New York Rangers rivals: St. Louis Blues season preview
If you need any proof that anything can happen in an NHL season, it’s the St. Louis Blues. The New York Rangers can look at the incredible season the Blues endured as proof that they could go all the way.
The St. Louis Blues went from the worst team in the NHL to Stanley Cup champions in a little over five months. It’s a lesson that a young team like the New York Rangers should learn from. That said, the Blues were definitely underachieving the first half of the season before turning it around.
The Blues won the Cup despite their numbers. They finished the season with the 12th best record in the NHL at 45-28-9. They were fifteenth in goals scored and 11 teams had a better goal differential. They did finish in the top ten on the power play, penalty kill and faceoff winning percentage.
They were merely average in overtime with a 6-6 record and a 3-3 record in the shootout.
The key statistics for the Blues is that after losing to the Dallas Stars on January 8 they were 17-20-4. From that point on they finished 28-8-5. They were led by rookie goalie Jordan Binnington who had a record of 22-5-1 after losing in his first two appearances.
The fact is, once a team makes the playoffs, they have to be one game over .500 in four straight series in order to win it all. The Blues won the Stanley Cup by winning two series in seven games and two series in six games. They finished with a playoff record of 16-12. Pretty amazing and a good lesson for the young New York Rangers.
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Their best player was Ryan O’Reilly who finished with 28 goals and 77 points. Vladimir Tarasenko led the team with 33 goals and only one other player, David Perron, finished with more than 20 goals.
The team’s defense is a combination of experienced veterans in Alex Pietrangelo and Jay Bouwmeester supplemented by youngsters Colton Parayko and Vince Dunn. You can’t say it is a “no name” defense, but it’s not hyped as one of the best blueline in the league.
If anything, the St. Louis Blues proved that a team that gets hot at the right time can go far and that it’s how you finish that is crucial to playoff success.
The Blues are in a tough situation with only $138,970 in cap space left. This was after acquiring Justin Faulk from Carolina. He is still on the last season of his Hurricanes contract and the Blues promptly signed him to a seven year, $45 million contract. Trouble looms in a year as they face some the need to re-sign top forward Brayden Schenn and captain Pietrangelo. They also have some key players hitting RFA status.
Against the Rangers
The Rangers can point with pride to the fact that they swept the two game series against the Blues. Henrik Lundqvist stole a 2-1 win on New Year’s Eve. Mats Zuccarello and Boo Nieves scored and Kevin Shattenkirk had an assist against his former team as he returned from a shoulder injury.
While that first win was against the “bad” St. Louis Blues team, their second game was against the “good” Blues. In one of their last games of the season on March 29, the Blueshirts came back from a two goal deficit to win 4-2 behind Alexandar Georgiev‘s 44 save effort. It was one of the most stirring and best wins of a tough season.
Arrivals
Justin Faulk was the big acquisition in the off season and he came over from the Carolina Hurricanes just a week ago. Many see Faulk as insurance if the Blues cannot get Pietrangelo to sign a new deal.
The Blues also made some minor additions including UFA defenseman Derrick Pouliot from Vancouver and former Devil right wing Nick Lappin.
Departures
The Stanley Cup champions will return this season with primarily the same roster. Hometown hero Patrick Maroon left the team to sign as a UFA with Tampa.
26-year old defenseman Joel Edmundson, who played in 64 games for the Blues was sent to Carolina in the trade for Faulk. Also going east was 2018 first round pick Dominik Bokk, a highly regarded winger playing in Sweden.
Top questions facing the Blues
The Stanley Cup Hangover – This is really the one question when it comes to the St. Louis Blues.. How will they handle the infamous Stanley Cup Hangover? They are probably the least likely team to repeat as champions since the 2006 Carolina Hurricanes.
Could they actually miss the playoffs? – It’s only happened three times since the league expanded. Could the Blues join the 1996 New Jersey Devils, the 2007 Carolina Hurricanes and the 2015 Los Angeles Kings? The Central Division is very competitive with only the Minnesota Wild looking to be out of the playoff picture from the start of the season. It’s going to be a dogfight and the Blues could end up on the outside looking in.
What to do about Alex Pietrangelo? – The Blues’ captain is the face of the team and has been a stalwart on the blueline for nine seasons. At age 29, he is going into the last year of a seven year, $45.5 million contract. The Blues are in a cap fix and picked up former all-star Justin Faulk, a righthanded shot like Pietrangelo and inked him to a long term contract. If Pietrangelo goes deep into the season without a new deal, does he become trade bait? Sounds a lot like Chris Krieder.
When you can see them
The Rangers don’t see the Blues until 2020 , travelling to St.Louis for a game on January 11. It’s an 8pm EST start.
The only opportunity for Ranger fans to see the defending champions in action will be Tuesday, March 3.
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