About the only people in the NHL that don’t believe the St. Louis Blues can win the Stanley Cup are the St. Louis Blues. Blessed with a roster that covers all the bases: Veteran leadership, youthful exuberance, gritty role players, team first attitude, exceptional goaltending and a coach that has been there before.
Even with all the odds stacked in their favor St. Louis has managed to get in their own way over the past three years. They seem to have complete balance across their roster, but for whatever reason, cannot seem to get past teams that are their equal or less.
With two first round exits in the last three years and a second round sweep three years ago, the Blues are in danger of heading in the wrong direction while they have one of the league’ s best rosters.
The 2014-15 season is no different than the last three and the Blues will be one of the teams that have a legitimate shot at contending for the Stanley Cup.
Offense
Ken Hitchcock has long been a proponent of the team first offensive mentality. Rare is the standout stat king on offense for Hitchcock coached clubs. His results speak for themselves, but you will be hard pressed to find a great fantasy option among the forwards.
Alexander Steen looked poised to break out of that mold with a white-hot start last season, but cooled off after the Olympic break and was a non-factor in the playoffs. T.J. Oshie got a ton of love for his Olympic shootout heroics, but needs to elevate his game in the postseason. The emergence of Jaden Schwartz and Vladimir Tarasenko can only mean more goals for the Blues, and free agent prize Paul Stastny gives the club depth, experience and talent up the middle.
Defense
The strength of the Blues lies on the blue line where they got even stronger, acquiring Carl Gunnarsson from Toronto. He joins stalwarts, Alex Pietrangelo, Kevin Shattenkirk and Jay Bouwmeester. Barret Jackman and Jordan Leopold round out the top six on arguably the top defensive corps in the league.
Goaltending
The Blues were once in a position of strength with Brian Elliott and Jaroslav Halak platooning in the net. Halak was traded in a package that brought Ryan Miller to St. Louis. The Blues obviously have enough faith in Elliott and youngster Jake Allen to let Miller and Halak sign free agent contracts elsewhere. The starting job is Elliott’s, but Allen has shown promise in limited action.
Special Teams
With such a wealth of talent on defense the Blues obviously are a model of efficiency with the extra man or down a man. They finished in the top ten on the power play (8th) and shorthanded (2nd) proving that the most successful special teams benefit from exceptional defensive units. The fact that Pietrangelo, Shattenkirk, Bouwmeester and Gunnarsson are elite skaters means that St. Louis rarely gets caught with an odd man rush and are almost never out of position.
Coaching
Ken Hitchcock is one of the most respected and successful coaches in the league. He won a Stanley Cup with the Dallas Stars in 1999 and has achieved a tremendous level of success at every stop in his career. He is entering his fourth and magic year. By magic year I am of course referring to the fact that since he won the Stanley Cup (1999) Hitch has gone no more than four years with each of his last three jobs. Perhaps just a coincidence, but worth keeping an eye on.
Outlook
The Blues are a team that is young enough to improve as they gain experience. The last few years have been taxing and it almost feels like the window is starting to close despite the fact that the team has only two roster players older than 30. Whether the team has stopped responding to their coach remains to be seen, but they are in arguably the toughest division in the NHL. The biggest question will be in goal, where the weight will fall entirely on Brian Elliott’s shoulders. He has an elite defense in front of him that surrenders the third fewest shots per game (26.4) in the league. The Blues will break the Hitchcock “four-year curse” and once again be contenders in the Western Conference.