Not sure about the confluence, but the low placement is different -- the low on the top map is closer to Ohio, the bottom map shows it at the southwest corner of Indiana/Illinois border.
im telling you, not paying attention to what models show more than 5 days out is a life saver mentally for snow lovers. if you dont know there were threats there that never happened, you can't be depressed about it.
I remain hesitate to get excited about anything just yet. While I don't comment much on LR, I do skim it and it seems like all these promising threats the last couple weeks have gone poof in the short range.