Playoff Watch 2021

[Xerloris]

Blues have a hard schedule
Hardcore fans may still have doubts
They are not True Blue

Prior to the start of the season i predicted that the Blues miss the playoffs i still stand by that. There's problems outside of the injury excuse.

I find the timing of these two posts to be wonderful.

Any particular problem come to mind?

Oh you know what the problem is.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

Prior to the start of the season i predicted that the Blues miss the playoffs i still stand by that. There's problems outside of the injury excuse.

Care to make an avatar wager on this? Blues miss the playoffs, you can choose my avatar for a month, and vice versa if they make it.

 

[Vincenzo Arelliti]

Can Kostin come over after he’s done and be on Blues playoff roster?

Yep. Hopefully he pushes Sanford out.

 

[Mike Liut]

Yep. Hopefully he pushes Sanford out.

I’m fine with Sanford on the 3rd line. Plays good D and gets a few good scoring chances every game. I’ve been a Kostin homer since the draft. I like big, strong players who play with an edge.

 

[Ted Hoffman]

Can Kostin come over after he’s done and be on Blues playoff roster?

I was going to ask if we had an update on his shoulder injury, but it sounds like it was his rib cage and he got back in the game later.

Can he join us on the playoff roster? I believe so. Will he? Perhaps - I suspect he'd probably go to the taxi squad if he didn't get sent to the AHL for their playoffs - but I don't see him getting thrown into the lineup unless we continue to have injuries to deal with. If we're back to full strength ex-Sundqvist, I don't know who he pushes out and fills a spot that makes use of his touted skill set. Being on the taxi squad wouldn't be terrible for him, though.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

I see Kostin as a Black Ace. Coming over would be more of a reward for him, and hopefully a positive contact for his development. But I don’t see a scenario where he helps the Blues on the ice this year.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

Pos	Team	PT+	GR	RW	ROW	Max PTS
1​	Vegas​	+15​	26​	17​	22​	97​
2​	Colorado​	+12​	26​	17​	20​	94​
3​	Minnesota​	+9​	26​	15​	19​	91​
4​	St. Louis​	+5​	24​	11​	14​	85​
5​	Los Angeles​	+1​	25​	11​	12​	82​
6​	Arizona​	-1​	24​	11​	11​	79​
7​	San Jose​	-2​	26​	7​	8​	80​
8​	Anaheim​	-9​	23​	5​	8​	70​

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Thank you San Jose. Any night both St Louis and LA lose in regulation makes our relative lead just a tiny bit harder for the Kings to overtake.

 

[Ted Hoffman]

I don't know that we count on last night happening all the time, but we'll take it every time it does. Colorado beating Arizona is a bonus.

We find out how well / poorly we match up with Minnesota starting Thursday night. That will determine how much breathing room we have to work with.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

I don't know that we count on last night happening all the time, but we'll take it every time it does. Colorado beating Arizona is a bonus.

We find out how well / poorly we match up with Minnesota starting Thursday night. That will determine how much breathing room we have to work with.

I bet San Jose finishes above Arizona. The Sharks seem to have found some veteran pride and Arizona seems to be losing drive.

 

[Bye Bye Blueston]

We are still closer in points to Minny than LA. Our chances at making playoffs in spite of everything remain pretty good.

 

[Ranksu]

Arizona win SO vs Avs. Nice game btw.

 

[i aint Dunn yet]

Arizona win SO vs Avs. Nice game btw.

yep ... dont look now but here come the dogs

 

[Mike Liut]

We are still closer in points to Minny than LA. Our chances at making playoffs in spite of everything remain pretty good.

Our remaining schedule is very difficult.

 

[Stealth JD]

Our remaining schedule is very difficult.

We're 32 games in, with the bulk of our games having come against California & Arizona, and the Blues have managed to win 16 and lose 16. 24 games remain, with all but 6 against MIN, COL & VGK (and four of those six are against ANA). Fortunately, the Blues probably only need to win 11 of their final 24 games, provided they pick up a handful of loser points along the way; and they appear to be getting healthy. I think the odds of LAK overtaking STL is about 25% (and ARI about 10%), so the Blues should be in a pretty good spot as they sit (and heal) today.

Kings have 25 games remaining on their schedule (with one with STL yet to be rescheduled); one that looks easier, but is made up of a lot of rivalry games:
vs. ANA: 5
vs. SJ: 5
vs. ARI: 5
vs. COL: 4
vs MIN: 1
vs VGK: 4

 

[MilesNewton]

I see Kostin as a Black Ace. Coming over would be more of a reward for him, and hopefully a positive contact for his development. But I don’t see a scenario where he helps the Blues on the ice this year.

Do the Blues have to assume or buy out his contract over there?

 

[Bye Bye Blueston]

Do the Blues have to assume or buy out his contract over there?

No. He is under contract to Blues and was loaned over there.

 

[Thallis]

I see Kostin as a Black Ace. Coming over would be more of a reward for him, and hopefully a positive contact for his development. But I don’t see a scenario where he helps the Blues on the ice this year.

Yeah, he had a nice finish to his year in the KHL but let's not forget that Dimitrij Jaskin is a PPG player in that league.

 

[Brian39]

The Kings have earned 6 points in their 7 games vs the Sharks and Ducks. 4 points in 3 games vs the Coyotes, for a total of 10 points in 10 games against the other non-playoff teams. They might have an easy schedule, but they have shown no ability to turn that into a hot streak where they will bank a bunch of points beyond their current .500 pace.

Getting zero points vs the Sharks in their last 2 games was a "screw you guys" from Martin Jones. He stopped 83 of 86 over those 2 games and put the Kings into desperation mode. The Kings are idle this weekend and then travel to Vegas to play a Monday/Wednesday series against a team who has only lost 3 of their 16 home games. If the Blues take 3+ points from Wild/Ducks/Ducks then the Kings will start that series 8+ points back of a playoff spot. There is a very realistic chance that we go in to April having only played 1 more game than the Kings but sitting on a 9 point lead in the standings.

Thanks Martin Jones.

 

[Ranksu]

1 down and 7 more games vs Wild.

 

[Ted Hoffman]

I'd swear we're trying to take this to the last day of the season and see if we can engineer a 3-way tie on points and have to go down the list of tiebreaks and still find a way to back in.

 

[Stupendous Yappi]

Pos	Team	PT+	GR	RW	ROW	Max PTS
1​	Vegas​	+14​	25​	17​	22​	95​
2​	Colorado​	+13​	24​	18​	21​	93​
3​	Minnesota​	+11​	24​	17​	21​	91​
4​	St. Louis​	+4​	23​	11​	14​	83​
5​	Los Angeles​	E​	24​	11​	12​	80​
6​	Arizona​	E​	23​	11​	11​	79​
7​	San Jose​	-1​	25​	8​	9​	80​
8​	Anaheim​	-10​	22​	5​	8​	68​

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

 

[Ted Hoffman]

Coming into today:

Pos	Team​	PT+	GR	RW	ROW	Max PTS
1​	Vegas​	+15​	24​	17​	23​	95​
2​	Colorado​	+13​	23​	18​	21​	92​
3​	Minnesota​	+11​	24​	17​	21​	91​
4​	St. Louis​	+3​	22​	11​	14​	81​
5​	Arizona​	+2​	21​	13​	13​	79​
6​	Los Angeles​	E​	24​	11​	12​	80​
7​	San Jose​	-3​	23​	8​	9​	76​
8​	Anaheim​	-9​	21​	6​	9​	68​

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Also: no panic, but our L10 we're 2-5-3 which, if everyone else continued on their L10, would put us out by roughly 5-6 points. Also also: Arizona currently leads us on the H2H tie-break 9-7 so if we end up going down the list of tiebreaks at the end of the season, winning that game in regulation on the 17th becomes critical.

 

[Bye Bye Blueston]

Coming into today:

Pos	Team​	PT+	GR	RW	ROW	Max PTS
1​	Vegas​	+15​	24​	17​	23​	95​
2​	Colorado​	+13​	23​	18​	21​	92​
3​	Minnesota​	+11​	24​	17​	21​	91​
4​	St. Louis​	+3​	22​	11​	14​	81​
5​	Arizona​	+2​	21​	13​	13​	79​
6​	Los Angeles​	E​	24​	11​	12​	80​
7​	San Jose​	-3​	23​	8​	9​	76​
8​	Anaheim​	-9​	21​	6​	9​	68​

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Also: no panic, but our L10 we're 2-5-3 which, if everyone else continued on their L10, would put us out by roughly 5-6 points. Also also: Arizona currently leads us on the H2H tie-break 9-7 so if we end up going down the list of tiebreaks at the end of the season, winning that game in regulation on the 17th becomes critical.

It’s in our hands. We play well we should make it. Keep up like this and we will be focusing on ping pong balls. Really can’t afford to blow these 2 points today.

 

[Ted Hoffman]

Pos	Team​	PT+	GR	RW	ROW	Max PTS
1​	Vegas​	+15​	24​	17​	23​	95​
2​	Colorado​	+13​	23​	18​	21​	92​
3​	Minnesota​	+11​	24​	17​	21​	91​
4​	St. Louis​	+2​	21​	11​	14​	80​
5​	Arizona​	+2​	21​	13​	13​	79​
6​	Los Angeles​	E​	24​	11​	12​	80​
7​	San Jose​	-3​	23​	8​	9​	76​
8​	Anaheim​	-9​	21​	6​	9​	68​

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

BTW: since we started this thread and going to this method of looking at the standings we're 2-6-1. I'm not superstitious or anything, but maybe we need to burn one or both of them.

As far as points needed to likely clinch a playoff spot: the line was drawn at 62 to start. We were at 30 over the final 30. We'd now need 24 over the final 21 to get there.

If we ended up tied with Arizona on points, right now they'd win the 1st tiebreak (regulation wins). If we ended up tied with Los Angeles, right now we'd win the 2nd tiebreak (regulation + OT wins) but given they have 3 games in hand if they won all 3 games it's likely they'd get at least one win in regulation and move ahead of us on the 1st tiebreak or 2 wins in (OT but not regulation or the shootout) and then they'd win the 4th tiebreak (head-to-head) because we'd be tied on total wins.

Short: we've eaten up the margin of error we had, and the outlook is ... not good.

 

[BlueSeal]

Care to make an avatar wager on this? Blues miss the playoffs, you can choose my avatar for a month, and vice versa if they make it.

The way it's going, Blues Knight may win this one by a landslide. I believe in us, but I'd never make the bet that they'd make the playoffs, especially if we stand pat.