from Dan Rosen of NHL.com,

What is the difference in mindset and pressure when you expect to make the playoffs, like the Blues do now, as opposed to the time when you were just hoping to get there?

"I think when you're hoping to make the playoffs, you think it's OK to fail and you think about, 'Oh, we lost tonight, but we were slotted to not make the playoffs anyway.' There is always a desire to win, but when it doesn't happen you say, 'If this was different,' or, 'If we had a better team.' There are excuses when you're not expecting it.

"When you're expecting to make the playoffs, it's, 'Let's see results.' If you're not getting them, you're in a mode where things are going to change. I don't think of it as pressure, I think of it as expectations, and when you're prepared for those expectations you don't see it as pressure. I don't think they're parallel by any means."

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