Thanks For Playing: St. Louis Blues

Each spring 16 NHL teams play for Lord Stanley's Cup. At the end one team is left holding the cup while the other 15 teams can only think of what might have been. 

This is about one of the 15 teams who wasn't so lucky. 

How They Finished: 

49-22-11   109 points  1st in Central Division, 2nd in Western Conference. Lost in 2nd round. 

What Went Wrong: 

When you get swept in a four game series it's not hard to see what went wrong.

But when you look at the season St. Louis had it's hard to understand how a team this good could look so bad against a number eight seed.

The first thing to remember is the Kings aren't your normal number eight seed. They went into the final weekend of the NHL season with a chance to win the Pacific Division. A couple breaks in their final two games against San Jose and Los Angeles may have been a three seed and not playing the Blues in the second round.

In the series against the Kings, St. Louis forwards were not as dominant as they were in the regular season.

The only forwards that had any impact in the series for the Blues were David Backes (1G, 2A) David Perron (0G, 2A) Andy McDonald (1G, 1A) and Chris Stewart (2 goals)

Look at those numbers compared to the numbers put out by the Los Angeles forwards.

Dustin Penner (1G 4A)

Mike Richards (2G 3A)

Dustin Brown (2G 5A)

Anze Kopitar (2G 4A)

Jeff Carter (1G 1A)

Justin Williams (2G 1A)

St. Louis's defense had no answers for the Kings top six forwards as they were able to do what they wanted in the offensive zone. Los Angeles scored first in all four games and the Blues forwards were unable to do anything against the Kings defense.

With that big of a difference in scoring between the teams top forwards it's not hard to see why St. Louis only lasted four games against Los Angeles.

But I can't lay all the blame on the Blues forwards. Some blame has to go on goaltender Brian Elliott.

While Elliott had a good regular season splitting time with Jaroslav Halak he had to carry the load against the Kings due to Halak being unavailable because of injury.

Instead of being the goaltender that is a candidate for the Jennings Award, Elliott looked ordinary in net against Los Angeles.

He gave up four goals in the first period of game two which the Kings won comfortably 5-2. Then in game three, a game which St. Louis needed to win Elliott played what I think was his worst game of the playoffs.

All you have to do is go to the 2:30 mark on the highlights below and the final Kings goal in game three will tell you everything you need to know about Elliott's performance.

The Blues are built as a team that needs to have the lead to be successful, not a team that can come from behind. St. Louis never had the lead at any point in the series and that is why they are done in four games.

Where Do They Go From Here: 

Despite being swept in the second round the St. Louis Blues have to consider this season a success.

They started the season 6-7 which resulted in Ken Hitchcock taking over as coach of the team. From that point the Blues won 43 games resulting in their first division title since 2000. 30 of their 49 wins came on home ice which was the second best record in the NHL.

Not bad for a team that has made the playoffs once since the lockout.

The Blues projected cap space going into next season is a little over $28 million.

Most of that money will probably be used to sign forwards Chris Stewart, TJ Oshie & David Perron. Of those three I think Perron is the most likely to stay. I think Stewart and Oshie will return as well but I could also see both available on the trade market this summer.

On defense both Barrett Jackman and Carlo Colaiacovo are unrestricted free agents. My guess is both will be back with the Blues next year although it depends on what happens with the forwards mentioned above.

If it came down to picking one of the two defenseman my guess is the Blues re-sign Jackman and let Colaiacovo hit the free agent market.

The good news is a lot of the core players will return next year for St. Louis and Ken Hitchcock will be behind the bench for a full season.

The Blues may have surprised some people this season. That won't happen next year. But if they were good enough to win the Central Division this season they should be in the hunt next year.

More importantly this loss in the playoffs may make St. Louis hungrier next spring and that could be dangerous for the rest of the NHL.