St. Louis Blues - What's Going Wrong for the Notes?

If you've been watching the Blues this season (which I actually have been for once -- usually like to wait until the end of the season going into the Ploffs -- but trying to get better), it's been tough to watch the state of this team. Maybe I'm bad luck and should go back to opting out on hockey games -- but damnit I'm trying to support.

This is a team that made the Postseason last year -- and while they took a 1st Round exit in 7 games to the Winnipeg Jets, who were the 1 seed out of the Western Conference -- they've struggled mightily out of the gates in 2025. They currently sit at 9-11-7, good for 25 points which is the 3rd fewest in the NHL. But worse than that -- they have the worst Goal Differential in the entire league at -26. They're allowing over 3.5 goals per game, and only scoring just over 2.5 per game -- which, spoiler alert, is not a recipe for success.

The Team that won the Stanley Cup in 2019 was built on resiliency, toughness, grit, and hustle. Through 27 games, this has been a team that isn't showing much of all 4 on either end of the ice. And something the Blues in recent years have always been able to rely on, whether the offense is struggling or the defense is in a rut -- has been their goaltending. This season, they haven't been able to.

I don't want to blame a goaltender too much, because there's a lot of factors that go into your success defending the net. However, just looking at the stats -- it's easy to see it's been a rough go for Jordan Binnington -- let alone Joel Hofer relieving him. Binnie has been streaky in his tenure stopping pucks for The Blues, but when he's on -- I'm not sure there's a player you'd take over him in net. That 2019 Cup Run was built on Binnie's shoulders -- he was a fucking robot. 2.46 GAA, nearly 92% SV %, started 26 fucking games.

He had a couple down seasons after the Cup Run, but he had put together 2 straight seasons of really good goaltending leading up to this year -- 2.66 GAA in 113 appearances over that span. In 16 starts this year, it's been rocky -- 3.20 GAA, and the lowest SV% of his career at 87.8%. First time he's been under 89% in his career. The defense hasn't been doing him any favors, but he certainly needs to be better.

And you always want to see your backup goaltender perform well, even in limited action -- but Joel Hofer hasn't done anything to alleviate the pain. When he spots starts, he's actually allowing even more goals per game than Binnie (3.29) and nearly the same SV% (88.2%). It's been rough in net for St. Louis Hockey.

But like I said -- it's far from fully on Binnie and Hof. The defense this season has been utterly atrocious. Something even a schmuck like me can notice when watching the Blues is that we have major issues at getting the puck out of our defensive zone and turning the puck over in our defensive zone. (I can't put it that eloquently -- I had to engage my puck-knowing friends Tom and Kyle for the jargon). It's also about the amount of quality shots on net our opponents are getting. Binnie can stop a lot of shots -- but if you're letting your opponent have incredible looks on net -- there's only so much he can do.

When you think about the great Blues teams, at least for me in my lifetime -- I think of the great defensemen. The guys that'll lay you out on one end, then score a goal or set up a teammate on the other end. I wasn't around for the Chris Pronger or Al MacInnis years -- but guys like Pietrangelo, Parayko, Shattenkirk, Jackman, Bouwmeester are all ones that come to mind as incredible defensemen in STL. And while Parayko is still around and playing alright, he isn't quite the player he was in the late 10's-early 20's. And many of the other guys we're counting on for defense aren't off to great starts in the 2025 season -- Justin Faulk, Cam Fowler, Brayden Schenn specifically -- aren't up to snuff thus far.

While I think the Defense and Goaltending woes have been the headline -- the offense isn't without fault themselves. On paper -- this is exactly where our bread should be buttered. We have plenty of weapons that can fly around the ice and put the puck in the back of the net -- Robert Thomas, Jordan Kyrou, Dylan Holloway, Pavel Buchnevich, Jake Neighbours, young Jimmy Snuggerud. Even Faulk has a nose for the net -- he's 3rd on the team in goals. But there are only 2 teams in the NHL with fewer goals than the Blues, and one of them has played 3 less games.

There's a case to be made that, when your team is struggling so badly to get it in the O Zone and clear the puck -- that it's harder to capitalize on scoring opportunities. Not being able to successfully clear the puck leads to longer shifts -- for the defense, and for the offense. When your forwards have tired legs, they aren't going to have as much juice to break away from the defense and score goals. When your defensemen have tired legs, they aren't going to be able to keep up with the opposition. It's a recipe for disaster.

But you can't fully blame tired legs -- this is the NHL. And you need to score goals to win games in the NHL (I know, I should be a coach with this insight). Robert Thomas leads this team in points because of his 13 assists, but 4 goals in 23 games is not good enough from a star. He's not the 19 year-old along for the ride to the Cup anymore -- he's the face of this franchise. Buchnevich needs to be more of a force offensively. Brayden Schenn needs to be more assertive, Snuggy needs to take a step forward. When guys like Buch, Schenn, Kyrou, and Holloway are all -16, -12, -10, and -9 in +/- on the ice -- things need to change.

I don't think there's one singular thing that needs to change for this Blues team to turn this season around -- it may be a case of just not having the horses and needing to hit the reset button. On paper, this isn't a bottom five team in the NHL to me -- but that's exactly what they've been. It may hurt to see some legends of the franchise go, it may hurt to see some promising young players go -- but it may have to happen if things keep going south.