The St. Louis Blues haven’t been to a Stanley Cup Final since they were part of the Original 12. Back then, they were by far the best of the six expansion franchises, but got swept in three straight finals from 1968-70.
Today, the Blues have become that franchise that gives their fans a pretty good team almost every season — yet never quite gets to the end of the road in the West. Well, that road has never been more wide open, with only a No. 7 seed (Dallas), a No. 8 seed (Colorado) and a No. 2 seed (San Jose) standing between St. Louis and a shot at its first Stanley Cup in franchise history.
They’re battling the Stars in an epic Round 2 series, that sits even after two games. We watched Game 2 on Saturday, and here are our takeaways:
Finnish Line
As Finland begins to assert its Suomi control over the hockey world, winning three of the past six World Junior tournaments and knocking off the Canadian women at the World Championships, the Stars are unveiling two of the top rookies in the 2019 NHL playoffs: defenceman Miro Heiskanen and left winger Roope Hintz.
Hintz was a dominant force in Game 2, closing the game with two goals and an assist, and three shots on goal. He came up from AHL Texas and has 9-13-22 in 58 games with the Stars this year, and at game’s end Saturday he had moved past Carolina’s Warren Foegele atop the playoff rookie scoring race with 4-3-7. He’s 22 and plays an all-around game with a nice mix of skill and physicality.
Then there is Heiskanen, who led all rookies with 23:07 of time on ice per game during the regular season, and has only increased that lead in the post-season, where he was averaging 26:19 heading into Game 2 — nearly five more minutes than second place Erik Cernak (21:39) of Tampa.
On Saturday, Heiskanen took a step back with just 22:14 of ice time, and of course, looked even better for it, with a goal and a plus-3 rating. With the Calder Trophy vote still nearly two months away, Heiskanen’s long stride and comfort with the puck had some folks wondering why he couldn’t beat out any of Elias Pettersson, Jordan Binnington or Rasmus Dahlen as a Calder finalist.
Men Advantage
We always look back at the end of a series, in search of a factor that put one team past the other. Early in Dallas-St. Louis, let’s talk about the penalty kill, shall we?
The Stars are the best team in the NHL playoffs right now at 94.1 per cent, a number that is otherworldly, especially at this crucial time of year. If you kill penalties at that rate, it can literally tilt a series, and the Stars have given up one goal in 20 shorthanded opportunities.
Late in Game 2, with less than three minutes to play, the Stars killed a minor with the score 3-2 — against a Blues power play that hasn’t been so bad. St. Louis is clipping along on the PP, entering the game with the third best unit in the league. The Blues went 0-for-5 in Game 2.
Next D-man Up
Remember when it went like this: as goes Alex Pietrangelo, so do the St. Louis Blues? Well, those days are almost gone, with Colton Parayko’s ascent to being the Blues.
OK, Pietrangelo is still the No. 1 horse on that St. Louis blue line. He’s a guy who always seems to find a spot in the bottom half of my Norris Trophy ballot, but like Sergei Zubov — who could never surpass Nicklas Lidstrom or Ray Bourque — we’re not sure that Pietrangelo will ever win the hardware.
At 29, however, Pietrangelo is beginning to give some minutes up to young Parayko, who played the second most minutes on the St. Louis blue line this season. In Game 2, Parayko had a goal and an assist as part of a giant group of Blues defencemen where it seems like everyone is at least 6-foot-3.
The 6-foot-6 Parayko, now in his fourth NHL playoffs (fifth NHL season) has a calm about his game that wasn’t there even a year ago. Here’s a kid who was passed over completely in the 2011 draft, and did not get taken until the third round in 2012. Anyone could have had him, and a scout named Marshall Davidson — the brother of Columbus Blue Jackets president John — convinced St. Louis GM Doug Armstrong to take a chance on the lanky kid out of St. Albert, Alta, via the Fort McMurray Oil Barons and the University of Alaska-Fairbanks.
Can you imagine that 30 teams passed Parayko over, not in one draft, but in two-plus rounds of the next draft? Parayko is a franchise defencemen, and played like one in Game 2.
LOL!
Stars coach Jim Montgomery wanted a better start, which he got. Heck, he even thought he knew what would happen next.
“Both teams will be better than in Game 1,” Montgomery boldly predicted on the off day between Games 1 and 2, “(but) even though the desperation is going to increase, there won’t be a lot of scoring chances because they defend really well and we defend really well. It won’t lead to end-to-end scoring chances.”
Ha! The first period ended with the Stars ahead 3-1, the teams combining to score three goals in a span of 72 seconds. End-to-end action, be the very definition.
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