NHL Playoffs 2012: Blues Are Already Done vs. Underdog Kings

It's only Game 3 and there are still at least 120 minutes of hockey left to be played, but the second-seeded Blues are already toast.

After dropping the first two games of the Western Conference Semifinals at home, the Blues are headed to LA for what will be the most important game of their season. If they lose, they're as good as done. If they win, they prolong the inevitable for a bit longer.

The truth is that even though the Blues earned the second seed in the West, they drew a terrible matchup in the second round. They breezed through the first round with four straight wins over San Jose after losing Game 1, only to find their playoff hopes on life support against a team that has had their number all season.

The Blues came out on top of a completely stacked Central Division, but even the stiff competition couldn't prepare them for what they'd face whenever they went up against the Kings, who took three of four from them in the regular season. With the two postseason losses taken into account, St. Louis' chances of rebounding in this series look even slimmer.

So what's the reason? Is it playoff inexperience? Before beating the Sharks, the Blues franchise hadn't won a playoff series in a decade. But plenty of young teams find a way to win.

It could be the goaltending. After holding the Sharks to a single goal in the final two games of the first-round series, Brian Elliott has allowed eight goals in the first two games of the conference semifinals.

LA's Jonathan Quick, meanwhile, has reemerged as one of the NHL's most trustworthy goaltenders. His .952 save percentage is second only to that of Corey Schneider this postseason, and in the Kings' four first-round wins over the top-seeded Canucks, he allowed just five goals.

The secret to winning in the postseason is goaltending, and while the Kings have it, the Blues seem to have lost it somewhere along the way. Given the way Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown are playing, it's hard to believe the Blues are going to find a way to keep up. It's also hard to fathom the Blues getting the puck past Quick four times in this series.

Barring a complete disaster, the Kings essentially have this one in the bag.