not even that close. The Blues were 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 great series. However, I get the feeling it won’t be.

Calgary would use up a lot of emotion to beat Edmonton and I think they might be gassed mentally. Though Vegas might be physically tired from seven games against the Jets, I feel like the fatigue will affect them less since they have a bit more depth.

Add to that Calgary not doing 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 an excellent team. They have holes and they have issues, but they dispose of the Flames in six games.

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.

This is where I flip-flip from my other article. This series could change day to day to be honest.

While Tampa did a good job of making their team a bit grittier and more playoff ready, what playoff experience did they really add besides Pat Maroon? We love Big Rig in St. Louis, but is he really going to be the difference maker?

If we believe that New York takes a little more out of Boston, then Tampa still wins as I predicted in the other scenario. However, I think a good jolt from playing a more difficult opponent will actually wake the Bruins up and get them geared up for this series.

I still see it going seven games. This time around, the Bruins win the final game on their home ice.

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 particular addition to the rivalry could be a classic or it could be a clunker. Much of that would depend on how much Philadelphia had left in the tank and how their much goaltending could carry them.

Any cracks in the foundation and Washington gets back to the conference final. But, 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.

The funny thing is I still honestly believe this series determines who comes out of the Eastern Conference. If Washington wins, they go to the final. If Philly wins, Boston makes it to the final.

Oddly enough, the winner changes how many games could be played. I think Washington would win in six, but Philadelphia in seven. This time, I’m flipping the script and saying Washington will come out the victor.

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St. Louis Blues: What If There’s Playoff Play-in Games?

By Todd Panula | Mar 18, 2020