The night was March 13, 2025. As many Priory students looked forward to their last day of classes before embarking across the world for spring break, I sat alone in shock after the atrocious performance from the St. Louis Blues. Coming off the historic 4 Nations break, all things looked to be in order for the Note after impressive wins over the Avalanche, Kings, and Capitals. Although standing multiple games out of a wildcard spot, things were headed in the perfect direction, that is until, they weren’t.
One March 5, during a contest visiting the Kings, top defenseman Colton Parayko went down awkwardly in transition during overtime. The next day, he was ruled as week-to-week with a lower body injury. I wasn’t too worried about this news, as the rest of our defensive core had still been particularly strong when it mattered, especially midseason acquisition Cam Fowler.
Still, nothing could have prepared me for that Thursday night. What should’ve been an easy win against a struggling Penguins team quickly became one of the most embarrassing games of the season. Within the first three minutes of the game, Jordan Binnington gave up a goal to Ryan Graves, arguably one of the worst defensemen in the league who had one point to show throughout his first 50+ games. This pain would continue throughout the next period, as the first three goals the Penguins scored were put in by fringe-NHL level players whom most people have never heard of. Even after the Blues were able to make it close towards the end (with a career-highlight goal by Alexei Toropchenko), I was still ready to go into panic mode in regards to our narrow playoff race. While other wild card teams seemed to be heating up, I had just witnessed one of the most embarrassing performances of the entire season. However, that would all change on the first full day of spring break.
After a dominant win and hat trick from Jordan Kyrou over the Wild on March 15, I was able to regain amounts of hope. Even with yet another back-to-back scheduled the very next day, the Blues once again stomped all over their opponent, this time with a huge 7-2 victory over the Ducks that practically ended Anaheim’s playoff hopes. Things would continue on Tuesday night with a scrappy win over the Predators featuring numerous fights and dirty hits. At this point, things were looking incredible with four straight wins, especially for a team that couldn’t even string three together until early March (a league record).
Just after getting the hottest they had been all season with blowout after blowout, the Blues decided it was time to test the emotions of their loyal fanbase. After nearly blowing a March 20 win over wild card contender Vancouver, they went down 0-2 against an awful Predators team only a week later. As many began to worry this seven game hot-streak was coming to an end, something miraculous happened. After Dylan Holloway was able to cut the deficit to one goal midway through the second period, the Blues suddenly tied and shortly after took the lead, thanks to contributions from Fowler and Holloway once again. Yet again, the team almost blew this game, barely making it out alive after a called back buzzer beating goal Nashville hoped to count.
After bouncing back with a massive road win over Colorado, the Blues once again made their next win far closer than it needed to be. After a slow and scoreless two periods hosting the Detroit Red Wings, Jordan Binnington gave up a backdoor goal that saw the Blues trailing in the dying moments of the third period. Thankfully, our six on five unit was able to equalize thanks to a nice Fowler feed to Jordan Kyrou, who got the tying goal with only 29 seconds remaining on the clock. Fowler was able to follow this up by scoring a beautiful backhand goal as the OT winner, marking 10 wins in a row, something that nobody could have predicted only a month before.
The next game would be one of the biggest tests of the season: the Pittsburgh Penguins. Although being a team we had no business losing to, they were initially the ones that had spurred the entire miracle run just a month prior. This game was also back and forth, until Kyrou and Jake Neighbours were able to help bring the lead to 4-2 with 10 minutes remaining in the game. Like clockwork, the Blues found a way to make it more interesting. After Rickard Rakell made it a one goal game with nine minutes left on the clock, all the Blues had to do was hold on and potentially score an empty net winner to ice the game. This proved to be too difficult for them to do, instead allowing highly-touted Penguins prospect Rutger McGroarty to score his first NHL goal to tie it up with just 25 seconds to go. Overtime was just as intense, however it was a Kris Letang slash on Jordan Kyrou that gave the Blues the four on three advantage for two minutes during the extra period. Once again, the Blues were able to pull off an impressive OT win, this time thanks to Robert Thomas hitting the 20 goal mark on the year.
With the win over Pittsburgh, the Blues had tied their franchise record of 11 consecutive wins, something done only by the 2018-19 underdog team in their similar race to the playoffs. The next Saturday night was a chance to make history for the Note. With the Colorado Avalanche back in town, each group of forwards seemed to be doing their job as depth scoring helped the Blues jump out to a 4-0 lead by the midway point of the second period. As most people could predict at this point, the game had to end a lot closer than that. After an early third period rally and not being able to score on the empty net, the Blues soon found themselves barely holding on to a 4-3 game with two minutes left. Robert Thomas thought he had iced the game by scoring a long empty net goal from his own zone, but still, the Avalanche would not go away. After scoring another to make it a 1 goal game again with only eight seconds left, the Blues were finally able to hold on for a new franchise record: 12 wins in a row.
Although this streak ended Monday night with a disappointing loss against Winnipeg, this team was able to go from being counted out by the hockey world to being the hottest group in the league. According to data from analytics site Moneypuck.com, the Blues had a mere 6.5% chance of making the playoffs when play resumed after the February break. But now, after a league-best 18-3-2 record since (not factoring in Wednesday’s visit to Edmonton), the Blues boast a 99.2% chance of clinching a seed, their first appearance since the 2021-22 season.
But what has led the team from not being able to string wins to all the sudden being the team to beat? Numerous factors have helped us. Most importantly, our goaltending has been phenomenal lately, with both Jordan Binnington and Joel Hofer putting up career numbers to keep us in games. Additionally, every line has been clicking perfectly, especially our fourth “WTF” line of Nathan Walker, Alexei Toropchenko, and Radek Faksa. Also, two of the most anticipated rookies have finally joined the team, Jimmy Snuggerud and Dalibor Dvorsky. After 2022 first-round pick Snuggerud signed a few weeks back, he quickly found himself filling in for an injured Dylan Holloway on our second forward line pairing. Lastly, most of the magic can be attributed to Jobu, the voodoo doll from 1989 comedy Major League. Jobu has appeared in the locker room for every game, with players embracing his presence and feeling his effects. As we wrap up the season over the next week, I will be eagerly awaiting our first round matchup as the Blues have all but clinched a wild card appearance. Whether it be against Winnipeg or Vegas, one thing is for certain: In Jobu We Trust.