Task: Question Answering
Input (English): passage: In the meantime, the franchise was on the brink of financial collapse. This was partly due to the pressures of the World Hockey Association (WHA), but mostly the result of financial decisions made when the Salomons first acquired the franchise. Deferred contracts came due just as the Blues' performance began to slip. At one point, the Salomons cut the team's staff down to three employees. One of them was Emile Francis, who served as team president, general manager and head coach, who convinced then-chairman R. Hal Dean of the St. Louis-based pet food giant Ralston Purina to buy the team, arena and the 8.8 million dept. The Salomons followed suit as they sold the team to that company on July 27, 1977. However, Ralston said that this was only temporary until they found a stable owner in St. Louis. Ralston renamed the arena the ``Checkerdome.'' After two awful years including finishing with a franchise low 18--50--12 record with 48 points (still the worst season in franchise history) in 1979, the Blues made the playoffs the following year, the first of 25 consecutive postseason appearances.
 question: are the st. louis blues in the nhl playoffs?
Output (English): Yes