Depth
As much as we love everyone that suits up in the Note, most Blues fans would be hard pressed not to take a line of Nathan MacKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen over the best the Blues can offer. All three had 30 goals or more.
Personally, I love Justin Faulk and Torey Krug is a top notch puck mover. I’m taking Cale Makar over them in a fantasy draft.
Even though many fan bases consider Nazem Kadri on the level of Tom Wilson, he’s having a career year. The Avs have the higher end talent.
The Blues have better depth. If you can find a way to shut down the top three or the top six, the Blues win as long as their role players play up to their capabilities.
As impressive as the Avs numbers are, we should not ignore the Blues having nine 20-plus goal scorers. The Avs had seven.
While we gawk at the Avs having three 30-plus goal scorers, the Blues have two. Vladimir Tarasenko, who was left for dead in the preseason, and Pavel Buchnevich both scored 30 goals.
Tarasenko is clipping along pretty well, but Buchnevich has not yet hit his stride in the playoffs. Get him going and look out.
But, even if the Blues and Avalanche cancel the other out as far as top-six production, the Blues can take over with their bottom six. The lines change and guys rotate in and out, but I’ll take a bottom six consisting of players like Brandon Saad, Tyler Bozak, Alexei Toropchenko, Nathan Walker, Dakota Joshua.
It depends on matchups, but there are nights when the Blues will have players like Brayden Schenn, Ivan Barbashev or even Vladimir Tarasenko or Jordan Kyrou on their third line. I will take that over the bottom six of Colorado any day.
We marvel at Makar and the top three, but the Blues still have higher point totals in their lineup. The Avs had eight players of 50-plus points.
St. Louis also had eight 50-plus point scorers. However, their next three scorers had 40-plus points whereas there was a larger drop off after those top eight for Colorado.
If the Blues let the Avs get their top guys going, then it’ll be a tough series. If St. Louis can keep them quiet and make this about the bottom six, the Blues are winning this.
It will all be about whether the Blues can wear down the Avs. If you can roll out four lines, consistently, as the Blues are capable of, they have the advantage. The Avalanche are more likely to shorten their bench when Craig Berube can still throw out his third and fourth lines.
Beating the Avs is definitely going to be hard. If this is not a six or seven game series, I would be shocked.
The Blues have a path to victory and it all depends on the goaltending, scoring to their capabilities and the depth shining through.