The St.Louis Blues are another one of those NHL teams that have deep lines, plenty of depth, excellent defensive/offensive d-men, a balanced team in just about every facet. Where else can a team like this go wrong? The fact that the Blues haven't had much success in the past post-season since being one of the league's premier teams leads one to ask, how so? Is there a kink in St.Louis' armour? In a way, yes....
....namely in their goaltending, in Jake Allen & Brian Elliott. While these guys have come up big for the Blues in the regular season, the playoffs have told a different story, particularly with Elliott, St.Louis' go-to-guy. Inconsistency in the goaltending department is it, for want of a better description.
Minnesota has been just Wild about offence, what with a young corps led by the talented Zach Parise who is joined by a core group led by Jason Pominville, Thomas Vanek, Granlund, Koivu, & co., add to this mix a slew of grinders such as Nino Neidereitter and Chris Stewart, plus, a very good agile defence, led by Gary Suter, that plays the puck very well in front of their netminders.
Give the team's goaltenders a good dosage of credit for Minnesota's ascension this season, in part, Devan Dubnyk who has become such an integral part of the Wild's success. A change in his previous style of netminding helped Dubnyk improve his game, hence, his status in becoming Minnesota's #1 in net.
This is going to be an interesting series between two fast-skating, defensively-minded, goalkeeping vs goalkeeping teams.. Let's watch!
(Reference) Source: THN