I Guess That's Why They Call Them the Blues

On June 12, 2019, the St. Louis Blues finally achieved the ultimate goal: they won the Stanley Cup. The Blues' Cup came after over five decades of hard luck and suffering. The Blues' Cup came one season after they ended up as the last team eliminated from playoff contention. The Blues' Cup came just months after they were actually in last place in the entire NHL. It was an amazing story and a terrific ending for a team who had nothing but hardships since joining the league in 1967, and it looked like they would be a juggernaut for years to come.

Yet the bottom started to fall off very quickly.

The 2019-20 season is known for the pause and the modified playoffs as the result of the COVID-19 pandemic, but also, the Blues were the defending champions that year. At the time of the pause, the Blues had the top record in the Western Conference (only the Boston Bruins, the team they defeated to win the Cup in 2019, had a better record overall), and they entered the modified playoffs' Round Robin as the #1 team in the West. They were in good shape to win the Round Robin and keep the #1 seed, yet all it took was Nazem Kadri's buzzer beater to begin the breaking of the Blues.

The Blues lost all three of their Round Robin games, and ended up as the fourth seed in the Western Conference, which was followed by a stunning upset loss to the Vancouver Canucks in the Western Conference Quarterfinals (six games). That season was followed by the 56-game campaign (2020-21), which saw the Blues struggle a bit in the makeshift West Division. Let me say something about that. Everyone buried the all-Canadian North Division that year, but the West was worse. The West Division was all about the Colorado Avalanche and the Vegas Golden Knights. The fact that the Blues struggled the way they did, yet still made the playoffs? A true testament to how terrible that division was. They had to face the Avs in Round 1, and it was horrible for them--a four game sweep that saw them play from behind for almost the entire series.

The format returned to normal in the 2021-22 season, and regarding the Blues, they had a great season, but it was only good enough for third place in the Central because of the records posted by the Avalanche and the Minnesota Wild. Despite this, they ousted the Wild in six games, but they had to run into the Avalanche again in the Division Final. The Blues did show some glimpses; they managed to take Game Two on the road to even the series, but when they went home, it was a different ballgame. Back-to-back losses in Games Three and Four, and while they did take Game Five on the road, their season ended in Game Six, thanks to yet another (borderline) last second goal in regulation.

As for this season? Oh boy...

The Blues have been immensely up and down this season, with the down being notable. How bad is it? They are straddling the .500 line and are behind too many teams in the playoff race. They should be thanking their lucky stars that the Arizona Coyotes and the Chicago Blackhawks are in the Central Division; they are the only teams holding them up, and it looks like it'll stay that way. It has been a disaster for the Blues. Jordan Kyrou has been the one bright spot for the team, he leads in goals (25) and points (53) this season. But there's one thing. Because of how bad the goaltending is this year, Kyrou's Plus/Minus is absolutely hideous: he's at -22. It's not the lowest on the team; that dishonor belongs to Robert Thomas at -26.

Remember when a case could have been made for Jordan Binnington as the Conn Smythe winner in 2019? Yeah, that seems like ages ago now. Ever since Kadri beat the buzzer on him in the bubble, Binnington has fallen flat, not only as a goaltender but as a human being (though it could be said that he was never much of the latter). He lost all of his playoff starts in not only 2020, but 2021 as well (the Avalanche completely buried him), and it reached a point that the Blues had to start Ville Husso over him more often. Binnington ended his drought against the Wild, but he got injured in Game Three thanks to friendly fire from Calle Rosen (yes, it was Rosen, not Kadri--get it right). For some reason, the Blues let Husso go during the offseason, as he (as well as teammate David Perron) was taken by the Detroit Red Wings. Binnington has to be the guy again, and he's not even close. 21-18-3, a sub-.900 SV%, a 3.25 GAA, and too many dumb antics.

It looks like the Blues are waving the white flag on this season, as they traded two of their best players in a very short span. I wasn't surprised when Vladimir Tarasenko was dealt; he had been subjected to trade rumors for about a year. Tarasenko was traded to the New York Rangers in a deal that sent Sammy Blais back to the Blues (Blais was traded for Pavel Buchnevich during the 2021 offseason), and he didn't waste time in his Rangers debut, as he scored in the first period of his first game with NYR. Ryan O'Reilly being traded does surprise me, and I'm still shocked over who got him: the Toronto Maple Leafs. O'Reilly, who won the Conn Smythe Trophy in 2019, was dealt to the Leafs in a three team deal that also included the Minnesota Wild, coming barely over a week after Tarasenko was traded.

I didn't think much of anything when Tarasenko was traded, but when the O'Reilly deal happened, I literally went, "Yeah, they're giving up." You do not trade two of your best players if you think you have a chance. It's amazing. Since the Blues won their Stanley Cup in 2019, they've only won one playoff series. This year, despite being part of the Western Conference's Final Four in 2022, the Blues find themselves in deep, deep trouble, as they are in a hole that they can't seem to get out of.