10 NHL teams that can unseat the St. Louis Blues

Winning the Stanley Cup is a marathon of a task that requires the perfect storm of things all working in a team's favor, with the ability to make the playoffs after an 82-game grind of a regular season. That team needs to be healthy come playoff time and must be playing at the top of its game.

There also needs to be the occasional bounce and some good luck in its favor.

Having all of that happen once is difficult enough. Asking for it all to happen two years in a row is even more challenging, and it is a big reason why we have seen only three repeat Stanley Cup champions since the start of the 1990 season. It is just really, really, really hard to do. So for as good as the defending champion St. Louis Blues are, and for as much as they improved with the offseason addition of Justin Faulk to add to an already strong blue line, there is a good chance somebody is going to unseat them as champions this season. It is just a matter of which team that is going to be.

Here we take a look at 10 teams across the NHL that have the best chance to do just that.

1. Tampa Bay Lightning. For the Lightning to potentially unseat the Blues, they would first have to get over the hurdle that has been the Eastern Conference playoffs. But this is still the NHL's best team on paper. They really don't have a weakness, and their lineup is loaded with individual award winners. Eventually the Washington Capitals got over their postseason shortcomings to win it all. This team can do it too.

2. Boston Bruins. The Bruins were a Game 7 — at home! — away from beating the Blues just this past season in an incredibly close series that went the distance. The Bruins still have all of the same key pieces in place and will no doubt be a Stanley Cup contender again this season. There is reason to believe the same roster can be even better this season, as young players like Charlie McAvoy and David Pastrnak start to hit their primes.

3. Washington Capitals. With Nicklas Backstrom and Braden Holtby entering contract years, there is a lot of incentive to make another title run. The Caps definitely have the pieces to do it too. They spent the offseason tinkering with their depth and still have what should be the best team in the Metropolitan Division. They are just one year removed from a championship and are still good enough to be in that discussion.

4. Colorado Avalanche. This might be the biggest threat to the Blues in the Western Conference, not only because they will be competing for the top spot in the Central Division but also because they might have to get through each other in playoffs. The Avalanche are positioned to be the elite team in the West for the foreseeable future with a young core that is as good as that of any other team in the NHL, and they have the salary cap space to add around it.

5. Vegas Golden Knights. Their Game 7 meltdown against the San Jose Sharks still lingers, but this is one of the best rosters in the Western Conference, especially at the top where Jonathan Marchessault, Mark Stone, Max Pacioretty, Paul Stastny, William Karlsson and Marc-Andre Fleury do the heavy lifting.

6. San Jose Sharks. They lost some key pieces at forward (Joe Pavelski, Joonas Donskoi) and still have questions in goal (will Martin Jones be any better?), but as long as Erik Karlsson and Brent Burns are patrolling that blue line, the Sharks are going to be a force to be reckoned with. Their forward group is still surprisingly deep even after their free agent departures.

7. Toronto Maple Leafs. The Maple Leafs need to prove they can get through Round 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and they still have a pretty daunting path when it comes to emerging from the Eastern Conference (likely having to beat both Tampa Bay and Boston in Rounds 1 and 2). But they have the talent to do it, and they managed to navigate their salary cap struggles this summer while still adding to their biggest weakness: their defense (Tyson Barrie).

8. Carolina Hurricanes. The big question for the Hurricanes is if the goaltending is able to carry its end of the bargain. If it does, this looks like a strong contender to the Blues' crown. They have one of the best defensive lineups in the NHL and a young group of forwards who are a lot better and more impactful than they get credit for being.

9. Calgary Flames. Their climb to the top of the Western Conference standings a year ago was a bit unexpected, and they have a lot of the same pieces in place that helped them get there. The concern is whether they can repeat that performance. Mark Giordano is another year older, some players played above their normal level of expectation and they still have big question marks in goal. The top of the lineup (Johnny Gaudreau, Sean Monahan, Matthew Tkachuk, Giordano) is great and gives them a chance to win, but they have some question marks.

10. Dallas Stars. This is the big sleeper pick, but there is a lot to like about this Stars team. Dallas has one of the best top lines in the league (Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn, and Alexander Radulov), two elite defenders (John Klingberg and Miro Heiskanen) and one of the league's best goalies (Ben Bishop). They complemented them this summer with the free agent additions of Pavelski and Corey Perry and were a double overtime in Game 7 away from beating the Blues this past postseason. The Stars are right there on the verge of really becoming major contenders.