Round One : St. Louis Blues v Minnesota Wild

[cprice12]

Bleacher Report (Slideshow's R Us: "we use slideshows to artificially inflate ad impression stats") says Blues in 6

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2427 ... ffs/page/6

Regular season: The four meetings were split evenly, with the Blues winning the season finale on Saturday as both teams rested many key players.

Last 10 games: Blues 6-3-1; Wild 6-3-1

Why St. Louis wins: Like a few of these first-round matchups, these teams feel like mirror images. Both have goaltending that's solid but unproven in the playoffs. The Blues' goals for/against averages are 2.92/2.40, while the Wild are at 2.77/2.42. The Blues are ranked fourth on the power play, but the Wild are ranked first on the penalty kill.

What's a prognosticator to do?

I'm going to go with the Blues here. They are just a little better at 5-on-5 and have been playing better than the Wild down the stretch. Everyone knows only the Blackhawks and Kings can end a Blues season these days, anyway.

[ohio BLUES]

I fully admit I could be totally wrong like we ALL could.

There is a 0% chance that everyone is wrong.

Not true at all. Unless the people on this board pick every single possibility between the Wild and the Blues then certainly we could ALL be wrong!

Blues could win in 4
Blues could win in 5
Blues could win in 6
Blues could win in 7
Wild could win in 4
Wild could win in 5
Wild could win in 6
Wild could win in 7

I can't possibly be wrong.

Sure you can! The world could end mid-series, and all of us would be raptured. Err, most of us.

[theohall]

Da Wild and Da Note! It's gonna be one helluva Da series!

I was lurking on HF boards to see what the Minny fans were saying. All of a sudden, I noticed a post that included some familiar tendencies. This poster's handle is BladesofSTEELwFIRE:

You know the Blues are one of the biggest CHOKE jobs in the playoffs in NHL history? They have never won a Cup, not been to one since the 60s, and haven't even won a 2nd round game in 13 years!

That you, champ?

Blues in 6

not to TOates, but the other guy got his facts wrong. Bobby Orr, 1970, vs the Blues in the Finals. It's only one of the most iconic images in sports history.

[cprice12]

The NHL Tonight guys (McClennan, Weakes and the host of the show) on NHL Network picked the Wild over the Blues. All 3 of them did.

Here are the reasons they gave as to why the Wild will win the series:

- Their GM strengthened their team
- They are a deeper team than last year
- They are a hard team to play against
- Goaltender has jumped in and has provided stability
- Speedy forwards with a ton of skill
- Defensemaen who can jump into the play

WTF?
Those are the strengths of the Blues.

- Armstrong has made this team much more solid than last year
- We are a deeper team than the Wild
- We are known as an extremely hard team to play against as well..probably more so
- Allen has stepped in and provided stability as well
- Our forwards more skilled. Parise is their top scorer, and he'd be 4th in scoring on the Blues.
- Our defensemen are led by Petro and Shattenkirk, who jump into the play as well as any d-man out there.

I didn't get that analysis. It's like they just wanted to pick the Wild and listed some strengths of the team, not thinking that most of the strengths they listed are probably more of a strength for the Blues.

I guess you could say Dubnyk has been more of a stabilizing force than Allen because he has done it over a longer span this year...but Dubnyk also has a recent history of being thrown on the trash heap. You could say that he is due to come back down to earth and suggest that could very well happen when the stakes are higher in the playoffs and that could be a very viable prediction as well.

They have the Wild going to the conference finals against the Ducks, with the Ducks going to the finals.
They are doing their Eastern predictions tomorrow.

[cprice12]

Weakes also said that one of the reasons he is picking the Wild is because they have the state of hockey behind them.

What the hell does that mean?

That just seems like something that he thought sounded cool in his head. It's just a fluff tidbit on his analysis that doesn't mean anything.

[cprice12]

Tidbit....

The Wild is 3-8-2 in its past 13 games at St. Louis, having been outscored 43-24 in that span. It has won once in regulation in the past 14 visits since Oct. 20, 2007.

That stat clashes with their "have won 11 of their last 12" on the road this season stat.

Hope the trend of the first stat holds true.

[Robb_K]

[quote="JesusISKing"]Hi!
New here to the boards. Just a simple hockey fan here. Question for all you Blues fans...who is gonna be the starter in net for you guys. I'm in a playoff pool and I'm looking at goalies. I know Elliot and Allen split time during the regular season. Does Hitch intend on rotating goalies during the playoffs or his gonna stick with jsut one netminder? What is your collective gut feeling? thanks for your input.

have a great day.[/quote]

Allen will start the first game, and continue playing until he has a bad game. Elliott will play some because The Blues will go deep into the playoffs.

[Robb_K]

[quote="JesusNEVERexisted"]An 8:30 local time start on a weeknight?? The game won't be over till 11pm! Not till midnight on the east coast. Is the NHL trying to drive fans off??[/quote]

Nice! It's early morning for me at 5:30. A lot better than starting at 4:00 (the depth of the night. Good that I work at home, and don't need to go to an office!

[Robb_K]

I think that The Blues are healthy, and on a roll, and feistier and deeper than The Wild, with 4 lines playing well. On paper, they should destroy The Wild. But, the games are played on the ice. I think that The Blues should win it in 5, but no more than 6 games (if the bounces go wrong).

I look for Allen to continue his good play, and the new Stastny line and new Tarasenko line to both play very well. The Blues will get a high level team effort all up and down the lines and defensive pairings. I've been watching The Blues since they started, and this is the best team they've ever iced.

[ViPeRx007]

TSN's Analytics Predictions
http://www.tsn.ca/nhl-playoff-picks-tim ... g-1.255002

ST. LOUIS BLUES vs. MINNESOTA WILD
The Pick: Blues in seven.
Why? Much like last year's Los Angeles-San Jose first round, this has the feel of a possible Cup run for the winner and a bitter loss for the team that finishes second in the series. Minnesota's season turned dramatically once they added goaltender Devan Dubnyk, but they have a solid lineup, top to bottom, too. However, the Blues are probably the top team of skaters heading into the postseason, with high-end talent, experience and depth throughout, with their biggest question coming in goal. If Jake Allen or Brian Elliott can hold their own, the Blues may well be the best the Western Conference has to offer.

They go on to say...
- St. Louis over Chicago
- Then St. Louis over Winnipeg
- Then St. Louis over Tampa Bay and the Blues are Stanley Cup Champions.
- Allen will be the 3rd best goalie in the playoffs
- Dubnyk will be the 9th best goalie in the playoffs
- Tarasenko will be the 2nd leading scorer in the playoffs behind Stamkos.
- 7 of the top 11 scorers will be Blues players

I like TSN.

I was watching a Puck Daddy video last week on Yahoo, and the Blues are Wyshynski's pick from the West and for the Cup as well, which pleasantly surprised me.

Buccigross picked the Blues to win it all as well...but he has done that before...a few times.

I think he's picked the Blues every year since 1996...

[cprice12]

I think that The Blues are healthy, and on a roll, and feistier and deeper than The Wild, with 4 lines playing well. On paper, they should destroy The Wild. But, the games are played on the ice. I think that The Blues should win it in 5, but no more than 6 games (if the bounces go wrong).

I look for Allen to continue his good play, and the new Stastny line and new Tarasenko line to both play very well. The Blues will get a high level team effort all up and down the lines and defensive pairings. I've been watching The Blues since they started, and this is the best team they've ever iced.

I couldn't agree more.
And I've been watching them since about 1985-86 or so...at least that is about as far back as I remember watching them, when I was about 10...and this is indeed the best team they have had since I started watching.

They are 100% healthy. They are playing real good hockey right now...and Allen has been money. Blues fans should be excited for what this team is capable of doing.

[theohall]

The NHL Tonight guys (McClennan, Weakes and the host of the show) on NHL Network picked the Wild over the Blues. All 3 of them did.

Here are the reasons they gave as to why the Wild will win the series:

- Their GM strengthened their team
- They are a deeper team than last year
- They are a hard team to play against
- Goaltender has jumped in and has provided stability
- Speedy forwards with a ton of skill
- Defensemaen who can jump into the play

WTF?
Those are the strengths of the Blues.

- Armstrong has made this team much more solid than last year
- We are a deeper team than the Wild
- We are known as an extremely hard team to play against as well..probably more so
- Allen has stepped in and provided stability as well
- Our forwards more skilled. Parise is their top scorer, and he'd be 4th in scoring on the Blues.
- Our defensemen are led by Petro and Shattenkirk, who jump into the play as well as any d-man out there.

I didn't get that analysis. It's like they just wanted to pick the Wild and listed some strengths of the team, not thinking that most of the strengths they listed are probably more of a strength for the Blues.

I guess you could say Dubnyk has been more of a stabilizing force than Allen because he has done it over a longer span this year...but Dubnyk also has a recent history of being thrown on the trash heap. You could say that he is due to come back down to earth and suggest that could very well happen when the stakes are higher in the playoffs and that could be a very viable prediction as well.

They have the Wild going to the conference finals against the Ducks, with the Ducks going to the finals.
They are doing their Eastern predictions tomorrow.

I was going to write this exact same thing last night after listening to Weekes describe the Blues and pick the Wild, but got distracted.

One thing - on the stability in goal thing - the Wild stability is one guy. There is currently an impression about the Blues that the goaltending situation might be unstable, because there are essentially two #1s with no clear cut guy as "the" guy. Although, IMO, it's better because if Allen stumbles, Elliott is just as good. If Dubnyk stumbles, the Wild are screwed.

Note - that impression about the Blues goaltending isn't mine, because I'm perfectly happy with Allen and the way he is playing while knowing Elliott tends to come back stronger after long layoffs. The impression is what I keep reading elsewhere and hearing on tv and radio.

[cprice12]

The NHL Tonight guys (McClennan, Weakes and the host of the show) on NHL Network picked the Wild over the Blues. All 3 of them did.

Here are the reasons they gave as to why the Wild will win the series:

- Their GM strengthened their team
- They are a deeper team than last year
- They are a hard team to play against
- Goaltender has jumped in and has provided stability
- Speedy forwards with a ton of skill
- Defensemaen who can jump into the play

WTF?
Those are the strengths of the Blues.

- Armstrong has made this team much more solid than last year
- We are a deeper team than the Wild
- We are known as an extremely hard team to play against as well..probably more so
- Allen has stepped in and provided stability as well
- Our forwards more skilled. Parise is their top scorer, and he'd be 4th in scoring on the Blues.
- Our defensemen are led by Petro and Shattenkirk, who jump into the play as well as any d-man out there.

I didn't get that analysis. It's like they just wanted to pick the Wild and listed some strengths of the team, not thinking that most of the strengths they listed are probably more of a strength for the Blues.

I guess you could say Dubnyk has been more of a stabilizing force than Allen because he has done it over a longer span this year...but Dubnyk also has a recent history of being thrown on the trash heap. You could say that he is due to come back down to earth and suggest that could very well happen when the stakes are higher in the playoffs and that could be a very viable prediction as well.

They have the Wild going to the conference finals against the Ducks, with the Ducks going to the finals.
They are doing their Eastern predictions tomorrow.

I was going to write this exact same thing last night after listening to Weekes describe the Blues and pick the Wild, but got distracted.

One thing - on the stability in goal thing - the Wild stability is one guy. There is currently an impression about the Blues that the goaltending situation might be unstable, because there are essentially two #1s with no clear cut guy as "the" guy. Although, IMO, it's better because if Allen stumbles, Elliott is just as good. If Dubnyk stumbles, the Wild are screwed.

Note - that impression about the Blues goaltending isn't mine, because I'm perfectly happy with Allen and the way he is playing while knowing Elliott tends to come back stronger after long layoffs. The impression is what I keep reading elsewhere and hearing on tv and radio.

If folks want to pick the Wild in the series...that's fine. But at least give a good analysis. They talked about the strength of the Wild, but didn't talk about the Blues much at all. It wasn't good. They replay that show 100 times a day. They could have made the show twice as long with better analysis. They seemed to skim quickly through everything. It's the NHL Network for crying out loud. Have a good, in depth preview.

[theohall]

Yes, that particular show was pretty bad. If you noticed, they interviewed Parise, no one from the Blues, picked two Wild players for end of season awards, and then, not so surprisingly - picked the Wild.

It's like they completely ignored Allen's play down the stretch, or the Blues ability to go on long winning streaks (like back in January), or that the Blues are 100% healthy and 4 lines deep - not essentially two with a great D behind them.

Yes. Really bad analysis. It's a shame a former Blue (McLennan) didn't at least put up a fight. Of course, he did wind up playing for the Wild also.

[JesusNEVERexisted]

The Wild have the best record in the entire NHL since the All Star break. Plus when they have their full lineup they match up just as good or better against the Blues than any other Western conference team. They really are the hottest team in the league along with Winnipeg and Ottawa. All those reasons factor into why they picked the Wild.

Cprice, you know how many times I've heard "this is best Blues team ever or they are fresh for the playoffs with no injuries"?

1. With Federko and Sutter SEVERAL times. It got even stronger when Gilmour came with many saying Gilmour can get the Blues back to the Cup.

2. With Hull and Oates. With Hull after Oates left. LOTS of Cup talk with Hull and Gretzky. If Casey made that save the Blues could've gone to a Cup semi or a Cup!

3.With Pronger, Chopper, Tkachuk, Turgeon, Courtnall, etc. many in St.Louis already planned a Cup parade in St.Louis.

RobbK, I've followed you on the Blues Talk board and you have been saying for YEARS this is a great Blues team that could win a Cup!

[dmiles2186]

The Wild have the best record in the entire NHL since the All Star break. Plus when they have their full lineup they match up just as good or better against the Blues than any other Western conference team. They really are the hottest team in the league along with Winnipeg and Ottawa. All those reasons factor into why they picked the Wild.

Cprice, you know how many times I've heard "this is best Blues team ever or they are fresh for the playoffs with no injuries"?

1. With Federko and Sutter SEVERAL times. It got even stronger when Gilmour came with many saying Gilmour can get the Blues back to the Cup.

2. With Hull and Oates. With Hull after Oates left. LOTS of Cup talk with Hull and Gretzky. If Casey made that save the Blues could've gone to a Cup semi or a Cup!

3.With Pronger, Chopper, Tkachuk, Turgeon, Courtnall, etc. many in St.Louis already planned a Cup parade in St.Louis.

RobbK, I've followed you on the Blues Talk board and you have been saying for YEARS this is a great Blues team that could win a Cup!

This team has nothing to do with any other team in the past. Just takes a run, mang. No one thought the Kings were a juggernaut and then in 2012 they shocked everyone.

[cprice12]

The Wild have the best record in the entire NHL since the All Star break. Plus when they have their full lineup they match up just as good or better against the Blues than any other Western conference team. They really are the hottest team in the league along with Winnipeg and Ottawa. All those reasons factor into why they picked the Wild.

I'm not saying the Wild haven't been good, they have been very good in the 2nd half.
But the simple fact remains, is that on paper the Blues are quite frankly the better team. They are deeper, they are more talented, they have better overall special teams and they have the best players in the series.

Cprice, you know how many times I've heard "this is best Blues team ever or they are fresh for the playoffs with no injuries"?

And each time you heard that, it was likely true.
What is your point?

With Federko and Sutter SEVERAL times. It got even stronger when Gilmour came with many saying Gilmour can get the Blues back to the Cup.

2. With Hull and Oates. With Hull after Oates left. LOTS of Cup talk with Hull and Gretzky. If Casey made that save the Blues could've gone to a Cup semi or a Cup!

3.With Pronger, Chopper, Tkachuk, Turgeon, Courtnall, etc. many in St.Louis already planned a Cup parade in St.Louis.

The Blues have had some great teams in their history. But for one reason or another things never worked out in the playoffs.
And few people were so confident that they were "planning cup parades" in St. Louis. That has never happened.

But the fact remains that the Blues under Hitchcock are the best teams we have ever had. And this team, this season is the best of those...making this team the best team, top to bottom, that we have ever had.

The only question mark with this team is how Allen's play will carry over to the playoffs. If he continues his great play and the rest of the team stays relatively healthy, this team can go all of the way.

RobbK, I've followed you on the Blues Talk board and you have been saying for YEARS this is a great Blues team that could win a Cup!

For the last few years we HAVE had great teams and HAVE had legit shots at the cup. So, I'm not sure what your point is?

If this team wasn't a good as in years past, we'd say so.

[Kerfuffle]

Last night on the NHL channel all 3 analysts unanimously picked Minnesota over the Blues in round 1. Dubnyk is lights out - that's why I picked them to win the conference - even though the team I want to win is different.

[JesusNEVERexisted]

Cprice, HOW can you say the Blues are better? If you take out the last game (Wild rested 5 starters) they have a winning record against us. I saw all the Wild/Blues games this year except the last one and Wild clearly looked better. They are also the hottest team in hockey since the All Star break. Those reasons factored into the decision by the NHL network experts to pick the Wild.

The Hawks have serious problems besides Kane missing. So many players are not scoring enough. If the Blues played the Hawks this year I would have picked the Blues in 6 or 7 games. But the Wild are on a roll since the All Star break. I can see them beating the Blues in 6 games.

[Misc. Blues]

Here's a funny stat.

Last 40 games 28-9-3 for 59 pts for the Wild since Dubnyk

Last 40 games 25-11-4 for 54 pts for the Blues missing Shatty for 25 of those games

Hey they are better than us by 2.5 games...for a whopping total of 5 pts.

Let the games begin.