No Tomorrow.

The word around St. Louis from some is that the Blues' season has been a success: a division title, third in the NHL, and the first playoff series win in ten years.

Reading a forum on stltoday.com entitled "What do you consider a successful season for the Blues?", many suggested simply winning a playoff series was the goal and anything else is considered gravy.

I hope the players think like myself.

I believe, when you make the playoffs, anything else than raising the Stanley Cup is a failure.

With the Western Conference so wide open, why should the Blues not expect to reach hockey's holy grail? I'll be damned if I am going to watch Phoenix, Arizona or Nashville, Tennessee have a cup parade before us.

Not one team in the Western Conference has ever won the cup. In my opinion, the West is far and away the stronger conference even if the "experts" don't agree (Of course they picked the Pens and Canucks to win it all).

Looking at the East, not one team is strong defensively. There are no stand-out goalies like the West contains. Come Thursday, seeds five through eight could be all that are left. In my honest opinion, most of the Eastern Conference's elite would have struggled to even make the playoffs in the West.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. The West is were the Blues will really be tested. Nashville and St. Louis have to be the favorites to come out of their conference. Both have strong goaltending, play well defensively, and can score as needed.

Once again, let's not jump over Los Angeles, which will be a real test for the Blues. The number eight seed just took down Vancouver in a physical series where Jonathan Quick was lights-out.

Everyone around town is saying that Los Angeles and Nashville are scary match-ups for the Blues. I have news for you, they are all going to be scary from here on out, it's the Stanley Cup playoffs!

And why should the Blues be scared? To me, if I was another team, I would be afraid to face the Note:

• a red-hot power play.
• a red-hot McDonald (who has a history of being a red-hot playoff scorer on a cup-winner).
• red-hot goaltending.
• Great leadership, from the Captain to Vets like Langenbrunner, Arnott, and McDonald.
• we've been good all season long, never faultering under Hitchcock.
• Oh yeah, experienced coaching, who put in a system that has worked wonders and put belief in some underachieving players (See Oshie, Berglund). And...he's won a cup before.

I know I am looking through biased eyes while writing this, but to me, the Blues have to be favorites, especially if they can get out of the extremely tough Western Conference.

These opportunities are fleeting, fellow Blues fans, and our mantra does not need to be "We'll be good years to come, it's been a success, let's win it next year when we'll be even better." Look how tough the league is, look how tough the West is, and look how tough the Central is. You can bet that early exits by Detroit and Chicago are going to spark change in those organizations to make them competitive next season. Nashville will be back with virtual the same team, and Columbus will  be on the rise someday.

The parody in the NHL is remarkable. A cup contender one year can miss the playoffs the next. There has not been a repeat cup winner since 1998 (Detroit). The Blues were poised in 2009 to break out and be a perennial playoff team. They missed the playoffs for the next two seasons.

There are no guarantees to make it to the playoffs, and once you're there the goal is to win the cup.

"Think how good we'll be next year" is a phrase Blues fans need to lose. The time is now. The opportunity is right in front of this team, and it is time they seize it and not hope for a better tomorrow. There should be no tomorrow in the locker room or the expectations.

"Smile You Son of a ..." Time to Finish off the Sharks

I've heard the golf courses in San Jose are nice. The Blues need to let the Sharks enjoy them next week.

This is the hardest one to win; the forth one. The Blues look to eliminate the Sharks tonight in front of a home crowd that will be rocking. With the series 3-1 in the Blues favor, Coach Hitchcock knows the importance of clinching as soon as possible. He talked before game four about wrapping up the series and not prolonging it for the players or extending travel time.

"I was in a lot of these [series] coming in and out of Dallas and they were not easy series. When it got to Game 5, 6, and 7 they were not easy for players, for coaches, for sleep patterns and they really impacted the next series."

Not to jump too far ahead, but Nashville has already clinched, and the other two Western Conference series stand at 3-1, with the Kings and Coyotes ready to move on as well. The Blues clinching in five will do wonders for rest and preparation for the next round.

Still, the Blues are not looking ahead and know that tonight's game will not be easy.

"We need to realize this next game is going to be the toughest one," Andy McDonald told stltoday.com. "If we don't play our best hockey, they're going to beat us."

Hitchcock added that the Blues are going to get the Sharks' "A-game. We know it. We just have to have an A-plus game."

There's blood in the water. Time for the Blues to clinch their first playoff series in ten years.

Western Conference Quarterfinals: Game 4 Highlights

Playoff Bound!

The Blues become the first team in the NHL to clinch a playoff spot with their 100th point on the season.

With a 3-1 win at Tampa Bay Saturday night the Blues reached 100 points, and more importantly, clinched a playoff berth. They became the first team to reach those two milestones in the NHL. The New York Rangers are the next closest team with 95 points.

The game-winning goal came from Jaden Schwartz in his first NHL game. He became the 13th player in franchise history to score in his debut.

Schwartz got acclimated to the "loose Blues" in the warm up skate when the team had him lead them onto the ice, but they all stopped at the bench. Schwartz proceeded to the ice and did two laps alone while the rest of the guys got a good laugh from the tunnel.

Berglund opened the scoring with a short-handed goal in the first made possible by a fantastic set-up from Alex Pietrangelo. Perron added the third goal on a partial break. Halak made 22 saves.

Andy McDonald did not play and is "week to week" as Hitchcock puts it. David Backes left the game early with a foot injury, not great news.

Even with all the injuries, the Blues continue to win. They are surging and doing it on the road. All this is a great testament to the system that Hitchcock has sold to the team.

Super Tuesday

With Tuesday's convincing win against Chicago the Blues show they're Presidential contenders.

The Blues came back from a productive road trip to Scottrade on Tuesday. They beat the rival Blackhawks 5-1, outplaying them for 60 minutes. They are used to dominating teams on home ice, but the recent trip, where their record was 5-1, was very successful for several reasons: The Blues nabbed 10 of 12 points, they took over first place in the Central from the Red Wings, and they proved they can win on the road.

The Blues' special teams are also improving. On the trip they shut down the top four power plays: Edmonton, Nashville, Vancouver, and San Jose. On the other end, the Note's power play went 5-for-16.

The Blues are improving in most their trouble areas from earlier in the season, including getting plenty of offensive boost from the return of Andy McDonald.

They are running on all cylinders and there is no reason why they can not make a run at the President's Trophy. The hardware doesn't mean much, hopefully their minds are on a different piece of hardware, but the home ice advantage throughout the playoffs will mean a lot.

"It's hard not to look at the standings and see where we are," McDonald said. "It's exciting. we realize there is a lot of hard work left. More importantly, we have to make sure we're getting our game to a spot where we're ready for the playoffs and improving, not kind of coasting into the playoffs. We want to be playing at the top of our game."

If they continue playing at this pace, they may cruise into the playoffs atop the NHL.

Highlights:

Health is on the Way

Jason Arnott and Kent Huskins will return to the lineup tonight against the Islanders.

Both veterans are ready to go according to Head Coach Ken Hitchcock. Huskins will take Carlo Colaiacovo's spot, as he suffered from a wrist injury in practice Wednesday.

Arnott has been out since February 3 with a shoulder injury after crashing into the boards awkwardly in a game against Los Angeles. He has missed six games. Through 49 games, Arnott has 12 goals and 12 assists (24 points). He has been a pleasant offensive surprise this season, especially on the power play.

Huskins has been out since October 28, when he fractured his ankle. He had surgery November 16 and has missed 46 games. In nine games with the Blues, Huskins, not usually known for his offense, has 2 goals and 2 assists with a plus-6 rating.

Meanwhile, both Matt D'Agostini and Alexander Steen remain on the shelf with concussion syndromes.

Hitchcock is happy to have Arnott & Huskins back: