3 Reasons St. Louis Blues Can Beat Colorado And 3 They Won’t
By Todd Panula
Won’t: Track meet
If the Blues are going to win this series, they have to figure out how to play a similar style to what we saw in 2019. Nobody expects that level of physicality, but the Blues absolutely have to be that defensively sound.
No matter how positive you want to be about this series, the bottom line is that the Blues are not going to be able to win if the games and the series becomes a track meet. The Blues have talent, but they just cannot match the scoring.
Colorado finished with 197 goals scored as a team. That’s almost 30 more goals than the Blues scored.
Even if St. Louis had a fully healthy and primed lineup, it just is not likely they could keep that kind of pace. You might survive one 6-5 or 5-3 type of game, but the Blues have to find a way to keep this series boring and slow.
As mentioned, you have to jump on the Avs early and then sit on them. The Blues need second periods like we saw in the last game of the regular season too.
Colorado scored 79 of their 197 goals in the second period. 46 of those second period goals came on home ice.
So, if the Blues are to steal one on the road, they have to grab the lead in the first and then really clamp down on the game in the second. If they let the Avalanche fly around at will and try to respond, it’s not going to work out in the Note’s favor.