"After Davis Payne took over as coach of the St. Louis Blues midway through the 2008-09 season, the team experienced an impressive late-season renaissance that pushed it into the postseason for the first time in four seasons. With an unlikely playoff berth to build on, the Blues appeared to be back on the right track, but in two seasons since then the high expectations haven't materialized. The Blues have missed the postseason each of the last two springs and the 2010-11 campaign, in which they went 38-33-11, left them a full 10 points back of Chicago for the Western Conference's final berth.

That type of result had to be disappointing for a team that had loads of young potential and had acquired Jaroslav Halak from Montreal last summer to man the crease after his impressive postseason run with the Habs. A closer look, however, notes that St. Louis may very well have been victim to some bad luck in 2010-11. Three large parts of the Blues' offense, David Perron, Andy McDonald and T.J. Oshie, all missed significant time due to injury, with Perron and McDonald suffering concussions and Oshie going down with a fractured ankle. The Blues certainly could have used Perron, who scored five goals in 10 games before missing the rest of the season, or McDonald who had 50 points in 58 games before going down.

Combine that with the fact that St. Louis actually had a plus-6 goal differential last season -- a better mark than playoff-bound Phoenix and Anaheim and just one goal less than East finalist Tampa Bay -- and it seems apparent that more than a few breaks might have gone against the Blues. In addition, St. Louis made one of the most impressive in-season moves season when it shipped defenseman Erik Johnson, center Jay McClement and a first-round pick to Colorado for right wing Chris Stewart and defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk. Both newcomers flourished in St. Louis -- Stewart had 23 points in 26 games and Shattenkirk posted 17 points and a plus-7 rating."