Can the St. Louis Blues make the playoffs? The question seemed ludicrous just last month, when the team was four games under .500 and held the worst record in the Central Division. However, the Blues have points in seven of their past eleven games and are now comfortably within the playoff race for the final seed in the division or a wild card spot (even if it is an underwhelming race that The Athletic’s Tyler Dellow coined a “turtle derby”). So, could St. Louis actually pull off the in-season turnaround?
On paper, it may seem that their chances are still slim. The Blues are currently in 13th in the Western Conference with 47 points, five points back of a playoff spot, following a disappointing loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Monday night. However, the perception of St. Louis has suffered for much of the season due to the fact that the Blues have played fewer games than most of the league. St. Louis has played in just 48 games this season, tied for the least in the NHL, and less than each of the seven teams in the wild card mix. In terms of points percentage, St. Louis is actually tied with the Edmonton Oilers at .490 and easily within striking distance of the Anaheim Ducks, Arizona Coyotes, and Vancouver Canucks. The team will need to string together a few wins to catch up with division foes in the Dallas Stars, Colorado Avalanche, and Minnesota Wild, but it’s well within the realm of possibility. The Athletic’s model, updated daily by Dom Luszczyszyn, currently predicts that the Blues will finish tenth in the West, but just three points back of the Ducks for the eighth and final playoff spot.
However, can the Blues maintain their recent stretch of success? While the struggles of other contenders have made their modest improvement look impressive, the fact of the matter is that St. Louis is in the bottom-third of the league in both goals for and goals against per game. The team is still looking for improvement from many of its top players and have been unable to confidently rely on goaltender Jake Allen on an everyday basis. The roster undeniably has the talent to be better than they have so far this year, but there hasn’t been any reason to believe that a drastic change in fortunes is coming.
There’s also the matter of the impending trade deadline to consider. St. Louis has been a hot name on the rumor mill this year, including allegedly being open to trading stars like Alex Pietrangelo, Vladimir Tarasenko, and Brayden Schenn. Even if their recent success has cooled off those talks, the Blues will still need to seriously consider offers for impending free agents like Jay Bouwmeester, Carl Gunnarsson, Patrick Maroon, and Jordan Nolan. At the same time, they seem unlikely to be buyers and other teams in the playoff race could outpace them if they decide to make additions while the Blues stay the course.
The fate of the Blues’ season remains a mystery. Is this the team many expected? Has their recent success been an accurate portrayal of their ability and has their games played disadvantage allowed them to lurk in the shadows as a legitimate playoff contender? Or is this simply the bad team that everyone saw at the beginning of the season, whose struggles are supported by the statistics? With a post-bye week slate of games against the Columbus Blue Jackets, Tampa Bay Lighting, and Nashville Predators twice, we’ll soon know whether St. Louis is a contender or pretender. For now, what do you think?
Nope not making the playoffs think the boys on spittin chiclets are right and Hayes will be going to Colorado to help with secondary scoring pushing the blues even farther out. They really need to blow it up while they can cause the blues can only go down from here
Of course they can. There’s going to be at least one not good team; Edmonton, St. Louis, Colorado etc that makes the playoffs over there. Doesn’t mean that they should make moves like they’re a contender. They have pieces that they can move on from and really add good futures to what is a decent core of young players. Standing pat or making moves to just barely get in would be absolutely stupid.
why would they blow it up? on paper they will have a great returning roster next year. the only free agent they don’t want to lose is RFA Edmunson. with money off the books from Beaumeester they can sign one of the best available defensemen. I know they are playing poorly but the roster is 1 good defenseman and 1 consistent goalie from being one of the best.
The “turtle derby” is pretty accurate, but I prefer the “Here-You-Take-It-I-Don’t-Want-It-A-Thon”. The wildcard teams have a high likelihood of getting blasted in the first round. Not 100% mind you, but if Nashville is top dog in the Central, they don’t want to repeat last year’s debacle of taking the Bogus-Burgundy-And-Blue for granted for 6 games. And, I can’t see a Pacific (potential) leader taking a wildcard for granted, either. Seems to be a lot of hunger to play strong every game. Sure, maybe one of them starts running out of gas by season’s end, but the haves and have-nots in the West seem to be shaking out already. It’s almost like teams who don’t want to get crushed in the first round are semi-tanking to maneuver themselves into lottery-pick position, which is dicey. Lose-4-Hughes can only be won by one team. St. Louis *could* get a in as a wildcard by somebody else backing out, much like they backed out last year to gift the Bogus-Burgundy-And-Blue in.
Can? Yes, absolutely the West is wide open right now, with botg Wildcard spots ripe for the taking!
Will? No. Even with their recent surge and Binnington out playing Allen to steal the crease, their lack of scoring on a regular basis will be the downfall of the Blues. Despite Tarasenko’s shoulder surgery recovery appearing to finally be done, Schwartz has been utterly snake bitten (I’ve read he’s shooting 10% under his career average). Only David Perron and Ryan O’Reilly have been consistent threats on the ice every game.
All other players on the Blues squad have shown an unnerving lack of consistent effort that is the trademark of a playoff team – as the games tighten up down the stretch, I expect the surprise depth scoring to dry up.