The Blues have reestablished themselves as a playoff-caliber team after a quick retool, which was quite an accomplishment.

But taking the next step – becoming a true Stanley Cup threat – will be quite the challenge.

Just ask Rob Blake, who just left his post as Los Angeles Kings general manager “by mutual agreement” after eight seasons.

Blake executed the same sort of quick retool that Blues general manager Doug Armstrong pulled off. While still employing aging stars Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty, cornerstones of the 2014 Stanley Cup champions, Blake managed to overhaul his roster with younger talent.

After missing the playoffs for three straight seasons, 2018-21, the Kings reemerged to finish with 99, 104, 99 and 105 points the last four seasons and reach the playoffs each time.

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But the Kings lost in the first round all four times, so they will move on without Blake.

This reminds us just how difficult winning a single playoff round is in the NHL. The Blues knew this from their pre-Cup experience, but now they must face that challenge again after climbing back into the league’s upper half.

This is a challenge they welcome, of course, but it will be a stiff challenge nonetheless.

Writing for Daily Faceoff, Frank Seravelli wondered if the Blues really have staying power:

For a 30-game stretch, nearly half the season, the Blues closed the year as the hottest team in hockey with a .767 points percentage. They won 15 games consecutively on home ice, including all three in the postseason. You know who did similar stuff last year? The Nashville Predators. Then the Preds convinced themselves they were ready to take a leap, and they fell flat on their face. St. Louis has unquestionably a great coach, a creative and aggressive GM, and a few really good pieces. They also have an aging roster that’s locked in on term. 

ESPN’s Ryan S. Clark noted that the Central Division will offer stiff completion.

Moving on from Drew Bannister to hire Jim Montgomery resulted in the Blues gaining a legitimate level of consistency that they used to reach the playoffs for the first time since the 2021-22 season . . .

Returning to the playoffs, or at least remaining in the hunt for a playoff spot late into the season, is the plan. The Central Division is still going to have teams such as the Avalanche and Stars that are in a championship window, with the Jets trying to establish themselves as a perennial threat.

Meanwhile, the Wild are expected to be an active player in free agency, while the same could be said for Utah after it stayed in contention for a wild card entering the final two weeks of the season. Adding the Blues to that equation means there will be six teams (at minimum) in the division legitimately vying for a playoff spot in 2025-26.

So, yeah, the Blues have work to do.

Here is what folks were writing about Winnipeg’s victory over the Blues:

Ray Ratto, The Defector: “No hockey team has historically killed joy faster than the Winnipeg Jets. When they make the postseason, they appear quietly and leave moments later. In fact, Winnipeg itself is from the Cree word for “lost in the first round.” They have been so committed to the bit that it’s still not clear that they actually won Game 7 over the St. Louis Blues Sunday night, even though I have watched the game twice since the actual game ended. The Jets don’t win that game because the Jets never win that game. But here we are. The Jets, known mostly for their seemingly incurable playoff interruptus, set themselves up for yet another galling failure last night and actually failed to fail in a situation where failure was all but assured. They parlayed the league’s best record and the best goalie and turned it into a humiliating 3-1 defeat . . . that is, until the final 116 seconds of regulation, when they turned it into the first bedtime story Jets fans will tell their grandchildren without firing down a slug of Caribou Crossing to dull the pain.”

Muret Ates, The Athletic: “Heading into Game 7, the Winnipeg Jets faced many questions about the value of their season. What could 82 games spent setting records, winning the Presidents’ Trophy and achieving myriad personal milestones mean if the Jets still couldn’t make it out of the first round? Could an entire year really mean nothing if Game 7 slipped away? What a hollow feeling that would have been. What an empty emotion, going from the roar of Canada Life Centre — the thousands of fans gasping at every shot attempt, cheering every hit, and collectively exhaling every time the puck left a St. Louis Blues player’s stick and landed somewhere safe — to nothingness. To the silence and doubts. To all those nagging questions that never seemed to go away. The Jets showed their value in the dying seconds of Game 7. With a 4-3 double overtime win over the Blues, they gave meaning to an entire season’s effort. They spent the year telling us, showing us and telling us again that they were a more resilient group — that they had built their scar tissue, learned their lessons and proven to each other that they’d be there in the biggest moments. It was a season set to be defined by its playoffs from the moment the puck dropped, but the Jets told us — ad nauseum — that they would focus only on the present moment, whether it was the next practice, the next shift or the next play.”

Lauren Theisen, The Defector: “Up until three seconds remained in Game 7, (Connor) Hellebuyck’s last three years had all followed a frustrating pattern. In the regular season, he would be an absolute workhorse who produced staggering shot-stopping numbers—the kind that could singlehandedly lift any team into Cup contention. But as soon as the playoffs started, that skill would mysteriously desert him. In 2023, the Golden Knights dispatched the Jets in five as Hellebuyck’s save percentage plummeted from .920 in the regular season to .886 for the series. In 2024, Helle won the Vezina Trophy for the second time in his career but made the ceremony a bit awkward by putting up a 5.23 goals against average in a five-game loss to the Avalanche. This series, against a streaking Blues squad, saw him hit a new career low—three yanks in three road losses where he allowed a total of 16 goals, with an overall first-round save percentage of just .830. In his lowest moments, including the first period on Sunday, Jets skaters weren’t doing anything to ease his burden. But as the team’s most important guy—maybe the single most important guy on any team—it was Hellebuyck’s job to provide a solid foundation, and instead he was the sinkhole.”

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“It’s a tough situation, for sure, especially in a playoff game with this magnitude. He handled it well, I thought, and listen, we got the win.”

Toronto coach Craig Berube, on St. Louisan Joseph Woll winning Game 1 against the Florida Panthers in relief of injured goaltender Anthony Stolarz.

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