ST. LOUIS – It hasn’t been the steadiest of rides for the St. Louis Blues, but nearly halfway through the 2023-24 season, they aren’t too far out of the playoff picture.
The Blues bring a 20-18-1 record (41 points) into Thursday. They will officially reach the midpoint of the regular season on Saturday in terms of games played. At the moment, St. Louis stands just three points out of a Western Conference wild card seed.
After missing the playoffs last year and firing head coach Craig Berube last month, the Blues may not profile as a typical playoff contender.
Their powerplay scoring still ranks among the league’s worst, and the Central Division is stacked with playoff hopefuls. However, the Blues’ ability to avoid lengthy losing streaks to this point, their 7-1-1 record in games decided by a difference of one goal, and some other factors have kept them in the hunt.
In a full season, the cutoff for playoffs is usually somewhere around the high 80s or low 90s in points. The Blues are slightly behind that pace. With that in mind, several models predict it could be an uphill battle for St. Louis to make playoffs, but they have a fighting chance.
As of Thursday, these are among the playoff projections for the Blues:
The Athletic: 4% chance of playoffs and a projected 82 points.
CBS Sports: 5.4% chance of playoffs
HockeyReference.com: 22% chance of playoffs and 0.5% odds to win the Stanley Cup
MoneyPuck.com: 7% chances of playoffs and a 2% chance of advancing out of the first round
PlayoffStatus.com: 43% chance of playoffs and 2% odds to win the Stanley Cup
The Blues have made playoffs in 10 of the last 12 seasons and in all but ten seasons since joining the NHL in 1967. They haven’t missed the playoffs in back-to-back years since 2008.
