St. Louis Blues: How Accurate Were Our Season Predictions?

David Perron #57 of the St. Louis Blues(Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images)
David Perron #57 of the St. Louis Blues(Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images)

Eight months ago, we here at Bleedin’ Blue posted several bold predictions for the St. Louis Blues this season. Now that the regular season has come to a close, it is now time to check how accurate our predictions were.

Sometimes sports blogs like to throw out bold predictions and only swing back around to mention those predictions if they turned out well. For example, when I predicted Jordan Kyrou would make some waves this season for the St. Louis Blues and it turned out to be somewhat accurate, I made sure our readers knew about it.

Now is not one of those times where we only post if we are right. We are going to take a look to see how close our predictions were as a staff whether they were wrong or right.

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Prediction #1: Blues Win the Central Division

CORRECT

The St. Louis Blues took the division by a minuscule two points with one more game played than the Colorado Avalanche. Who knows how the season would have played out without it being cut short, but regardless – WE ARE THE CENTRAL CHAMPS.

Prediction #2: Fabbri Has a Coming-Out Party and Gets Traded for Prospects or Draft Picks

CORRECT – SORT OF

Robby Fabbri did not have a coming-out party while in St. Louis, playing just nine games and tallying one goal with a minus-6. However, after being traded to Detroit he did look similar to the rookie version of himself. In 52 games with the Red Wings, Fabbri collected 31 points and a minus-29 on a club dedicated to rebuilding.

In return, the Wings sent over Jacob de La Rose who played in 50 games in the Note and was a very welcome presence on the fourth line.

Prediction #3: Tarasenko Tops 50 goals in 2019-20 

INCORRECT

We here at Bleedin’ Blue had high expectations for Vladimir Tarasenko this season. Heck, I even said he would eclipse the 100-point mark right before his shoulder injury happened. Before the injury, he had three goals in 10 games which would have left him well short of the illustrious 50 goal plateau and our prediction for his season.

Prediction #4: Binnington Will Carry a Below 2.00 GAA Through 2019-20

INCORRECT

This one was a bit of a stretch for a second-year goalie given the reigns as the near full-time starter. Jordan Binnington ended the season with a still respectable 2.56 GAA but it would have been nice to see that number a bit lower. His GA%- shows that he was a slightly above average goaltender this season, but anyone who watched him knows he played very well for the majority of the season.

Prediction #5: The Blues Will Fall Two Points Shy of Their Second-Ever President’s Trophy

INCORRECT – BUT CLOSE

The Boston Bruins just edged out the Blues posting 100 points in 70 games played. The Blues were six points off in one more game played. Nipping at our heels, just two points back with one less game, were the Colorado Avalanche and the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Prediction #6: The Top Line Leads the Entire League in Points combined

INCORRECT

The best line in the NHL this season belonged to the Boston Bruins. Brad Marchand collected 87 points, Patrice Bergeron had 56 points, and David Pastrnak had 95 points for a total of 238 combined points. Unfortunately, this prediction went by the wayside when Tarasenko left the ice.

Prediction #7: The Powerplay Will be in the Top Five in the NHL

CORRECT

The special teams made an all-around improvement from last year, but it was especially noticeable in the power-play unit. The Blues were third in the league in power-play conversion percentage and posted the sixth most power-play goals. This is one is somewhat hard to believe after the train wreck special teams we saw in the playoffs last season.

Prediction #8: Blais Scores 20 goals

INCORRECT

Sammy Blais collected just 13 points in 40 games, fighting through an injury he received in the November matchup with the Lightning. He started the season with five points in his first five games but hit a bit of a slump before the injury. The time off did not help either, scoring just one more goal the remainder of the season.

dark. Next. 3 Reasons St. Louis Blues Won’t Repeat As Stanley Cup Champions

Overall:

So, we shot three for eight this season as a staff. Three for eight sounds pretty bad but in baseball, they would call this a pretty solid series.

Alright so it might be pretty bad but give us a break. This team was in dead last place last season and stormed back to win a Stanley Cup – they are impossible to predict.