St. Louis Blues looking to defend their Central Division title by capitalising on others weaknesses
St. Louis Blues who won the title of champions in Central Division of the Western Conference of National Hockey League (NHL) after beating their rivals Nashville Predators, Detroit Red Wings, Chicago Blackhawks and Columbus Blue Jackets are looking solid
to defend their title.
The Blues finished second in the Western Conference, just behind winners of the conference, Vancouver Canucks.
Blues played 82 games, won 42 of them, lost 27, 13 were their over time losses and they finished with a total of 109 points, just two less than Vancouver Canucks’ 111. Whereas their division fellows Predators, Red Wings, Blackhawks and Columbus finished
with 104, 102, 101 and 65 points respectively.
This was also first time in last 10 years that St. Louis Blues were able to win the crown.
The St. Louis, Missouri, based team has re-signed most of their previous season players and made few more signings like 2012-2013 season signings include Mike Mckenna from Binghamton Senators, Scott Ford from Milwaukee Admirals, Taylor Chorney from Edmonton
Oilers, Jeff Woywitka from New York Rangers and Andrew Murray from Detroit Red Wings.
Their other big signings are T. J. Oshie, their own centre, whom they have signed for five years now and left-winger David Perron, who is signed for four years.
They have not only kept and signed players but also enjoyed their division rivals missing out on few good players and also seen them losing their key players.
Their closest rivals Detroit Red Wings said goodbye to legendary defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom, who retired after playing NHL for more than 20 years. He was one player who always stood in the way of St. Louis Blues and was a big hurdle but since it is cleared
now, St. Louis Blues will have a sigh of relief.
Their other rivals Nashville Predators lost their star defenseman Ryan Suter to Minnesota Wild and almost lost the other one, when Philadelphia Flyers made an interesting offer for Shea Weber but Predators did well to retain their player. Columbus Blue Jackets
who already have been finishing last in their division for last three years lost their captain Rick Nash to New York Rangers.
Head coach of St. Louis Blues, Ken Hitchcock said that they made a decision to get their same boys back on the field and that will make a good team. They would also be looking to improve as he said,
"We just made a decision that we think there's a lot of growth in our team, and if we can remain healthy, get our guys back on the ice that were there for the playoffs, we think we have a good team that can improve a lot. I think our focus is we expect it's
going to be tough, but we've got enough horses to compete with anybody right now."
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