After a late-season surge to make the playoffs, the St. Louis Blues were essentially playing with house money against the Presidents' Trophy Winnipeg Jets. Even then, it's hard not to feel disappointment at the way the series ended.
The Blues' season came to an end in Game 7 on Sunday night as they fell to the Jets 4-3 in a double-overtime thriller. Holding a 3-1 lead with two minutes left in regulation, St. Louis looked like it would be able to close the series out and pull off the shocking upset. However, Winnipeg scored two goals late to tie it up with mere seconds left in regulation, and after nearly 40 minutes of extra time, Adam Lowry scored the game-winner on a redirect.
Any time a team loses a series in that fashion, it's going to hurt. What makes it even worse is the fact that the Blues played pretty well throughout.
St. Louis absolutely dominated in all three games on home ice. The Blues won by a score of 7-2 in Game 3, 5-1 in Game 4 and 5-2 in Game 6, and chased likely Vezina Trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck from the net in each of those games.
In Winnipeg, though, the story was entirely different. The Jets won all four games at Canada Life Centre, and while they were all close, being decided by one or two goals each time, it was still enough for them to take the series.
The Blues had no problem scoring in this series as their 27 goals were tied for the most in the first round, but it's when they scored those goals that matters. They had just 10 goals over their four games in Winnipeg, and that's just simply not good enough. That's especially the case when Jordan Binnington had a strong series overall, even stopping 43 of 47 shots in Game 7.
St. Louis had a great steason overall, and pushing the Presidents' Trophy winners to the brink doesn't take anything away from what it accomplished. However, the Blues have still only won one playoff series since winning the Stanley Cup in 2019, and it seems like they're a ways away from truly competing for another one. They'll definitely be a team to keep an eye on one way or another, though.
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