DALLAS, TX - FEBRUARY 21: Jamie Benn #14 of the Dallas Stars controls the puck against Vince Dunn #29 of the St. Louis Blues in the first period at American Airlines Center on February 21, 2019 in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)

And then there were eight. As the second round of the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs gets underway, the Dallas Stars and St. Louis Blues will throw down with each other. It’s a matchup that many probably didn’t see coming, but is one that should produce plenty of entertainment.

The Dallas Stars and St. Louis Blues met up on four separate occasions during the 2018-19 regular season. And while each one had its big moments and critical plays, there’s one primary game that I want to focus on for a minute.

January 12, 2019. It marked the second meeting both of the week and of the season between the Stars and Blues and was their first showdown at the American Airlines Center. Dallas had claimed a 3-1 win in the first meeting of the year just five nights before and was looking to start a four-game homestand on a strong note.

That didn’t happen. Instead, the Stars dropped a 3-1 contest to St. Louis and picked up a second consecutive loss. And get this: the only goal that Dallas put on the board was scored by Erik Condra.

Why is that game significant? Well, because it provided a bit of a turning point for both the Dallas Stars and St. Louis Blues.

With that game wrapped up, the Stars dropped to 23-19-4 while the Blues worked their way up to 19-20-4. In other words, it was a game that pushed two mediocre Central division franchises further into mediocrity in their respective 2018-19 campaigns.

But that’s where things took a turn for the better. While the Stars would lose two more games and fall into a four-game skid, they started their strong push to the finish line on Jan. 19. From there, Dallas finished on a 20-11-3 pace, greatly improved their woes on the road, and saw some stellar play from Ben Bishop and Anton Khudobin. That hot pace helped them clinch the first wild card spot in the Western Conference.

Meanwhile, the Blues forced their way out of the NHL cellar. After spending some time in dead last in the league standings, St. Louis registered a 26-8-5 mark to end the regular season. That included an 11-game win streak that spanned over 29 days and an 8-1-2 stretch to finish the regular season.

In other words, both teams got hot at the right time and started a spark around the time of that second meeting.

And now, here they are getting ready to duke it out against each other in the second round of the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs. If you had said back on January 12 that these two teams would both qualify for the playoffs, win their first-round series against higher seeds, and be pitted against each other in round two, you would have been considered crazy.

But the NHL has no time for realism or predictability. There’s only time for uncertainty and unexpectedness.

And that’s what could end up making this series so special. These are two teams that, while they weren’t expected to be here, very much deserve to be here.

Aside from their strong surges to end the regular season, both the Stars and Blues dominated in their respective first-round matchups. Dallas bounced the Central division champion Nashville Predators from the postseason in six games and proved to be the better team in all but one game. They looked hungrier, more determined, and more focused and used their usual game plan to suffocate an unsuspecting Nashville team.

Meanwhile, the Blues knocked out a Winnipeg Jets team that advanced to the Western Conference finals in 2018. St. Louis won three games on the road in front of the famous “Winnipeg Whiteout” and used a stellar performance from rookie goalie Jordan Binnington to force their way into round two.

And now, the two teams stand toe-to-toe with the second round coming in hot. Two teams that weren’t supposed to be here. Two teams with surging goaltenders and a strong will to keep moving forward. Two teams that weren’t in the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season. Two teams that went the distance in a seven-game bout when they last met in the postseason in 2016.

It may not be the series you expected, but it’s the series that the NHL needs.

The Stars finished the year on a 3-1-0 mark against the Blues, with Jamie Benn and Ben Bishop playing big roles throughout the series. There were some highs and lows and plenty of physicality throughout the series, but that’s all in the past now.

“It’s a whole new season,” Stars forward Tyler Seguin told Mark Stepneski of DallasStars.com. “It’s hard to take too much [from it]. You look at some systematic stuff, but playoffs isn’t the regular season. It’s new, it’s different. You look at them against Winnipeg, and I am sure they looked at us against Nashville.”

It’s a new series and a fresh slate for both clubs. But the battle mentality is still the same.

Can the Dallas Stars get back into game mode quickly and start the series on a strong note at the Enterprise Center? We’ll find out starting at 8:30 p.m. on Thursday night.

It’s another Central division series for the ages. The stakes are higher and the opportunity is bigger. Let’s see how both clubs respond.