So my thoughts on my match up... I hate it, I had Nashville as 1 and St Louis as 2 in that division. But here goes:
St Louis has an amazing team I really love it but if you compare both teams, Nashvilles depth could really out match there's especially up front. They have a great first line with Marchand/Couts/Palmieri but Stamkos/Tarasenko were respectively playing some of the best hockey in the NHL this year, and both our 3rd wheels are great fits with the line. This is two first lines who'd really go toe to toe in a nasty battle, but once you look at second lines, Tkachuk/Backlund were unreal at evens this season and produce like crazy, they did much better than Hischier/Meier would and we know the pair works for sure, Nashville has a great second line. His third wheel is Kempe and mine is Kovalchuk, two very different players but we know Kovy shows up. I feel like the third line is where you really see the gap with Coyle being an elite 3C while Necas is probably better off on the wing, through in Crouse playing heavier hockey and Vilardi being an elite offensive weapon, I think that line I have an edge for sure. His 4th line is solid, but mine has ZAR who was one of the best defensive players in the NHL, Stephens who had awesome possession numbers this season and Reaves being a real nasty presence and I think my depth is just much better than Nygard/Ryan/Archibald which is a pretty mediocre at best 4th line. Clearly St Louis has the edge on 1st pairs but Nashvilles second pair as a shut down pair is really getting slept on, don't forget Edmundson logged huge minutes as a steady presence beside Pietrangelo on the cup run and Slavin at times this year. Demers too logs 20ish minutes a night. Butcher and Vatanen were both questionable this year. Bortuzzo and TVR are basically equivalent though Bortuzzo has the cup experience, and Reilly had great analytics this year on a horrible team, thats not nothing, you can check them out yourself. Ultimately in the crease its a tale of which goalie really shows up, and Gibsons one of the best in the league just stuck on Anaheim while Rinne is faltering. I prefer his high end group, but Nashvilles depth should run through St Louis' and depth wins cups. I loved St Louis team too and had them and Nashville flip flopping for top in the division until the last few rounds when I felt Nashville pulled ahead.