NHL20 Sim: Flames vs Blues Series Preview

The #6 seed Calgary Flames will square off against the #1 seed St. Louis Blues int the West Semi-Final of our NHL20 simulated Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The Flames advanced to this round after eliminating the Arizona Coyotes two games to one in the wild card round, before eliminating the #3 seed Vegas Golden Knights three games to one in the Round of 16. The Blues barely got past the #9 seed Minnesota Wild as the Wild fought back from a 2-0 hole to force a Game 5 that took double overtime before David Perron scored the winner.

This series and all remaining rounds will be a standard Best of 7 series with the Blues getting home ice advantage, starting with Game 1 tonight. The Flames will have their work cut out for them to steal a game in St. Louis as the Blues went 3-0 in their first round on home ice, and Calgary has won just three of their last 13 trips to St. Louis in real life.

In 2019-20 the Flames went 0-1-2 against the Blues, losing 3-2 (OT) and 5-4 (SO) in Calgary and 5-0 on the road. For the Flames to have any shot, they will need to shut down the Blues potent offence that led them to a Stanley Cup last year.

The Flames and Blues have met just once before in the playoffs, all the way back in the 1985-86 Western Conference Final. The series went seven games with the Flames emerging victorious and going to the Stanley Cup Final where they’d lose to Montreal.

Here’s a look at the Flames player statistics through the first two rounds:

Sean Monahan has led the way for the Flames and sits 2nd overall in league scoring. Much of his scoring game in the final two games of the Vegas series as he scored four goals incuding a hat trick in Game 3. One player looking to get back on track in this series will be Johnny Gaudreau who had zero points against the Knights after five against Arizona.

For the Blues Jaden Schwartz led the way in their matchup against Minnesota, putting up six points in five games. Justin Faulk had two goals and two assists to led on the back end. Jordan Binnington went 3-1-1 with a .931 SV% and 2.11 GAA, so it appears a goaltending duel could be upcoming.

Game 1 will be today at 3:00. Every game after today will be streamed live on our Youtube page at 7:30 PM. Be sure to go check us out there to see the games and highlights going forward.