St. Louis Blues Are No Longer Dominating Eastern Conference Teams

 

Over the last few seasons, St. Louis Blues used to be all but guaranteed a victory over Eastern Conference opponents. That has become anything but the case this season. It took another sharp performance from goaltender Jake Allen to get a victory against the mediocre Buffalo Sabres. The Blues were outshot for the second game in a row — coincidentally against their second Eastern Conference foe in a row.

Allen bailed the team out with 32 saves and stopped all three in a shootout. Allen has had to be sharp recently as the Blues continue to allow quality scoring opportunities against, regardless of how many shots given up. On top of those issues, the Blues no longer have the dominance they once did against their opposition from the other conference.

One could argue that it isn’t a huge issue, since any team only sees an opponent from the opposite conference twice in a season. However, those are the games in which points need to be added onto your totals. Wins against the other conference, while not as crucial are like money in the bank. You don’t realize how important it is until it’s not there.

St. Louis is currently 2-2 against Eastern teams, so the sky is by no means falling. Still, even in the wins they haven’t performed up to their standards. They lost to the Columbus Blue Jackets and the score could have been worse than it was if not for Brian Elliott. The team did not show up to play in a 6-3 loss to the New York Rangers and were very slow out of the gate in a victory over the New Jersey Devils.

In the end, conference wins are more important and wins in the division are the real thing to worry about. However, there used to be a running joke that the if the Blues could just reach a Stanley Cup Final, they’d almost be assured of a championship since they crushed Eastern teams. While that hasn’t even been an issue to worry about due to their playoff frustrations, it just adds a tiny bit of doubt. St. Louis needs to keep the intensity going when they play teams from the East. They may have beaten the Sabres, but just wasn’t the convincing showing people have come to expect.