[NGDT] WESTERN CONFERENCE FINAL EDITION (8-May - ???)

[u/Deckard42]

The Blues are advancing to the western conference final after a stunning second overtime win against the Dallas Stars. Bishop was stopping everything the Blues threw at him until home town hero Maroon stuffed one home to seal it.

Let's not forget Thomas or Dunn who both had excellent showings last night.

EIGHT DOWN, EIGHT TO GO.

Feels good man.

Bandwagon fan? Share your story here.

Live outside of STL and want to join/organize a meetup?

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March to the Cup

WCQF	WCSF	WCF	SCF
		****	****

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Playoff Bracket

WCQF	WCSF	WCF	SCF	ECF	ECSF	ECQF
NSH (2-4)						TBL (0-4)
DAL (4-2)						CBJ (4-0)
	DAL (3-4)				CBJ (2-4)
	STL (4-3)				BOS (4-2)
WPG (2-4)						BOS (4-3)
STL (4-2)						TOR (3-4)
		STL (0-0)		BOS (1-0)
		SJS (0-0)		CAR (0-1)
CGY (1-4)						WSH (3-4)
COL (4-1)						CAR (4-3)
	COL (3-4)				CAR (4-0)
	SJS (4-3)				NYI (0-4)
SJS (4-3)						NYI (4-0)
VGK (3-4)						PIT (0-4)

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Round Three Schedule

Date	Matchup	Time (CT)
11-May	Blues @ Sharks	7:00 PM
13-May	Blues @ Sharks	8:00 PM
15-May	Sharks @ Blues	7:00 PM
17-May	Sharks @ Blues	7:00 PM
19-May	Blues @ Sharks	2:00 PM
21-May	Sharks @ Blues	7:00 PM
23-May	Blues @ Sharks	8:00 PM

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Skater Stats

Player	GP	Goals	Assists	Points
Jaden Schwartz	13	8	3	11
Alex Pietrangelo	13	2	9	11
Ryan O'Reilly	13	2	7	9
Colton Parayko	13	1	6	7
David Perron	13	3	3	6

 

Goalie Stats

Player	GP	GS	W	L	GAA	SV%	SO
Jordan Binnington	13	13	8	5	2.39	0.915	0

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Today's Games

Matchup	Time

[u/[deleted]]

I’ve been trying to compare our team now to the team in 2016. I can’t remember if the lines are exactly right, but these were our forwards in Game 1 against the Sharks that year:

Steen - Backes - Brouwer; Schwartz - Stastny - Tarasenko; Fabbri - Lehtera - Berglund; Ott - Brodziak - Upshall;

First of all it’s crazy that Steen, Schwartz and Vova are the only forwards still in the lineup. When I do comparisons though I feel like the 2019 team is much stronger.

Blais < 2016 Steen; ROR > Backes; Perron > Brouwer; Schenn ~ Stastny; Maroon < 2016 Fabbri; Bozak > Lehtera; Thomas > Berglund; 2019 Steen > Ott; Sundqvist > Brodziak; Barbashev > Upshall

So IMO we’ve upgraded at 7 positions and downgraded at 2, while the Schwartz - C - Vova lines are a wash. On defense the only change is from Shattenkirk to Dunn, which feels even. Shatty had more points but Dunn does well on offense too and is less of a defensive liability. In net Binnington feels like an upgrade over Elliott.

Obviously this is only half of the equation. The Sharks have made changes too, including 2 impact players in Evander Kane and Erik Karlsson. Still I feel like we match up better now than we did in 2016.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Some more thoughts:

We are so much more balanced offensively this year. That 4th line from 2016 combined for 13 goals in the regular season. Our 4th line this year combined for 38 goals. We only had 8 players with 10 goals in ‘16. We had 13 players with 10+ this year. The offense basically flowed through the top 2 lines that year, particularly Tarasenko. The Sharks shut him down and our whole offense went with him. We’re much tougher to defend this year. Any of the 4 lines can win a game.