Stanley Cup Favorites: St. Louis Blues

Now that I've looked at the top teams in the East, it's time to turn my attention to the West. If you want to catch up on my other contender overviews, you can check them out here (Pittsburgh | Montreal | Boston).

St. Louis

St. Louis has struggled in this short season, coming nowhere close to the performance they showed last year. But that should not be too surprising given how fantastically things fell into place in 2012. I have little doubt that had there been a full 82 game season this year, the Blues could have made things much tighter in the race for the Central Division.

After a few years in the wilderness, the Blues were able to stock up on talent and that shows in their depth. But unlike many of the other teams drafting in the lottery St. Louis did no emerge with any offensive superstars. Vladamir Tarasenko may get there one day, but he's not there yet. However, the Blues do have a lot of players who chip in. This season they have 13 players with at least 10 points. Once the playoffs start, this will make it harder for the opposition to focus on any one line to shutdown.

The Blues' true strength is on the backend. They may have the best blueline in the league. Alex Pietrangelo is likely to be a Norris finalist in the near future. Kevin Shattenkirk may not be far behind. The addition of Jay Bouwmeester gives the Blues another top defender who can eat up hard minutes. All this forward and defense depth adds up to great puck possession numbers. The Blues Fenwick close number is almost 54% (53.79), which is good for 5th in the league.

The goaltending has been a little more suspect, Brian Elliott and Jaroslav Halak are the main reason the Blues have struggled. Both goalies have had injuries, and some bad puck luck has likely contributed (the Blues PDO is ranked 22nd at 990). If one or both of these netminders can get healthy and sharp, the Blues could get on a deep playoff run.

The team's early struggles no doubt will make it harder to reach the Stanley Cup final. St. Louis could possibly have to go through LA, Vancouver and Chicago to get there. But it seems the ship has been righted and good puck possession numbers have a strong correlation to playoff success. The Blues' top players are all in their prime. I have not forgotten the great expectations at the start of the year. This team might be on the verge of seeing some of that bad puck luck turn around at just the right time.