Why St. Louis Blues will win the Stanley Cup Championship –NHL Special
St. Louis has definitely come a long way from last season and with a surge in performance, the Blues and their fans are hoping to finish it with a Stanley Cup championship.
This is possibly the best chance that St. Louis has at winning the cup in franchise history as they ended the 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season as one of the best and were only an inch away from winning the Presidents’ Trophy as well.
It was back during the 1999-2000 regular season that St. Louis ended atop but did not manage to win the cup, this time though, much has changed and there is a lot of things different from the previous line-up that obviously go in their favour.
The one thing that will certainly be of an advantage to St. Louis is that their opposing teams in the playoffs will always consider them to be inexperienced to the postseason, thus, taking them easy during the series. Blues will have to work out a proper
strategy, not to take an early lead in the series, but to maintain it as well.
It is a well known fact that Blues have the ability to keep the other team out of their net and one of the biggest reasons for that is Brian Elliott. Elliott was struggle to find a spot in the major league up until the start of this season and after St.
Louis gave him a chance, he became an All-Star and known as one of the best with a breakthrough season.
Elliott has an amazing 1.48 goals against average and .948 save percentage along with Jaroslav Halak, who holds 1.97 goals against average and .925 save percentage. St. Louis is blessed with awesome goaltending power and should use that to their advantage.
Alex Pietrangelo has also emerged as one of the best defenseman in the league with his ability to play a defensive physical game along with block all sorts of shots from reaching the net. He will be essential to the St. Louis defence in any situation.
Another great thing about St. Louis is that they do not rely on any single shooter to get their goals on the scoreboard. Blues are a versatile team with a number of players with great scoring ability. David Backes leads the team with 24 goals and does not
require that he put up 50 or more a season. Since St. Louis is full of shooters, this is bound to give the opposition a tough time defending them at any time.
Ever since taking up the responsibility to coach the team back in November of 2011, Ken Hitchcock can be termed to be a lethal coach with his clear cut foresight and how to play a certain group of players according to the need of the match.
Another advantage that St. Louis Blues will have is playing at home majority of the time, which is something they love to do. Blues might not be the best on the road but can certainly dominate when it comes to performing at the Scottrade Center.
They were 30-6-5 at the end of the regular season, better than the Presidents’ Trophy winners, Vancouver Canucks, but not as good on the road with a 19-16-6 away record.
St. Louis Blues are geared up and prepared to fight for a Stanley Cup and looking how hockey was about to die down in the city prior to this season, right now is the best time to get one.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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