St. Louis Blues Might Get Hosed In 2020 Playoff Format

The St. Louis Blues have been waiting to finish the 2019-20 season for some time now. However, the format might not favor them or any top team.

St. Louis Blues fans found out about the if a few days ago. When the NHLPA (players association) agreed to the NHL’s proposal, we knew there would be a culmination to the 2019-20 season and, barring any setbacks, a champion will be crowned.

Now, less than a week later, we know the how. So, we simply wait on the when and where.

The how is that there will indeed be a 24 team playoff and the 2019-20 season ends where it finished. While it was 99% likely this would be the playoff format chosen, since it was what the NHLPA voted on, there was always a chance there might be last-minute tweaks.

There will be no tweaks. The Chicago Blackhawks and Montreal Canadiens, despite pushback from both fans and players alike, will take part in this expanded playoff.

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For those that missed the news, commissioner Gary Bettman laid out the plan with as much detail as he could.

The NHL has decided to go with the two hub city format. It is somewhat amusing that just weeks ago the hub city idea was quashed and it seemed a done deal that games would be in each home city.

Now, they’ve circled back to just two cities as hosts. We do not know who the cities are yet, but the Blues and St. Louis will not be one of them. Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Edmonton, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Pittsburgh, Toronto and Vancouver are the finalists.

I understand the need for due diligence. Vegas is attractive because of their mega hotels. L.A. might make sense to the league since the city and state are on lockdown, so you are less likely to have fans milling outside the arenas.

Chicago has a decent amount of rinks and hotels, but anyone outside of Chicago will likely roll their eyes at their inclusion. Most will chalk it up to another example of the league kissing butt.

They should just make Minneapolis a host. They have as many rinks in their area as the St. Louis are has churches. Outside of that, it depends what you want.

Personally, I’m not sure Canada works if they’re going to continue with their 14-day self-quarantine for anyone coming into the country. Choices also depend on whether the league wants an Eastern Conference city. If they do, Toronto is the only other choice, though I’m still not sure why Miami or Raleigh wouldn’t be considered.

As for the nuts and bolts of the format, it was mainly rumors confirmed. The top four teams in each conference will get byes and the bottom 16 will compete in play-in series.

Those series will be best-of-five. The top four seeds will play round-robin games against one another.

As feared/expected, the seeds will be on the line. So, despite being the top team in the conference when all this happened, the Blues could theoretically end up as the four seed if things went rather poorly.

Blues fans can be upset about that, but there is an argument to be made it’s slightly more fair in the Western Conference. The Blues were holding onto their lead by a slim margin over Colorado.

Boston would have the biggest gripe. They were eight points up in their division and 10 points up on Washington in the other division. They would really get the short end of the stick if they don’t come out well enough in those round-robin games.

Another thing that could throw a wrench into the works is the series length. We know the play-ins will be best of five, but they have not decided the first and second round length.

The Stanley Cup and conference finals will be best-of-seven, but the other two could be shortened if the league and NHLPA decide. A lot can go wrong and lesser teams can steal things in a shorter series, so that would not benefit St. Louis or any of the top seeds.

Like the format or not, it is hard not to be excited about hockey returning. There are still plenty of things to be worked out.

One thing is whether there will be re-seeding. The NHL, like most sports, play bracket-style playoffs. However, that is when you have the top seed playing the lowest.

If they do a strict bracket playoff, even if the Blues were the top seed, they might play the eight seed while the fourth seed might end up playing the 12 seed if there was an “upset” in the play-in round.

However, as pointed out by one of our regular readers, beyond fan discussion, how much do the seedings really matter? Everyone has been off the ice and there have not even been organized workouts.

So, it’s all about who gets hot at the right time. Remember how the Buffalo Sabres had great starts to the last two seasons and then fell off?

Just imagine a team like Chicago or Florida or Montreal just getting hot at the right time with not fall off in sight. Everything is on an even playing field, sadly.

The one thing the Blues have going for them is their style plays right away. St. Louis doesn’t have to wait for guys to round into form or get a hot streak. They can go out and hit the opponent right from game one.

The only worry is whether Jordan Binnington will be sharp. There is only so much a goaltender can do to stay ready and you can only bounce a ball against a wall so much.

Next. What if the Blues picked Gretzky over Keenan. dark

Only time will tell. For now, we have to focus on the fact we’ll get to see hockey somewhat soon.

They won’t even be having small practices until June and no training camp until July, but it’s closer now than the shutdown is and that’s something.

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