Or in other words, your precious stats didn't reflect the final scores, so you side with the stats instead of the reality.
Nothing he wrote is untrue. And stats are just a reflection of reality. Its just a way to quantify what happens on the ice. The Blues were playing great hockey all year long. I've stated already that the only games they were outplayed were against SJ, Edmonton, and Minnesota. They've been the better team (at ES) in every other game this season.
Of course, outplaying/outshooting your opponent doesnt guarantee a win but it does correlate to success. The biggest wildcard is goaltenders, which reduce or increase the margin you need to outshoot/outplay an opponent to be even money. Here is an example from earlier this season of part of a write up I did that shows the correlation between frequency of winning the game/goaltenders/and puck possession/zone possession
Game for tomorrow I like is San Jose -133
San Jose is just much much superior to the Preds at the FW position. SJS forwards are actually quite solid players all around, led by the evolution of Joe Thornton as a hockey player. I've never seen him play better hockey than the end of last season and leading into this year....not in his 120+ point Hart year, or all those big offensive number years. He's just a really solid player now and should be around 80 points this season. Against teams that commit forwards back to help in the defensive end like a San Jose does, Nashville FWs just dont have the size and skill to keep any sustained pressure in the offensive zone, which is their whole gameplan. Nashville doesnt have the sniper power or transition explosive offense to produce goals from a rush, they need to grind out their goals, which plays right into the Sharks strengths.
The defender edge I actually give to San Jose as well, despite how vaunted the Predators Dcore is. The overall depth across 3 pairings, all 6 defenders on the Sharks is disgusting. I would put it at about top 5 in the league, right around what Nashville is at, but what they have that Nashville doesnt is specialized roles. Suter-Weber are great players but they are only "great" at most phases of the game. Burns-Boyle are their equals at bringing PP offense, and I would suggest superior at ES offense. Murray-Vlasic are very comparable to them defensively. The reason Suter-Weber are so valuable is because you can simply play them in every situation and you know you are getting high level production, while you may need, in this case, 4 very good players to replace and equal their roles, which is tough to find. However, San Jose has just that. Their team depth is insane.
Again, the wildcard is going to be in net. Rinne is just such a gigantic advantage to have in net. You literally have to outshoot and outchance Nashville by like 2-4 shots to be even money with them, almost regardless of your goalie. SJS to be worth their price here have to play in the range of {24-20 to 30-24} , which is a tough task for sure (4-6 shots here), but again, with solid defenders and solid team defense in general on both sides, a low offensive output game is favored here, so on the lower end of that range, about 4 shots, which San Jose is very likely to cover.