Currently on a four-game losing streak, the St. Louis Blues remain within distance of a playoff spot but are losing games to gain points. Compared to those in front of them, they have played a considerable amount more games, and have yet to reach them in points.
We did something like this at the beginning of January, so let's see where they sit now as the calendar has flipped to February.
Let’s take a look at where the Blues stand in the playoff race, both in the Central Division and the Western Conference wild-card race.
Central Division
This is unreachable for the Blues. They have played a few Central Division opponents in front of them this week and were throttled pretty badly. Even if this team could catch up to being within the top-3 teams in the division, they certainly can’t keep up with the big dogs.
At 23-25-4 for 50 points, they sit in sixth place in the Central Division. The top three teams, the Winnipeg Jets (76 points), Dallas Stars (67 points), and Minnesota Wild (66 points) are sitting pretty at the moment. Behind them are the Colorado Avalanche with 62 points and the Utah Hockey Club narrowly edged out the Blues at 51 points on the year.
The Blues are very far behind from the Wild, and they only play them one more time on March 15. Not exactly an ideal scenario to swing some points back in their favor.
Wildcard
This is a more manageable situation. For the wild-card spots, Utah now enters the fray ahead of the Blues. In front of them is Vancouver with 56 points and Calgary with 57 points. They are nearly there, but time is running out.
They did just beat up on Calgary a few weeks ago, but both Utah and Vancouver have had the Blues number this season. With two more games against Utah and then once more against the Canucks, there is an opportunity to get somewhat closer.
Do you think the Blues can pull themselves together and make it for the playoffs?