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St. Louis Blues: Hard To Gauge Western Conference In Current Climate

By Todd Panula

Aug 2, 2020; Edmonton, Alberta, CANADA; Jaden Schwartz #17 of the St. Louis Blues attempts to get the puck around Philipp Grubauer #31 of the Colorado Avalanche during the second period in a Round Robin game during the 2020 NHL Stanley Cup Playoff at the Rogers Place on August 02, 2020 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Vinnick via USA TODAY Sports
Aug 2, 2020; Edmonton, Alberta, CANADA; Jaden Schwartz #17 of the St. Louis Blues attempts to get the puck around Philipp Grubauer #31 of the Colorado Avalanche during the second period in a Round Robin game during the 2020 NHL Stanley Cup Playoff at the Rogers Place on August 02, 2020 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Vinnick via USA TODAY Sports /
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The St. Louis Blues remain a championship caliber team despite some big changes. Their true ability to win is hard to tell until we know more about how the NHL will work.

The St. Louis Blues have had some big changes in the 2020 offseason. They lost their captain, but added Torey Krug on the blue line.

The Blues added Kyle Clifford for some grit and depth with injuries keeping at least two players from starting the next season, whenever that occurs. The Blues will have a new backup goaltender as well.

There were quite a few changes, even though the main core of the Stanley Cup championship team is still there. So, they should still have championship aspirations for 2021.

There is still plenty of talent on this current team. There are more question marks this coming season than the last one (2019-20), but there is no reason to think the Blues window is not still open.

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The strange thing is that we have no idea what the Blues are compared to some of their counterparts. You can look at what teams have added, but until we know who is playing whom and when and how, it’s all up in the air.

To get to the Stanley Cup Final, you have to win the Western Conference. The teams in the conference have made some upgrades.

Vegas is clearly trying to supplant the Blues at the top of the conference. They think Alex Pietrangelo is the man to put them over the top.

Calgary is an interesting team since they added quite a few pieces. Colorado picked up Brandon Saad, a player with experience defeating the Blues in Chicago.

It’s been an interesting offseason with plenty of players changing sweaters. However, as stated, we can’t get a true gauge of who stacks up against the others until we know the league’s format.

There is a chance there will be divisional realignment in 2021. If that happens, there’s a chance there is no interconference games, or maybe even any games outside of your own division.

If teams cannot go into Canada, or have to stay for two weeks before they can even play, it doesn’t make sense to use up that much of the season to cross the border. So, you might only play teams in your own division, whoever that might be.

The Blues chances might be quite different if they have Colorado in their division vs. Carolina. Tampa presents a different challenge than Dallas.

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Right now, we can only judge the Blues on what we think they are capable of in a vacuum. Without knowing who their opponents will be, there’s no real way of knowing how they measure up.

It’s all part of this wonderful sports landscape we live in right now.

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