You might hate them, but you have to hand it to the Champs.
It's a well-documented path that the Blues took to take him the grand prize, however, let's revisited it for the purpose of this blog.
2018-19 Recap:
We all know by now that the St. Louis Blues were a terrible team. Then they got good. Then they won the cup.
How did they do it?
Well, the coaching change to Mike Yeo to Craig Berube looked to be the main factor in their turnaround.
Yeo was relieved of his duties on November 20th, 2018. Berube shifted from Assistant Coach to Head Coach and took his time to get his team straightened out.
Around Christmas time, the Blues really started to take shape as a powerhouse. Once they hit their stride, they didn't look back.
STL rattled off a 38-19-6 record under their new bench boss to close out the season and followed that up with a 16-10 record in the playoffs winning the Stanley Cup.
The Blues took down the Jets in 6 games.
The Stars gave them a run with a 7 game battle.
Next up, for the Western Conference title, they beat the Sharks in a 6 game series.
Lastly, the Bruins and Blues went back-and-forth over 7 games. As we all know, St. Louis ultimately taking them down.
As the Blues continue to part, let's see what GM Doug Armstrong did(/n't) in the offseason:
Who's IN: Pouliot
Who's OUT: Maroon, Soshnikov, Thorburn, Del Zotto
Projected Lineup:
Schwartz – Schenn – Tarasenko Sanford – O'Reilly – Perron Blias – Bozak – Thomas Barbashev – Sundqvist – Steen
Bouwmeester – Parayko Gunnarsson – Pietrangelo Dunn – Bortuzzo
Binnington Allen
2019-20 Outlook:
The Blues are essentially bringing back the same team - and why not?
They will be riding the wave from their win but teams will be ready for them this time around.
Jordan Binnington inked a new contract this summer as he was paid for his breakthrough season. Well, it was more like a half-season + playoffs.
The Blues will rely on him a lot and there's no reason to think that he can't keep it going.
I predict STL will in the top 3 in the division but I don't anticipate them being a powerhouse of overwhelming nature in the Central.
I don't think they have to be; they just went through a 26-game playoff run and will utilize that experience next Spring regardless of seed.
I will have my final division predictions as I wrap up this series but it's safe to say that the Blues are a playoff team and I expect them to play the Hawks hard all season.
Let's shift over to the resident HB Blues writer and his thoughts immediately after the Blues win. There are some really solid thoughts here by Jason on how and why the Blues turned it all around.
Jason Millen's Take: "By mid to late December, even those of us who expected some early growing pains because of the roster turnover began to believe that there just wasn't going to be enough time to get the ship turned around and that a shake-up trade was likely necessary.
While Berube and the Van Ryan were making strides in cleaning up the Blues overall game and installing belief and confidence in the room, the final turnover occurred, losing Johnson on waivers to Anaheim (thank you Ducks) in mid-December, replacing him with Jordan Binnington.
What few may recall now is that Binnington's start to the year was less than stellar, stopping only 84% of the shots he faced in over 68 minutes of ice time, though all of this was in a mop up duty role. Still, I don't think anyone could imagine how his season would progress from there.
As the season turned over to the second half, the Blues power play went from 19% to 23.4% while their opportunities went up more than 10%. The penalty kill went from 79.3% to 84.5% while their time short-handed fell by more than 28%. Their goal differential was -17 in the 1st half but +41 in the 2nd half.
Before the All-Star game, the Blues had an 89.5% save percentage. After the All-Star game, it rose to 92.2%. Even more impressive was how their goals against average went from 3.02 to 2.14. Part of the improvement was due to better overall team play and part was due to turning over the starting goalie role to Binnington.
Berube was patient and consistent in his message. He was much more patient with his line combination, letting some consistency and familiarity develop. His stability, confidence and demeanor translated to the team and was adopted by them and the positive results followed and built upon themselves. The trials and tribulations created a steely determination that guided them to the franchise's first ever Stanley Cup Championship.
It's a great day for hockey."
(Source: Jason Millen, https://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog/Jason-Millen/Turnover-keyed-the-turnaround-bringing-calm-and-stability/229/100178)
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Thoughts on the Blues?
See ya out there!
TC
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