St. Louis Blues still looking for first Stanley Cup

The St. Louis Blues have been working towards winning a Stanley Cup ever since joining the NHL as an expansion team back in 1967/68. However, they have yet to realize their goal as their Stanley Cup drought is tied with the Toronto Maple Leafs for the longest in the league. The Leafs last hoisted the silverware in the spring of 1967 just months before the Blues played their first ever NHL game.

The Blues have made it as far as the Western Conference Final against the San Jose Sharks this season after downing the Winnipeg Jets in six games in the opening round and then going the full seven to take care of the pesky Dallas Stars. In fact, they didn’t eliminate Dallas until scoring in double overtime of the deciding contest at home to win the game 2-1. It was the first time the Blues have fought back to win a seven-game series after trailing 3-2 in games in 1998/99 when they beat the Phoenix Coyotes after trailing 3-1.

St. Louis has now gone 9-8 in their history in game-sevens in the playoffs. Their final game against Dallas also set a new NHL record as three series have been decided in overtime of game seven so far this season. The Washington Capitals and Carolina Hurricanes went to a seventh-game overtime in the first round of the postseason as did the Vegas Golden Knights vs San Jose Sharks series. The Blues still have a lot of hard work ahead of them if they hope to snap their cup drought though since they lost the first game of the conference Final 6-3 in San Jose and the Sharks have home-ice advantage in the series.

The two teams also met in the 2015/16 Western Conference Final with San Jose winning in six games and in the five previous series between them the Sharks have a 3-2 edge. St. Louis may not be too concerned about where game seven will be played if the series against San Jose goes that far though since their playoff record on the road this year is an impressive 5-2. on the other hand, they need to improve at home as they are just 3-4 so far in St. Louis.

Even though the Blues and Leafs have gone without a Stanley Cup since 1967 the Leafs have never made it as far as the Stanley Cup Final since then while the Blues have reached three cup finals. In fact, the Blues made it to the Final the first three seasons they were in the league when the NHL expanded to 12 clubs from six. The expansion franchise didn’t fare too well however as they were swept in four straight games in all three final series. The Montreal Canadiens beat them in 1967/68 and 1968/69 while the Boston Bruins shut them out in the 1969/70 campaign.

The St. Louis franchise has been quite consistent since joining the NHL as they have missed the playoffs just eight times in their 51-year history. They have also been crowned division champions on nine occasions and in 1999/2000 they had the league’s best regular-season record and took home the President’s Trophy for their efforts. For the Blues to finally win the Stanley Cup they’ll need 25-year-old rookie goaltender Jordan Binnington to continue his sharp play. He’s gone 8-6 in the playoffs with a goals-against average of 2.57 and a 90.8 save percentage. He may be tiring though since his GAA was 1.89 in the regular season while his save percentage was 92.7.

Jaden Schwartz is leading the offence with eight goals and four assists after scoring just 11 times in 69 regular-season contests. Captain Alex Pietrangelo is helping out from the blue line with two goals and nine assists while centre Ryan O’Reilly has three goals and 10 points. The team needs more production from winger Vladimir Tarasenko however as he’s chipped in with five goals and one assist but he’s a minus-8 and just one of his goals have come at even strength. St. Louis currently has a one-in-four chance of winning the Stanley Cup this season and those odds could be good enough to snap their half-century drought.

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