The Predators begin a very important home-and-home against the St. Louis Blues today, at least when it comes to their playoff hopes—and maybe to David Poile’s trade deadline plans.
Normally, when talking about a vital game against a division rival in February, and its relevance to the playoff race, people be talking about a “four-point game”: keeping the other team from getting two points matters as much to your team as getting those two points themselves does. This is not a luxury the Predators have; the Blues have thirteen more standings points (74 to the Preds’ 61) in one more game played (57* to the Preds’ 56), and—even more relevantly—there are three teams in the Central and five in the Pacific between them.