ST. LOUIS – A best-of-seven first-round series between the St. Louis Blues and the Winnipeg Jets now comes down to a best-of-one, winner-take-all Game 7.
The stakes are simple for the Blues and Jets: The winner advances to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. The loser’s season comes to an end.
There’s nothing quite like an NHL Playoffs Game 7. It’s the ultimate do-or-die moment. The kind of moment players grow up dreaming about.
“You’re in Game 7 of the playoffs. It’s what we’ve all dreamed of in that organization in that locker room,” said Blues head coach Jim Montgomery after the Blues’ Game 6 victory. “You don’t think about winning Game 1 when you’re playing in your basement or playing street hockey or playing inline hockey with your best friend or brother or whatever the case may be. It’s Game 7.”
“It’s about seizing an opportunity. It’s an opportunity that we’ve earned, and now we need to go seize it,” Montgomery added.
The Blues-Jets series is the final first-round matchup yet to be decided. It’s one of two that made it all the way to a seventh series-deciding game.
Game 7 is very much familiar territory for the St. Louis Blues. Sunday will be their first winner-take-all Game 7 since the franchise’s historic Stanley Cup-clinching win over the Boston Bruins in 2019.
All time, the Blues are 10-8 in winner-take-all Game 7s, according to NHL stats database Champs or Chumps.
And that history has been a lot kinder in recent playoff runs when the Blues have made it that far. The Blues have won their last four Game 7s dating back to 2016. Twice in second-round matchups against the Dallas Stars, once in a first-round against the Chicago Blackhawks, and of course, the unforgettable Cup closer in 2019.
The Blues have not lost a winner-take-all Game 7 since 2003.
Meanwhile, the Winnipeg Jets (their current incarnation that started as the Atlanta Thrashers) have only played one Game 7 in their history. But they made it count: A 5-1 road win over the Nashville Predators in the second round of the 2018 playoffs.
History aside, there’s one major storyline that will be settled Sunday. The home team has won every game this series to this point. Winnipeg won Games 1, 2 and 5. St. Louis won Games 3, 4 and 6.
To keep their season alive, the Blues will have to buck that trend and win on the road. If the current pattern stays the same, the Jets will advance. Can the Blues flip the script? We’ll see.
Puck drop for Game 7 is set for 6 p.m. Sunday. The game will air on FanDuel Sports Network, TBS and HBO Max streaming services.