“Obviously as Stanley Cup champions, somebody has to knock ’em off if they want to become champions. “But I think this year’s (Colorado) team is different than last year’s. They don’t have Kadri. Their goaltender’s gone (Darcy Kuemper). They’re starting to feel a little bit of that cap crunch that everybody else is.”

“They still have an unbelievably talented team, so I would say they’re still one of the top teams. Last year, I just thought they were light years ahead of everybody else. And I think this year, they’re still a helluva team. Just the salary cap has made them a little bit weaker like it has a lot of teams. But they’re still a top team for sure.”

-Doug Armstrong, GM of tje St. Louis Blues. Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has more on the Blues.