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I know very few of us are positive right now about the Blues' playoff chances, but the first round starts Thursday night against the Chicago Blackhawks. Put on your big girl panties, suck it up, and go.
Yes, the Blues have backed into the playoffs, but it's the playoffs. Playoff hockey is special. Don't take it for granted. And don't let this turn into a Blackhawks home game.
From Connor Gregory of SeatGeek.com comes this tidbit of information:
The average price of a ticket to the Blues' Western Conference Quarterfinal home games against the Blackhawks is $76.88, making St. Louis the second-cheapest NHL playoff city this year; only tickets to the Ducks-Stars series in Anaheim ($67.47 average ticket price) are less expensive.
The relative affordability of playoff tickets in St. Louis is even clearer in comparison to the price of tickets for the Blues-Blackhawks games in Chicago, which are the second-most expensive first-round games in the NHL at an average price of $194.42 per ticket. That's more than 2.5x the average cost of a ticket to the games at the Scottrade Center. The $117.54 difference in average ticket price between the games in St. Louis and Chicago is the largest such gap among this year's eight first-round series.
The proximity of the two cities also means it will be easier for Chicago fans to make their way to St. Louis for games at the Scottrade Center, and given the huge savings on ticket prices, it may actually be cheaper for the Blackhawks faithful to travel for road games in this series than attend home games at the United Center. We've already seen an unusually high amount of interest from Blackhawks fans for tickets to the games in St. Louis, as 35% of Game 1 ticket shoppers have come from the Chicago metro area. Tickets for Game 1 in St. Louis Thursday night start at $58 on the secondary market, whereas it will cost at least $122 for a seat at Game 3 in Chicago next Monday.
You see that last one? Do something about it. Go to the damned playoff game. You can still not have high hopes and support your team - we've been doing it for 47 damn years.