Going into their game against the Colorado Avalanche on April seventh, 2018, the Blues had a chance to make the playoffs despite a season filled with dismal lows and unmet expectations.
Injuries had cost key players games, including captain Alex Pietrangelo and scoring sensation Vladimir Tarasenko. Goalie Jake Allen had faltered in his first season as the official number one goalie. Hometown kid and star centerman Paul Stastny had been traded away for a couple of picks.
It had been a rough season, but they still had a chance in spite of it. The Blues hadn’t missed the playoffs in six years and were only two years removed from a loss in the conference finals, but a lot had changed since then.
Key players from that team were long gone. Some, like former captain David Backes, were lost to free agency. Others, like offensive defenseman Kevin Shatterkirk, were traded for little to avoid being lost for nothing. The Blues were a shadow of their former selves, and yet they still had a chance.
All they needed on the night of April seventh was a single point. Even an overtime loss would get them into the playoffs for the seventh straight year.
The Blues played like hot garbage that night, however, losing 5-2 on soft goals and lackadaisical effort.
For long-suffering Blues fans, it seemed they had found a new low. Was it time for a rebuild? Should GM Doug Armstrong blow up the core and start all over? On paper, the Blues needed a true top centerman, some center depth, some scoring depth, some size and a consistent goalie.
It was a lot to ask, but Blues fans loved to get their hopes up despite constantly regretting it.
Some fans were dreaming of landing pending unrestricted free agent John Tavares. There were also rumors that the they were pursuing a trade for Buffalo centerman Ryan O’Reilly.
When July first came around many Blues fans were constantly checking their phones for updates. The first news that day was the signing of Maple Leaf Tyler Bozak. He was a center, but he was a guy who had only hit 20 goals once and generally had offensive talent on his wings contributing to his point totals in the upper 40’s. Not a game changing acquisition.
Then word came that the Blues were bringing back David Perron for his third stint with the Blues in St. Louis. Perron was well known by Blues fans and while he would likely add some offense, he wasn’t the answer to what plagued the team.
Rather than being excited about the Bozak and Perron signings, fans were gloomy, assuming it meant that they were out of the running for bigger name players that rumoured to have been pursued.
Then, late in the evening, the big news hit. The Blues had landed Ryan O’Reilly. The trade saw the Blues dump two salaries that most fans were eager to part with and sent a prospect who had shown promise but who wasn’t nearly as coveted as some of the other young talent in the farm system. It was like Christmas in July.
The Blues would later add hometown kid Patrick Maroon in a very cap-friendly deal.
Top center – Check
Center depth – Check
Scoring depth – Check
Size – Check
All that was missing was the goalie and many Blues faithful were convinced that Allen had it in him.
In addition to the offseason acquisitions, there were a number of rookies and younger players that were generating a lot of excitement. Rookie Robert Thomas was expected to make the opening night roster and expectations were rather high for what he would bring to the table at Enterprise Center.
Likewise for Jordan Kyrou and 20-year centreman Klim Kostin. On defence, players like Vince Dunn and Niko Mikkola were expected to add some speed and improve the transition game. Forwards like Ivan Barbashev, Sammy Blais and Zach Sanford were expected to add some energy as well as scoring depth.
Despite missing the playoffs only a few months earlier on, October 2018 saw a team take the ice for their opening game carrying higher expectations than any Blues team in recent memory.
October fourth was the night that many fans alike were looking forward to. No more anticipation. No more wondering. The steel would hit the ice and Blues fans would see what a great team Armstrong had built.
The Blues had a tough foe in their first game of the season in the Winnipeg Jets, but this team was built to win a championship and that journey had to start somewhere.
The Blues debut for Maroon, O’Reilly and Bozak and the first even NHL game for Thomas and Kyrou was meant to be chapter one in a story that had great expectations.
By the end of that night, those expectations lay in ruins and Blues fans started a journey much different than the one they had anticipated.
(Stay tuned for part two in this series, “Lose for Hughes.”)