Blues vs. Predators: 8 keys to victory in Stanley Cup Playoff series

(Ed. Note: Welcome to Round 2 coverage of the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs, where we flip the format and get right to the point with eight keys to each series. Enjoy!)

Both the Nashville Predators and St. Louis Blues enter their second-round series after first-round upsets. Nashville beat the Chicago Blackhawks in a sweep, while the Blues beat the Minnesota Wild in five games.

Interestingly this is the first time these two divisional rivals have faced off against each other in the playoffs.

Nashville went 3-2-0 against the Blues this year in the regular season with all games ending in regulation, but it’s hard to use this as a guide because both teams played four of these contests before the Blues promoted Mike Yeo to head coach and fired Ken Hitchcock. After this, St. Louis took off and made the postseason as the No. 3 seed in the Central Division.

Last year the Blues made the Western Conference Final while the Predators lost in Game 7 of the second-round to the San Jose Sharks. Nashville has never made the Western Conference Final.

Here are eight keys to victory for the Blues and Predators.

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1. Hot goaltending

Both Pekka Rinne and Jake Allen struggled at points this season, but found their grooves at the right time. In Allen’s last 15 regular season games he went 11-2-2 with a .942 save percentage. In the playoffs he held a 1.47 goal-against average and .956 save percentage in his team’s victory over the Wild. In Rinne’s last 16 games he went 9-4-3 with a .923 save percentage. In the Predators’ first-round sweep against the Blackhawks, he held a 0.70 goal-against average and .976 save percentage. Will both goalies stay hot or will one – or both – fall off?

2. Nashville’s first line

The Predators’ first line of Ryan Johansen, Viktor Arvidsson and Filip Forsberg were dynamite in their win over Chicago. The three players combined for five goals and 15 total points amongst all of them them. Both Arvidsson and Forsberg scored 31 goals in the regular season and Johansen notched 61 points, which tied Arvidsson for the team lead. In order for Nashville to win the series, the Predators need the trio continue its torrid pace.

3. Vladimir Tarasenko

The St. Louis sniper has struggled in recent postseason series with just three goals in his last 11 playoff games. This included just one tally in the Wild series. When Tarasenko is at the top of his game he’s a match-up nightmare and one of the best pure goal scorers in the NHL. When he’s not, he tends to disappear.

4. The ‘Yeo Difference’

The Blues have responded well to Yeo, going 22-8-2 in the regular season following Hitchcock’s firing. Yeo is seen as a friendlier voice than Hitchcock, which may be why he has gotten through to his players so quickly. Can he keep his magic touch this series?

5. Laviolette’s playoff experience

Predators coach Peter Laviolette is known as one of the NHL’s best motivators and has used this ability to guide Nashville to upsets of the Anaheim Ducks last season and Blackhawks this year. In his career, Laviolette has a 56-50 postseason record that includes a Stanley Cup and another trip to a Stanley Cup Final. Simply put, he knows how to get the most out of his teams this time of year.

6. Nashville’s defensemen

The Predators’ defense is arguably the best in the NHL and a major reason why the team beat the Blackhawks. While Roman Josi and P.K. Subban are all-stars and get most of the publicity within the group, Mattias Ekholm and Ryan Ellis are both excellent blue liners and important players on the Predators’ roster. Ekholm averaged 25:10 of ice-time per-game against Chicago and Ellis notched four points in the sweep.

7. The possession battle

Nashville had the third-best adjusted 5-on-5 CF% in the first-round at 52.37. Meanwhile the Blues were the worst first-round possession team with an adjusted 40.75 5-on-5 CF% and benefitted from excellent goaltending and timely scoring. This isn’t exactly a consistent winning recipe and St. Louis can’t rely on the same formula to work in another series. They need to shore up their 5-on-5 play in a hurry to have a shot at victory.

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8. Prediction

Predators in 6. The Blues deserved to beat the Wild, but they also got a lot of breaks and bounces. The Predators flat out crushed the Blackhawks in every area of their sweep. Both teams are playing well coming into this series, but Nashville was the more impressive team in the first-round.

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper

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