St Louis Blues

Updates from Friday, April 25

CSN's Tracey Myers reports that Backes will play:

Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post Dispatch previously reported Backes' status was uncertain:

The Blues' official Twitter feed added more info:

Updates from Thursday, April 24

Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post Dispatch has the latest on Backes:

Later Rutherford added:

Updates from Wednesday, April 23

John Shannon of Sportsnet reports David Backes is questionable to play tonight:

Lou Korac of NHL.com later confirmed Backes' status for Game 4:

Updates from Tuesday, April 22

Chris Kuc of the Chicago Tribune provides a statement from Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock discussing David Backes' injury status:

Updates from Monday, April 21

Sportsnet Hockey Central has the latest on David Backes:

Dan Rosen of NHL.com had more from Hitchcock on Backes:

Updates from Sunday, April 20

Louie Korac of NHL.com has the latest on David Backes' status for Game 3 against the Chicago Blackhawks: 

If Game 3 of the Western Conference First Round series between the St. Louis Blues and Chicago Blackhawks was Sunday, one thing is certain: Blues captain David Backes would not be playing in it.

Backes, who was injured on a hit by Blackhawks defenseman Brent Seabrook with 4:51 remaining in the third period, did not take the ice Sunday at the Blues' training facility inside the Ice Zone at St. Louis Outlet Mall for an optional skate.

'All I know is he's upright and that's about it right now,' Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said. 'We don't have any further information and probably won't have until late [Monday].'

Backes, who did not return to the game, missed time earlier this season with concussion-like symptoms. The Blues didn't disclose the extent of the injury and Hitchcock would not rule Backes out for Game 3 on Monday in Chicago. 

Original Text

St. Louis Blues captain David Backes was knocked out of Game 2 in the opening round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. As a result, the Chicago Blackhawks may be without the services of Brent Seabrook for a few games, too.

Backes was skating along the boards when Seabrook leveled him with a massive hit.

Seabrook was given a five-minute major and a game misconduct, while Backes was helped off the ice:

Nick Cotsonika of Yahoo Sports believes Seabrook should be suspended:

The health of Backes is also an ongoing storyline. He returned to his feet shortly after the hit and tried going after some Blackhawks players, but the Blues training staff wisely held him back.

Getting up quickly isn't always a sign that a player is all there, so there's no doubt the team will have Backes evaluated to determine if he suffered a concussion and how long it may keep him out.

After the game, Cotsonika spoke with coach Ken Hitchcock about Backes' status:

The Blues grabbed a 4-3 overtime victory Saturday to take a 2-0 series lead, so Backes' absence may not have a huge impact in this series. But there's no question St. Louis will need him back in the rounds to come.

In the NHL's Western Conference, the surprising Colorado Avalanche enter the playoffs as the Central Division’s No. 1 seed, avoiding a first-round confrontation with the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks.

Despite the Avs' regular-season success, including an 8-3 run down the stretch to edge the St. Louis Blues for top spot in the Central, Colorado sits well back of the favorites at 16-1 in Stanley Cup futures betting at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com, the lines provider to Bleacher Report.

And it’s the St. Louis Blues, who lost six straight to end the season, who enjoy the best odds to win the Western Conference and play in the Cup finals. To do it, they need to end the reign of the aforementioned Blackhawks in the first round.

Series odds: Colorado -135 | Game 1 odds: Colorado -140

The Avs, who had the first overall pick in June’s draft and rebounded for a terrific season, take on the wild-card Minnesota Wild, who are pegged as 40-1 long shots. Colorado has had the Wild’s number all year, taking four of five regular-season meetings, including a pair of wins in Minnesota.

“But can they sustain that success with a young lineup in the playoffs? That is the question on the minds of many hockey handicappers and that is why Colorado is not a huge favorite here in series betting odds,” according to Odds Shark’s Jack Randall, who was interviewed Tuesday.

Series odds: St. Louis -115 | Game 1 odds: St. Louis -120

The other Central Division series has No. 2 St. Louis facing No. 3 Chicago in a battle of titans. The Blues reigned as Stanley Cup favorites for much of the season but currently sit second to Boston at 6-1.

The Hawks failed to dominate in the regular season, but with Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane returning from the injured list, Chicago is expected to give the Blues all they can handle.

The Blackhawks sit at 8-1 in futures betting and dominated the Blues in a pair of late-season meetings after losing their previous three games head-to-head.

Series odds: Anaheim -205 | Game 1 odds: Anaheim -175

In the Pacific Division, the No. 1 Anaheim Ducks, sporting 9-1 futures odds, look to carry their home-ice dominance into the playoffs when they take on the 50-1 wild card, the Dallas Stars.

Despite outpacing the Stars by 25 points in the regular season, the Ducks have managed just one victory over Dallas this season and are 5-10 in their last 15 games against the Stars.

Series odds: San Jose -145 | Game 1 odds: San Jose -140

The other Pacific matchup features a pair of California powerhouses as the No. 2 San Jose Sharks take on the No. 3 Los Angeles Kings. The 10-1 Kings and 9-1 Sharks met five times in the regular season with four games decided by a single goal.

Los Angeles took three of the five games. However, it was the Sharks who came out on top in the clubs’ most recent tilt by posting a 2-1 victory in Los Angeles two weeks ago.

Ask an expert to name the best team in the NHL, or to pick his Stanley Cup favourite, and the St. Louis Blues are a common choice. According to Oddschecker, the majority of bookmakers have the Blues behind only the Boston Bruins—a team with a much easier road in the playoffs—as a better bet to win the Stanley Cup.

What makes the Blues stand out from the NHL pack? The combination of new goalie Ryan Miller and a truly exceptional defence really don’t hurt, but it’s instructive to look at how well a no-name forward corps compares to the rest of the league.

We’ll look at two categories of five-on-five statistics: goals for and against, and unblocked shot attempts (“Fenwick”) for and against. The forwards are divided by five-on-five ice time, and their results are compared to players playing similar minutes leaguewide (“NHL Average”) and players on six extremely strong teams (Anaheim, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh and San Jose).

To make the numbers more readable, we’ve taken rate statistics and multiplied them by 82 games played and the median ice time in each group (e.g. for players in the 14- to 15-minute range, all totals are multiplied by 14.5 minutes for the purpose of fair comparison, regardless of the actual ice time of the individual).

All the data used here is courtesy of BehindtheNet.ca.

Player	GF	GA	Goal +/-	FF	FA	Fenwick +/-
Alexander Steen	63	47	16	884	697	187
David Backes	57	40	17	826	680	146
T.J. Oshie	58	35	23	806	697	109
Steve Ott	28	59	-31	699	966	-267
NHL Average	54	50	4	859	830	29
"Strong 6"	65	44	21	928	755	173

The numbers here are heavily dependent on team, so Steve Ott’s terrible totals need to be considered in the context of playing for one of the NHL’s worst teams. The other three Blues players are all well clear of the NHL average numbers in both goal and Fenwick differential, with Alex Steen also surpassing the average of our strong six teams in terms of Fenwick. Despite lagging behind more famous names in point totals, it’s clear that the on-ice results in St. Louis are exceptional at the top end of the roster.

Player	GF	GA	Goal +/-	FF	FA	Fenwick +/-
Vladimir Tarasenko	61	31	31	857	617	240
Vladimir Sobotka	61	38	23	819	599	220
Jaden Schwartz	60	32	28	726	607	119
Patrik Berglund	53	34	19	744	681	64
NHL Average	44	43	1	745	724	21
"Strong 6"	50	36	14	806	677	129

The totals here are really remarkable.

Vladimir Tarasenko is still relatively unknown leaguewide, but he’s posting monster results (albeit helped by a lot of shifts starting in the offensive zone). Meanwhile, 26-year-old Vladimir Sobotka has a strong case as the NHL’s most underrated player, simply because he isn’t rated by almost anyone. He’s starting more than half his non-neutral zone shifts at the defensive end of the rink, and St. Louis is still destroying the opposition with him on the ice; his totals are nearly double those averaged by players in similar minutes on our six strong teams.

It’s a mistake to fixate on the individual players here, since these are team numbers, but the Blues’ unheralded middle four forwards are just crushing it.

Player	GF	GA	Goal +/-	FF	FA	Fenwick +/-
Dmitrij Jaskin	17	17	0	592	532	60
Derek Roy	36	32	4	618	560	58
Brenden Morrow	38	28	10	531	575	-44
NHL Average	30	35	-5	591	590	0
"Strong 6"	32	30	2	601	577	23

Again, we see strong totals.

The Blues’ shot results with Dmitrij Jaskin and Derek Roy on the ice are more than twice as good as even our strong six teams, and well clear of the NHL average. Brenden Morrow’s shot numbers are weaker and his plus/minus probably shouldn’t be trusted (last year goalies posted a 0.892 five-on-five save percentage when he was on the ice; this year that number is 0.933), but even so, this is a nice group.

Player	GF	GA	Goal +/-	FF	FA	Fenwick +/-
Magnus Paajarvi	25	30	-5	468	414	54
Ryan Reaves	25	20	5	404	421	-17
Maxim Lapierre	28	22	6	390	460	-69
Chris Porter	18	6	12	352	434	-82
NHL Average	21	25	-4	435	480	-45
"Strong 6"	19	23	-4	443	448	-6

Interestingly, the Blues’ end-of-roster types really aren’t getting the job done any better than a bunch of random teams. Magnus Paajarvi’s doing well here, and Maxim Lapierre takes on a ton of defensive zone starts, but St. Louis isn’t counting on this group to outplay the opposition; the damage is done higher up the depth chart.

The takeaway here is that the Blues are typically regarded as a team that takes its strength up front from depth, and while that's true in the sense that the second- and third-line types outperform their equivalents on other NHL teams, it understates just how good the top end of the roster is.

David Backes and Alexander Steen are really exceptional players at even strength, and the entirety of the Blues' top six is extremely good compared to the league as a whole. It's not a surprise; St. Louis wouldn't be where it is without that strength, but it'd be nice to see those guys get the same kind of press that their flashier but less effective brethren in bigger markets or on more offence-oriented teams get.

Heading into Saturday's game against the Philadelphia Flyers, the St. Louis Blues are the only NHL team that has crossed the 100-point mark this season.

The Blues jumped from 99 points to 101 with Monday's 3-1 win over the Winnipeg Jets, beating the Boston Bruins to the 100-point mark by at least four days. The Bruins—currently sitting at 99 points, good for first place in the Eastern Conference—won't have an opportunity to join St. Louis until Friday, when Boston faces a tough Colorado Avalanche team with 93 points of its own.

The stacked Bruins don't make for much of an underdog but given that Friday's game is on the road against a very good team, they may have to wait a bit longer to cross that 100-point threshold, a mark they have hit 20 times in franchise history, including three of the last four non-lockout seasons.

Conversely, the Blues have only reached 100 points in six of their 46 seasons, most recently notching 109 points in 2011-12. The famously mediocre franchise qualified for the Stanley Cup playoffs in 25 consecutive seasons from 1979-80 to 2003-04, yet only topped the 100-point mark four times during that span, with nary a Stanley Cup Finals appearance to show for the run.

Thus, with 13 games remaining and 101 points to its name, St. Louis has an excellent shot to capture the franchise record for points in a season, which was set at 114 by a 1999-00 Blues squad that ranks among the most disappointing teams in franchise history.

After winning the President's Trophy for leading the league in regular-season points, the 1999-00 Blues were memorably defeated in seven games by the eighth-seeded San Jose Sharks in the first round of the playoffs.

With this year's Blues likely headed for the President's Trophy and the Western Conference looking rather stacked, it could be the same story 14 years later.

Blues fans need not panic, however, as the team has played well this season against the two leading contenders for that eighth playoff spot, the Dallas Stars and Phoenix Coyotes. The Blues are 2-0-1 against each of those teams, with one game remaining against the division rival Stars on March 29.

Maybe they're due or maybe they're just an excellent hockey team, but either way, the Blues should make it out of the first round in spite of their woeful postseason history.

The St. Louis Blues have exhibited an unprecedented level of dominance in the Central Division this season, with a 20-0-2 record against divisional foes. At one point, the Blues won 15 consecutive games against the other Central Division teams, setting a record for the longest single-season intradivision winning streak in NHL history, per the Elias Sports Bureau via ESPN Stats & Info.

That streak came to an end in a March 11 overtime loss to the Dallas Stars, but the Blues remain unbeaten in regulation within the division, and they've picked up right where they left off. Since that disappointing OT loss, St. Louis has bounced back with an impressive pair of Central Division wins, beating the Nashville Predators by a score of 4-1 on Saturday and the Winnipeg Jets by a score of 3-1 on Monday.

Despite leading the NHL with 101 points, the Blues will face an uphill battle to maintain their season-long point streak within the division. Wednesday brings a home matchup against the Chicago Blackhawks, reigning Stanley Cup champions and owners of a 39-15-14 record and plus-52 goal differential.

If they get by the Blackhawks on Wednesday, St. Louis will have six divisional games remaining, with two apiece against the Stars and Minnesota Wild, plus a road game in Chicago and a home contest against the Colorado Avalanche. All four of the aforementioned opponents are currently positioned to make the playoffs, as the Central Division is undeniably the NHL's best this season.

The strength of the division makes the Blues' feat all the more impressive, but it also highlights the reality that the Stanley Cup playoffs will be brutal. With quality teams like Minnesota and Dallas vying for the No. 7 and No. 8 seeds, even the Blues are in danger of being handed an unceremonious first-round exit.

The St. Louis Blues are unbeatable.

In one game, sure, anything can happen. But in a seven-game playoff series? Opponents don't stand a chance. Even the Los Angeles Kings, the team to end the Blues' last two seasons, are in for a tough test this time around.

Even before the trade deadline, the Blues were cruising along at a division-leading clip, a couple of points up on the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks in the Central Division and second in the league overall. Standing pat would have been a reasonable thing to do. Nobody would have faulted them for it. They had no serious holes to fill.

Instead, Blues management decided to make one of the biggest deals of the year by grabbing goaltender Ryan Miller and veteran forward Steve Ott to strengthen an already impressive squad. Since then, the Blues have gone undefeated in regulation through six games and find themselves alone at the top of the league's point standings and a clear-cut favorite to claim the Stanley Cup.

With a deep pool of scoring forwards, a stellar defensive group, a star goaltender and an incredible head coach, the Blues are poised to claim the Cup for the first time in nearly 50 years in the NHL after joining as an expansion team in 1967. 

Why?

Goaltending

Jaroslav Halak was doing a decent job between the pipes. His statistics were solid. He was winning games. Some things in hockey aren't quantifiable, but the general feeling on Halak is that he was occasionally prone to letting in bad goals at inopportune times and, conversely, couldn't make a big save when it was needed the most.

	Games	Record	Shutouts	GAA	SV%
Jaroslav Halak	40	24-9-4	4	2.23	.917
Ryan Miller	6	5-0-1	0	1.82	.924

Basically, according to Jeff Gordon of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Halak was a good goaltender, but the Blues wanted a great one.

Well, they got one. Miller's start in St. Louis speaks for itself. He's the kind of netminder who can change a locker room's feel. If the Blues players were confident they had the kind of team that could make a deep run in the playoffs with Halak or Brian Elliott in goal, they expect it now that Miller is between the pipes.

Big save with a game on the line? Check.

Calming presence in the room and on the ice? Another check, according to head coach Ken Hitchcock via Associated Press writer Pat Graham: “His whole disposition calms everybody down,” Hitchcock said. “He’s good. There’s a reason he’s won so many games.”

Scoring depth

Despite the fact the team lacks offensive star power, the Blues average 3.20 goals per game—second most in the league. It's done by committee, without a single player among the NHL's top 30 in scoring but a league-best seven players with at least 40 points so far this season.

Three defensemen are over the 30-point plateau. Again, that's more than any other team. And two of those—Kevin Shattenkirk and Alex Pietrangelo—are defensemen with at least 40 points, placing them among the top 10 blue-line scorers in the NHL.

When Ott, Derek Roy and Patrik Berglund constitute your third line, you've got some solid depth.

	Games	Goals	Assists	Points
T.J. Oshie	66	17	36	53
Alexander Steen	55	29	23	52
Jaden Schwartz	64	21	29	50
David Backes	61	21	25	46
Alex Pietrangelo	66	8	37	45
Vladimir Tarasenko	63	20	22	42
Kevin Shattenkirk	65	9	31	40

Team toughness

David Backes is a punishing player. When he's not scoring or setting up a goal, he's battling for position by laying into an opponent in the corners or setting up an open-ice check. Ott is equally as vicious, giving the Blues two of the top four forwards in the league in hits.

Backes has 216 checks to his credit, and Ott has dished out 210. While they set the pace up front, there are others willing to help wear down opponents. Ryan Reaves has thrown 155. Defenseman Roman Polak has more than 100, and Barret Jackman, Vladimir Sobotka, Brenden Morrow and Berglund all have more than 80.

More than the hitting and fighting, the physical game comes from swarming the puck and working hard to take it—and keep it—away from the other team. The Blues may do that better than anyone, leading the league in takeaways on the road, which is a stat less likely to be inflated than the numbers for home teams.

Defensive prowess

It takes a special group of players to commit to coach Ken Hitchcock's system, which happens to be the same one he and Mike Babcock employed in the 2014 and 2010 Winter Olympics for Team Canada. It's all about aggressiveness on the forecheck, covering up for aggressive defensive pinches and being aware of your positioning while going full speed for your entire shift.

The results show in certain team numbers. The Blues are third in shutouts with seven and third best in the number of shots they allow on average, at 2.23 per contest.

It hasn't affected their offense, either, with their 211 goals being the third highest behind only the Blackhawks and Anaheim Ducks.

Special teams

So many games are decided by a single goal that potting one on the power play or keeping one out of your net on the penalty kill could be the difference between a win or a loss. As important as that is in the regular season, when every point counts in the standings for positioning and home-ice advantage, it's even more critical in a seven-game playoff series. 

The Blues are among the top in each category. The power play is fifth overall and the penalty kill ranks third.

Experience

Losing to the Los Angeles Kings—the team most similar to the Blues in the Western Conference—has been a difficult experience, but it's something the Blues players can draw from.

Hitchcock planned to send that message to his players following the loss in Game 6 last season, via John Hoven of Mayor's Manor:

What I’m going to tell them is that it’s not good enough. If you want to be a champion, it’s not good enough. You can’t allow the goalie to outwork you if you want to be a champion; you’re going to have to find a way. ... I hope our players when they pause and reflect on it are really pissed off and disappointed in the opportunity that we missed here because we didn’t finish; we took everything to the beach but we didn’t finish putting it in the water and that’s going to be disappointing and we’re going to have to live with that for the rest of the summer.

After missing the playoffs altogether previously, the Pittsburgh Penguins lost in the opening round in 2007 and in the Cup Final in 2008 before winning it all in 2009. The Chicago Blackhawks lost in the third round in 2009 before winning the Cup in 2010, then fell in the first round in two consecutive postseasons before winning again in 2013. The Boston Bruins lost in the opening round in 2008, then in the second round in 2009 and 2010 before becoming champion in 2011. The Kings lost first-round series in 2010 and 2011 before claiming the Stanley Cup in 2012.

The sting of losing sticks with a core group of players, who also learn what it takes to win in the painful process.

The Blues' pattern fits with that of the past few champions.

Coaching

Hitchcock is a smart systems coach, but it takes more than a man with a plan to pull it all together.

He, of course, needs great players willing to buy in. In the end, though, it's up to Hitchcock to make sure they play the up-tempo, grinding and exhausting pace necessary more often than not for the team to be consistently good.

And it's not easy. Hitchcock said so himself to St. Louis Post-Dispatch writer Jeremy Rutherford:

Our team expects a lot from our forwards. You can’t play the way we play without having the forwards do most of the work. The players that played for us in the Olympics saw that this is pretty much the same system and saw success with that, so I think the buy-in for them was easy. But it’s not easy playing this way. It’s a tough way to play, but obviously very successful.

The Western Conference is stacked with top-tier teams. The Blackhawks, Ducks, Avalanche, Kings, Sharks and Blues have created a lopsided look at the East vs. West argument. But the Blues have fewer holes and less of a dependency on top players. And when you boil down all these ingredients, it says here St. Louis will be tasting a Stanley Cup victory this spring.

Unless otherwise noted, all stats are courtesy of NHL.com.

The St. Louis Blues are one of the best—if not *the* best—teams in the NHL this season. They have arguably the top defensive corps in the league, the second-most prolific offense at 3.26 goals per game and some quality goaltending backstopping the entire operation.

After Friday night's blockbuster trade with the Buffalo Sabres, none of that has changed in the least.

And that's the problem; the Blues pulled off a trade of epic proportions, and they didn't improve their chances of winning a Stanley Cup, if at all. 

BREAKING: The Blues have acquired Miller & Ott from Buffalo for Halak, Stewart, Carrier & two picks. INFO >>> http://t.co/NGLbm5mwxT

— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) March 1, 2014 

Buffalo receives a first round pick in 2015 and a third round pick in 2016. #stlblues

— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) March 1, 2014

The big names are goaltender Ryan Miller and Jaroslav Halak, as the Blues executed a deal that delivers the loud and clear signal that they didn't have confidence in their No. 1 goaltender and needed to upgrade.

"We weren't looking for a goalie; we were looking for Ryan Miller," Blues general manager Doug Armstrong said during an interview with NHL Network. "If it wasn't Ryan Miller, we were very content with Jaro and (Brian) Elliott. They've got us right now with the best winning percentage in the NHL. We're very comfortable.

"If it wasn't Ryan Miller, we weren't in the goalie market for anyone else."

Both goaltenders will be unrestricted free agents after the season, but logic dictates the Blues would not have parted with their No. 1 goaltender, a top-nine forward, two picks and a prospect if they did not intend to sign Miller long term.

Miller, 33, was a one-man show with a Buffalo team that was inept in every way. The discrepancy between his goals-against average (2.72) and save percentage (.923) speaks volumes about the 34.2 shots per game the Sabres were allowing this season, an abundance of them quality chances. As awful as the Sabres have been this season, they'd have been twice as worse without Miller.

Among goaltenders with at least 30 starts this season, Miller ranks ninth in even-strength save percentage at .927. No matter how you want to slice it, Miller put together a splendid season under harrowing conditions.

''It's definitely humbling and flattering that they would make that kind of move and bring us in with the intention of giving them some help to push for a Stanley Cup,'' Miller said to reporters in Buffalo. ''We're excited for the opportunity there. But also, it's about the responsibility we have to that organization to show up and get up to speed and compete as hard as we can to live up to the trade.''

The 28-year-old Halak, meanwhile, was having a fine season in his own right that was beginning to trend in an upward direction.

He had been plagued by injuries in recent years—he missed the final seven games of the 2012 playoffs because of a lower-body ailment—but has been healthy this season. In 40 games, he was 24-9-4 with a 2.23/.917 split, but in his past 12 games, he was 7-3-1 with a .936 save percentage.

In Miller's past 12 games, he was 5-5-2 with a .915 save percentage.

Halak has been slightly better than Miller in even-strength save percentage, posting a .928 figure although he has faced far fewer shots behind an excellent Blues defense. SportingCharts.com provides heat charts for goaltenders, and it's plain to see Miller has faced the far more difficult opportunities this season than Halak.

The regular season is almost inconsequential to the Blues at this point, so what have Miller and Halak done in their careers during the postseason?

Their numbers are similar, but Halak has been a little bit better.

In 47 career games, Miller is 25-22 with a 2.47/.917 split; in 23 career games, Halak is 10-11 with a 2.42/.923 split.

Miller reached the conference finals twice, in 2006 and 2007; Halak got there once with the Montreal Canadiens in 2010. In 12 conference finals games, Miller is 4-8 with an .899 save percentage; in five conference finals games, Halak is 1-4 with an .884 save percentage.

These two guys appear to be apples and oranges. It comes down to which piece of fruit you prefer, and Armstrong clearly likes them apples (Miller is the apples in this metaphor).

The Steve Ott/Chris Stewart portion of the deal appears to a wash too. Ott, a UFA after the season, is very good on faceoffs and will help the penalty kill, but the Blues weren't hurting in either of those departments. Stewart has underwhelmed with 15 goals in 58 games, and his departure is negligible, although the Blues did rid themselves of the final year of his deal and a $4.15 million cap hit.

The Blues are in it to win a Stanley Cup this year, and the difference between Ott and Stewart isn't what will be the difference between winning and losing in April, May or June.

The issue with this deal is the negligible difference between Miller and Halak. Miller has been slightly better than Halak so far this season, but there are no guarantees that he will continue to be the better goaltender over the rest of the regular season and into the playoffs. Heck, Halak was playing better than Miller in the month leading to this trade.

Cup contenders address weaknesses at the trade deadline. The Blues were a supermodel who had plastic surgery to remove a small beauty mark on their back.

Can the Blues still win a Stanley Cup? Absolutely. After giving away the volume of assets they did Friday, their chances should've improved a whole lot more than they did.

Dave Lozo covers the NHL for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @DaveLozo.

The St. Louis Blues added 2014's most sought-after NHL trade target to their arsenal Friday night with the acquisition of Ryan Miller.

According to the team's website, the Blues acquired goaltender Miller and center Steve Ott from the Buffalo Sabres in exchange for goaltender Jaroslav Halak, winger Chris Stewart, prospect William Carrier, a 2015 first-round pick and a 2016 third-round pick.

The Blues, already second in the Western Conference entering Friday with 84 points (39-13-6) in 58 games, should immediately jump to the top of the list of Stanley Cup favorites.

Netminding has long been considered a shortcoming of this stacked St. Louis roster, which currently ranks second in the league in goals for and third in goals against. Jaroslav Halak, while a solid backstop overall, was simply never going to be able to keep up with the likes of Jonathan Quick or Tuukka Rask.

That final hole has now been filled by Miller, the 33-year-old veteran who has recorded terrific numbers on a largely bottom-feeding Sabres squad for a decade now. In an equal number of starts (40) in 2013-14, Miller has already made 384 more saves (9.6 more per game) than Halak.

Season	Miller Save Percentage	Halak Save Percentage
2009-10	.929	.924
2010-11	.916	.910
2011-12	.916	.926
2012-13	.915	.899
2013-14	.923	.917

Unlike many of their fellow top-of-the-standings competitors, the Blues have found success through balance.

They boast a whopping five players with 14 or more goals and nine players (including three defensemen) within 12 of Alexander Steen's team-leading 46 points.

Such even distribution of production not only reduces the potential effects of injuries but also provides remarkable consistency to the team overall—the Blues are the only team in the NHL to have earned at least a point (24-0-3) in every game when leading after the first period.

Ott, who ranked sixth on the Sabres with 20 points in 59 games prior to the deal, will now join the offensive cast as a highly capable third-line center. He has plenty of leadership experience, having served as  Buffalo's captain since the Thomas Vanek trade in October, and led Buffalo in both hits and faceoff percentage.

While Miller will surely capture the headlines Friday, the impacts of 28-year-old Ott should not be overlooked in the months ahead.

Yet defense remains the Blues' ultimate staple: they've allowed the fewest or second-fewest shots against for three consecutive campaigns. 

Alex Pietrangelo, Kevin Shattenkirk and Jay Bouwmeester together comprise the most unheralded and arguably the best trio of rearguards in North America.

Now, at long last, an undeniably elite goaltender will be standing tall behind them.

In 24 appearances since Nov. 20, Miller has posted a save percentage of .903 or better on 21 occasions. He also sports the experience of two Conference Finals in 2006 and 2007, along with the motivation supplied by spending roughly the last seven years on an utterly horrendous team.

St. Louis general manager Doug Armstrong will surely hope that Miller can guide his new club deeper into the playoffs than Halak and Brian Elliot have the previous two springs, as the Blues have been eliminated by the Los Angeles Kings short of the Conference Finals in back-to-back postseasons.

No matter what the months ahead reveal, however, it remains undeniable that Armstrong and the Blues have made their splash and their statement at the trade deadline.

If the Blues weren't already Cup favorites yesterday, they most certainly are now.

Mark Jones has been a NHL featured columnist for Bleacher Report since 2009. Visit his profile to read more, or follow him on Twitter.