A series win will mean so much more

A series win over the Colorado Avalanche will mean so much more to St. Louis and their fans. Read below to see why a series win is so critical for St. Louis Blues fans and St. Louis fans.

After beating the Minnesota Wild in six games in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the St. Louis Blues head out on the road to face the Colorado Avalanche. Game one is tonight at the Ball Arena in Denver.

A series win over the Colorado Avalanche will mean so much more for multiple reasons. For the second consecutive postseason, the Blues and Avalanche will face off against each other.

Much like the first series, St. Louis will need to steal a road game to have a chance in this series. Colorado swept the Nashville Predators in the first round and have not played a game since May 9th.

Past history and bad blood

The playoff series last year led to bad blood into this season. The St. Louis Blues were swept from the first round of the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs by the Avalanche. It also came with a dirty play and hit by Nazem Kadri.

Kadri was suspended by the NHL for eight games after his leaping hit to the head of Justin Faulk. St. Louis remembered that play this season and made it a point to target Kadri many times in the regular season.

Nazem Kadri was suspended 8-games for this hit on Justin Faulk

Did @NHLPlayerSafety make the right call? pic.twitter.com/oY6zyu2hEq

— The Hockey News (@TheHockeyNews) May 22, 2021

In the regular season, the Blues started off the year with a win over the Avalanche but then lost the next two meetings.

In postseason history, the St. Louis Blues are 1-9-0 against the Colorado Avalanche. In 2001, the Blues lost 4-1 as the Avalanche went on to win the Stanley Cup. The Blues also lost one postseason game in the 2020 playoffs in the bubble.

Worst owner in the history of sports

A series win is also important for the city of St. Louis because of the Colorado Avalanche owner, Stan Kroenke. That’s right, the back-stabbing owner of the Los Angeles Rams, formerly the St. Louis Rams. It is no secret that the fans of St. Louis despise Kroenke and many other NFL owners but it would be nice to bounce his hockey team from the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The Rams moved out after the end of the 2015 season and moved back to Los Angeles. It has been seven long years in St. Louis without an NFL team and many fans and citizens are still bitter. Even though Kroenke paid the city a large amount of money in the lawsuit earlier this year, it still does not bring justice to what he has done to the city of St. Louis.

Lineup status

As we heard yesterday from head coach Craig Berube, the Blues are not expecting Marco Scandella to play even though he has skated and practiced. It seems that it may be a few more days before we see him back in the lineup.

Torey Krug is headed to Denver with the team but for “rehab purposes only.” It would be a huge surprise to see Krug back in this series but if he is able to come back, that would only make St. Louis stronger.

Series notes

Jordan Binnington will start for the Blues as goaltender tonight. He started all three games against the Avalanche this season. Binnington replaced Ville Husso after game three and led the Blues to three-straight wins.

Darcy Kuemper won the first two games of the series against Nashville for the Avalanche before receiving an eye injury in game three. He is expected to start tonight in game one.

Game one information

Location: Ball Arena – Denver, CO
Game time: 8:30 p.m. CT
TV: TNT
Radio: 101.1 ESPN St. Louis, NHL App

Game one odds and lines via DraftKings

Spread: Colorado -1.5

Money Line: Colorado -235
St. Louis +190

Over/Under: 6.5