Before every new season, hockey fans start mentally separating teams into castes. The ones that could win a Stanley Cup. The ones that won't win anything. The ones for which it isn't love or hate -- just indifference.
The St. Louis Blues were in that "could win" category before the previous season. Then they plummeted to "absolutely can't win" by midseason. And then they won.
"The league is structured now that if you're one of the 16 teams participating in the tournament, you have a chance to win the Stanley Cup," GM Doug Armstrong told me during a training camp visit to St.