Round Robin Preview: Vegas vs. St. Louis

When the Vegas Golden Knights get back to action in the round robin portion of the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs, they'll have three tough teams waiting for them as they battle for seeding. The St. Louis Blues are the defending Stanley Cup Champions and will do all they can to claim a valuable win against Vegas when they duke it out to start the postseason.

WHEN WE PRESSED PAUSE…
St. Louis was asserting its dominance atop the Western Conference standings before the pause on March 12. The Blues had won 11-of-13 games and were two points ahead of Colorado to lead the way out west. In the meantime, the Blues' signed Marco Scandella, Sammy Blais and Mackenzie MacEachern to new contracts. The team also signed 2018 second round pick Scott Perunovich to an entry-level contract after he finished his Hobey Baker-winning season at Minnesota-Duluth.

After going down with a shoulder injury early in the season, Vladimir Tarasenko is expected to be ready to play in the postseason. He said in an article on the Blues' website that he was close to returning when the season was paused.

HEAD TO HEAD WITH VEGAS
The Golden Knights met the Blues three times during the regular season, as Vegas finished with a 2-1-0 record. The Blues earned a victory, 4-2, in the first matchup on Dec. 12 in St. Louis. On Jan. 4, the Golden Knights erased a three-goal deficit at home to defeat the Blues in overtime, 5-4. Ryan Reaves, Paul Stastny, Nicolas Roy, Reilly Smith and Chandler Stephenson all scored in the comeback thriller. Just over a month later on Feb. 13, the Golden Knights earned another overtime win at T-Mobile Arena, 6-5. Max Pacioretty and Jonathan Marchessault both scored twice while Nate Schmidt and Alex Tuch also added goals for Vegas.

Vegas and St. Louis finished the three games even in scoring, 13-13, during the regular season. Ryan O'Reilly led the Blues with six points (0 G, 6 A), while Mark Stone led the Golden Knights with five points (0 G, 5 A). Vegas outscored St. Louis on the power play, 4-2, with all four tallies on the man advantage coming in the game on Feb. 13 at T-Mobile Arena.

STATS ON STATS ON STATS
Ryan O'Reilly leads the Blues with 61 points (12 G, 49 A) in 71 games. David Perron (60 points), Brayden Schenn (58 points) and Jaden Schwartz (57 points) follow closely behind. In his second season, Jordan Binnington posted a .912 save percentage and 2.56 GAA after appearing in a career-high 50 games.

With 94 points and an overall record of 42-19-10 in 71 games, the Blues finished just six points behind the league's best in the Boston Bruins. Last year's Stanley Cup winners allowed 190 goals during the regular season, tied for the fifth fewest among all teams this season.

BETWEEN THE PIPES BY MIKE MCKENNA
The Blues are in the unique position of having a backup goaltender that - by the numbers - has outperformed the starter in 2019-20. Among NHL goaltenders that have played at least 20 games, Jake Allen's 2.15 GAA is second best, and his .927 SV% and .667 Quality Start Percentage (QS%) are good for fourth. In 24 games, he's only had two Really Bad Starts (RBS: games with a SV% below 85%), although one of them did come against the Golden Knights (5-4 OT loss on January 4, 2020). His goalie partner, Jordan Binnington, has played well in 2019-20 but not up to the lofty standards of his rookie season, when he backstopped St. Louis to a Stanley Cup championship and finished second in the NHL's rookie of the year voting. His .912 SV% this season was mid-pack among NHL goalies and slightly below the .914 SV% he posted in last season's playoffs. Consistency is the key to Binnington's success: he's only been pulled twice in 109 NHL appearances. The Blues goaltender is 2-0-1 lifetime against the Golden Knights.

During the 2019-20 season, Marc Andre Fleury faced the Blues twice: a 4-2 loss on December 12th and a 5-4 OT win on January 4th. He has played against them 16 times in his career, earning 6 wins and posting a .911 SV%. Robin Lehner has earned an equal number of wins in his career against St. Louis: he's 6-3-1 with a 2.34 GAA in 10 games and his .932 SV% is good for seventh best on his personal leaderboard against individual teams. He did not play against the Blues this season.

PLAYOFF EXPERIENCE
The St. Louis Blues enter the 2020 playoffs as the team to beat as they rode a strong second-half of the 2018-19 season to their first Stanley Cup title in franchise history. The makeup of the team remains largely the same as their championship-winning team save for the additions of Scandella and Justin Faulk on the blueline.

Jaden Schwartz has the most playoff points to his name of any active Blues player with 50 points (22G, 28A) in 75 games. Tarasenko leads all active St. Louis skaters with 33 playoff goals in his career. O'Reilly's 23 points (8G, 15A) in the Blues' run to the Stanley Cup was the most on the team and worthy of the Conn Smythe Trophy.