St.Louis Blues
Probably a little shocking that I don’t have the Blues in the top spot despite having a six-point lead in the Central Division for first place. Obviously this team is suffering no kind of Stanley Cup hangover, but something tells me they’re not going to eventually end up being the top team in the division.
The Blues have some outstanding goaltending with Jordan Binnington. He’s one of the top reasons the Blues have remained the team to beat in the division and in the entire NHL. They have some great depth and veteran leadership.
They’re doing all of this without Vladimire Tarasenko, and some other key injuries as well. Tarasenko might come back by the postseason and make this team even more deadly on the power play and on offense all together. They’re already a top-ten team in those categories without him.
I could be wrong, but I have the Blues finishing second place behind the only remaining team on the list that has just a little more firepower than they do. They may have 40 points, but they also have played more games than everyone else in the division and are still suffering losses once they get to overtime, with six overtime/shootout losses so far in 28 games played.
However, it should make for a heck of a playoff series if these two teams do end up meeting in the postseason.