Have the two-day breaks in the NHL playoffs been a benefit to the Blues?

ST. LOUIS — When the schedule was released for the Western Conference playoff series between the St. Louis Blues and Winnipeg Jets, many had the same immediate reaction.

There were three two-day breaks between games. After Game 2, there were two off days before Game 3; there were two off days before Game 4; and there are two off days before the teams take the ice for Game 5 on Wednesday at Canada Life Centre. Advertisement For comparison’s sake, no other first-round series in this year’s NHL playoffs has as many multi-day breaks.



Colorado-Dallas and Carolina-New Jersey each have two two-day breaks, but conversely, Edmonton-LA and Tampa Bay-Florida have none. Before the puck was dropped on the St. Louis-Winnipeg series, Blues center Robert Thomas was asked for his thoughts on the schedule, and whether it could be an advantage for either of the teams.

“I’ve got to be honest, I have no idea,” Thomas said. “I’ve never had a series schedule set up like this, so it’s new to me. Maybe after, I’ll figure out if it’s advantageous or not.

But I have no idea.” A week and a half later, the best-of-seven series is tied 2-2 and it’s hard to say if the schedule has helped one side more than the other. But with the Blues climbing out of a 2-0 hole in Games 3 and 4, one could make the case they have benefited for a variety of reasons.

Lost momentum, the number of days in each city, practice time, rest for key injured players, and the style of play of both teams are all areas that could be considered in this series. The original plan for the schedule was to play every other day, which would have meant Games 1 and 2 in Winnipeg on April 19 and 21 and Game 3 in St. Louis last Wednesday.

But Enterprise Center in St. Louis had a Brooks & Dunn concert Friday and comedian Kat Williams Saturday, so the NHL pushed Game 3 to Thursday because Game 4 would have to be Sunday. Therefore, an observation that Winnipeg coach Scott Arniel made before the series started suddenly materialized.

“If you do get up in a series, you’d like it to happen a lot quicker,” he said. After the Jets’ 5-3 win over the Blues in Game 2, they had to wait nearly three full days to play Game 3 on Thursday. From the finish of Game 2 at 9:06 p.

m. CT until the start of Game 3 at 8:52 p.m.

, nearly 72 hours passed. Advertisement “When you win a game, you want to go right back at it because you have that attitude and momentum,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. “The more time between games, the more it dissipates.

” Not only that, but the Jets, who won the Presidents’ Trophy and are the higher seed in the playoffs, would be spending one more day in St. Louis (five) for Games 3-4 than the Blues spent in Winnipeg (four) for Games 1-2. The Blues took advantage of that time back in town, too.

If the series were scheduled every other day, the Blues would’ve flown home Tuesday and played Wednesday, with Wednesday’s brief morning the only allotted time to work on their game. Instead, after taking Tuesday off, they had a full team practice Wednesday and the morning skate Thursday before Game 3. “We need to play faster, not only offensively, but defensively,” Montgomery said.

The Blues’ speed was noticeably better in Games 3-4, when they outscored the Jets 12-3 and their defense, which they focused on, contributed four goals and nine assists in the two games. Meanwhile, Thomas, arguably the Blues’ top forward, and top defenseman Colton Parayko were able to get extra rest for their injuries. The time off helps the Jets’ banged-up bodies, too, but it hasn’t allowed them to get top-line winger Gabe Vilardi back in the lineup until potentially Game 5.

Thomas has an undisclosed lower-body ailment and has sat out of a couple of practices, but no games. Parayko missed about six weeks at the end of the regular season after a knee scope. Neither appears to be 100 percent, but after back-to-back days off, Thomas erupted for four assists and Parayko had a power-play goal in a 7-2 win in Game 3.

Thomas had a goal and Parayko two assists in a 5-1 win in Game 4. The Blues’ offense was coming in waves on Winnipeg goalie Connor Hellebuyck, who was pulled from Games 3 and 4 after giving up 11 goals on 43 shots. But instead of getting back in net the next day, or being back home in Winnipeg, the Jets netminder was limited to the team’s local hotel and its surroundings.

Advertisement “That’s what’s nice about the regular season,” Blues center Radek Faksa said. “If you have a bad game, usually you play so many back-to-backs that you play the next day and it can change. It’s nice when you win and you have two days between, but it’s worse when you lose and you have two days between.

” Faksa, for example, got some good sleep after Game 3 and spent the off day Friday relaxing at home. “I’ve never experienced so many breaks between games in the playoffs,” he said. “You have to take advantage of it, take the rest, because you’re so fired up after games that you can’t fall asleep, especially the late game.

I went to sleep at 3 o’clock in the morning. The next day, you get moving, maybe go for a walk. That’s what I did.

” Blues rookie Jimmy Snuggerud was able to check out his new city. “Nothing crazy, just went to some different restaurants, laid low and recovered,” he said. “I watched the NHL playoffs a lot growing up and the physicality, it’s a massive part of playoff games.

Now that I’m actually in it, your body is beat up, and you’re pushing through. The schedule is kind of different, but I know for a lot of guys having the two off days has been really nice.” Montgomery believes that is an advantage for the Blues to have the extra day off in St.

Louis. “I do think the extra time between games is favorable for the home team,” Montgomery said. “We’re at home and we have other things besides laying around in our hotel room, thinking about hockey.

We have our families, we have country clubs that we may be a part of, or whatever the case may be. With the beautiful weather, you have options to get your mind away from the game. So I do think being at home with a two-day break is very favorable for the home team.

” The Blues were then refreshed for Game 4 of what has been the league’s heaviest-hitting series in the playoffs. Advertisement If they were to win this series, they had to be physical and they’ve been just that with the most hits per 60 minutes (44) of all 16 teams in the postseason. The Jets are fourth with 41.

25/60. “I think you don’t mind the two days because you know the energy level for both teams is going to be sky high because you have a lot of time to recuperate and recover,” Montgomery said. “I think that might be why we might have the heaviest hit (totals) by a lot in this series.

You have a little more juice in the tank.” The Blues (176 hits) and Jets (165) have combined for 341 in the series, which was also No. 1 in the league going into Monday’s games.

There only appears to be a small correlation between the extra time off and more hits. Carolina-New Jersey has two two-day breaks and that series is second among the eight series with 323; also, Tampa-Florida has no two-day breaks and that series is last with 246 hits (in one fewer game). But then there’s Toronto-Ottawa, which has one two-day break, and it is third with 309 hits.

Either way, as it pertains to St. Louis-Winnipeg, the physicality may be an advantage for the Blues. In the regular season, when the Jets had two days off between games, they were an impressive 13-2-1 (.

844 points percentage). The Blues, with two days between games, were 9-5-2 (.625 points percentage).

But that’s in the regular season when the opponent changes game to game and there’s no carry-over effect that there is in the playoffs. The Blues thrive on their checking game, as illustrated in the regular season. They were sixth in the NHL in hits/60 with 24.

12, while the Jets were No. 18 in the league with 20.56.

And after two days off, and just three games in the past 10 days, they’ll look to get back to the style that’s made them successful in the postseason. Advertisement “It is a unique situation, the way the schedule has lined up,” Blues defenseman Cam Fowler said. “You just kind of roll with the punches and do your best to stay physically and mentally strong, having a few extra days in between games.

It’s a physical series, and both teams are invested in that, and that can definitely take a toll on you. It feels like there’s a lot of time between games, so just making sure that you’re staying on top of it, studying the film and watching other games, I think that all helps us stay mentally engaged in it as well.” (Photo: Jeff Le / Imagn Images).