Complete Preview for the St. Louis Blues' 2014-15 Season

The St. Louis Blues are one of two Western Conference teams to have reached 100 points (prorated for 2013) the past three seasons. In the NHL's superior conference, only the Chicago Blackhawks have matched that level of play since 2011-12.

Hmmm. What is the small, subtle difference between the teams when it comes to measuring success? What could it be? 

Oh, of course. The Blackhawks have won six playoff series (and a Stanley Cup in 2013) over the past three seasons while the Blues have one series victory in 2012 and are 8-13 in playoff games.

The Blues have been an excellent regular-season team since Ken Hitchcock took over as coach early in the 2011-12 season, but the postseason has been an unmitigated disaster.

With a new season approaching, those things seem unlikely to change.

What We Learned in 2013-14

Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

On the surface, last season's Blues seemed a lot like the teams from two years prior: play well in the regular season, pile up points, get dispatched with relative ease by the Blackhawks or the Kings (in this case, it was the Blackhawks). 

But what made it different than the shortened 2013 season or the 2011-12 season was the Blues seem to have been tricked into believing they were an offensive juggernaut that needed goaltending help when nothing could have been further from the truth.

In 2013, the Blues averaged 2.58 goals per game; in 2011-12, they averaged 2.51 goals per game.

Despite having virtually the same lineup in 2013-14, the Blues averaged 2.92 goals per game, the seventh-best mark in the league. When the Blues made their big deadline move of trading Jaroslav Halak for Ryan Miller, they were averaging a whopping 3.20 goals per game.

Instead of identifying that goal total as fluky, one based mostly on luck and inordinately high shooting percentage, the Blues decided to address an area that didn't need addressing (goaltending) and watched as their offense submarined yet another successful season.

The Blues scored 50 goals over their final 23 games (2.17) then lost in six games in the first round to the Blackhawks, scoring six goals in the four losses. It was a correction the Blues should have seen coming, yet they paid no mind to the math and were sent home early once again.

It didn't help that Miller posted a .903 save percentage in 19 regular-season games and an .897 in six postseason appearances. But again, since he arrived in St. Louis with a .923 save percentage in Buffalo and a career .918 mark, it should have been expected that a 34-year-old goaltender would regress to his lifetime numbers.

A different trade deadline move could've meant a different result for the Blues.

This summer, the Blues finally addressed the need to fortify their forward group, although the goaltending situation may not get any better than it was down the stretch last season with Miller.

Outlook for 2014-15

Hey, check it out, the Blues realized they needed forward help this summer!

Four years and $28 million is what it cost to land free-agent center Paul Stastny, a top-line center who is good for 20-plus goals, 60-plus points and terrific possession numbers. He's the player the Blues have needed for years, and now, they finally have him. They rule.

So just how much better and deeper does the addition of Stastny make the Blues?

Left wing	Center	Right wing
Alex Steen	David Backes	TJ Oshie
Jaden Schwartz	Paul Stastny	Vladimir Tarasenko
Patrik Berglund	Jori Lehtera	Dmitrij Jaskin
Magnus Paajarvi	Maxim Lapierre	Steve Ott
Chris Porter, Joakim Lindstrom, Ryan Reaves

Those top two lines are interchangeable, but the bottom-six isn't exactly a strength. The Blues' decision to re-sign Steve Ott and allow Vladimir Sobotka to walk over a few hundred thousand dollars wasn't a prudent one, mainly because Sobotka is much better at hockey than Ott. 

The scoring depth of the Blues was also depleted with the loss of Chris Stewart (he was part of the hilarious Ryan Miller trade) and the departure of Brenden Morrow, who is far from in his prime but delivered 13 goals in 71 games last season. Stewart had 15 goals in 58 games, and Sobotka had nine goals in 61 games.

Individually, those don't seem like major losses, but together, that's some significant depth the Blues lost this summer.

Left defense	Right defense	Goaltenders
Jay Bouwmeester	Alex Pietrangelo	Brian Elliott
Carl Gunnarsson	Kevin Shattenkirk	Jake Allen
Jordan Leopold	Barret Jackman
Ian Cole, Chris Butler

There may not be a better team in the NHL along the blue line than the Blues, and they may have gotten a little better by dealing the slow-footed Roman Polak to the Leafs for the much quicker Carl Gunnarsson. Considering the Blues' situation in net this season, a decline in performance in this area could be devastating.

The Blues are hitching their goaltending wagon to Brian Elliott and Jake Allen. Elliott was deemed not good enough to start over either Halak or Miller last season while Allen had a very impressive .928 save percentage in the AHL last season, but he has just 15 games of NHL experience.

Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images

The Blackhawks have proven that as long you're icing an excellent team in front of a goaltender, the goaltender doesn't matter quite that much. But can it be said that either Elliott or Allen is better than Corey Crawford at this stage of their careers?

Elliott hasn't made as many as 48 starts in a season once in his seven-year career and has an .898 save percentage in 18 career playoff games. He is a career .911 goaltender, and while he is coming off a season in which he posted a .922 save percentage, it would be foolhardy to believe he could match that over at least half a season.

The fortunes of the Blues will likely come down to how well two young players perform this season: Allen and Vladimir Tarasenko.

If Allen, 24, proves he can be close to the goaltender he was in the AHL last season—though he was at .904 the previous season, so who knows what he will be at the NHL level—it would mitigate the loss of Halak. But if he's just average and Elliott doesn't perform up to the expectations, the Blues could be in serious trouble.

One thing that could offset shaky goaltending is more offense, and that could come from the 22-year-old Tarasenko in his third season. He had 21 goals in 64 games last season and four goals in six playoff games. He seems to be getting more comfortable, and a 30-goal season isn't out of the question.

The Blues seem to be a no-brainer as a preseason pick to make the playoffs, but there are some question marks hovering around them. Secondary scoring could be an issue, as could goaltending, and with the rest of the West improving around them, a miss of the playoffs wouldn't be as surprising as many would think.

This is year four of Hitchcock in St. Louis. In year four with the Flyers, he was fired after a 1-6-1 start in 2007. In year four with the Blue Jackets in 2010, he was fired during the season after going 22-27-9. In both cases, Hitchcock's teams suffered first-round losses the previous season.

Just some food for thought if you're thinking Hitchcock is on the hot seat in St. Louis.

All statistics via NHL.com.

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