published on June 05, 2024 in corga

So they won a Stanley Cup, but were the 2018-19 Blues the best in team history?

When the final seconds ticked off the clock at the TD Garden in Boston on June 12, the Blues had their first Stanley Cup in franchise history.

The club rushed the crease to celebrate, players heaved their equipment in the air and NBC’s Doc Emrick hailed them as champions. It was a scene many Blues fans felt they’d never witness in their lifetime.

Just in case you still don’t believe it, or were one of the almost 50,000 people who “liked” the video on Blues’ social media and simply want to watch it again, OK, we’ll oblige.

The moment many have waited a lifetime to see happen!!! Celebrate, St. Louis!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/xTzDHsiO8Z

— St. Louis Blues 🏆 (@StLouisBlues) June 13, 2019

The 2018-19 Blues will go down as legends, and their parade down Market Street will long be remembered as the day they rewarded a city of long-suffering hockey fans. They automatically entered the conversation as one of the best teams in franchise history and many will argue the best because they won the Cup, and really, how can you debate that?

Well, because it would be fun.

Of course, there’s no scientific way to select the most fabulous Blues teams from the past 52 seasons, so what The Athletic did was pick five that were well-revered and represented the different eras of the organization’s rich tradition.

We chronicled the strengths and successes of each of our finalists, and spoke with a player from each of the five clubs. Each comes with a depth chart supplied by Tim Beever of @STLBlueshistory; yes, we realize that lineups changed throughout the season as players were injured and traded, but we wanted to give you a refresher on the previous rosters. We’ll also take a look at how the five clubs compare in an era-adjusted model designed by The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn.

One of the purposes of this project was to promote conversation, so we welcome your picks for the best club in Blues’ history in the comments section, and you’ll also have a chance to vote on Twitter @jprutherford. So without further ado, we present the cases for these teams: 1968-69 (as told by Red Berenson), 1980-81 (Bernie Federko and Berenson), 1990-91 (Scott Stevens), 1999-2000 (Al MacInnis) and 2018-19 (Joel Edmundson).

The expansion Blues went to the Stanley Cup final in each of their first three years of existence, and we could have gone with any of those teams (1967-68, 1968-69, 1969-70). The reason we went with 1968-69? Because that was legendary Blue Bobby Plager’s pick, and that’s good enough for us.

These days, the NHL plays an 82-game schedule, but back then the league played 76 games, and in 1969, the Blues allowed just 157 goals, which still stands as the record in the shorter season. Goalies Glenn Hall, then 37 years old, and Jacques Plante, 40, led the NHL with 13 shutouts and won the Vezina Trophy, which went to the netminders who allowed the fewest goals in the regular season. Hall had eight of those shutouts with a 2.17 goals-against average, while Plante had the other five with a 1.96 GAA.

“The team in ’68-69, it started with our goalies, Hall and Plante,” Berenson said. “Then the experience we had on defense with guys like Doug Harvey, a Norris Trophy winner when he was in his prime, and Al Arbour, Jimmy Roberts, Jean-Guy Talbot and the Plager brothers. It was the toughness with players like Noel Picard and the Plagers. We had a lot of physical, intimidating players.”

The club set a record of 12 straight games without a loss, which wasn’t matched until 2000-01, and did not lose two straight games at the Arena all season. They wound up with eight All-Stars in the West Division that season, including Hall, Plante, Harvey, Arbour, Picard, Berenson, Roberts (who also played on the wing) and Ab McDonald.

“Scotty Bowman did a good job of signing and recruiting players that had been on winning teams,” said Berenson. “I think that had a lot to do with our success; these guys knew how to win and they knew what it took, and they preached that to all of our young players. Most of us were pretty good two-way players, thriving on playing good defense, giving our goalies a chance and capitalizing on our chances. That came right from Bowman. He preached that kind of hockey, and he got the kind of players that could play it.”

The Blues won the West Division with 88 points, 19 more than the second-place Oakland Seals. They won eight consecutive games in the postseason, sweeping the Philadelphia Flyers and Los Angeles Kings, and outscoring those teams by a combined 25 goals, 33-8, but were swept themselves for the second straight year by the Montreal Canadiens in the Stanley Cup final.

A little more than a decade later, the Blues were all about scoring goals, but they still had spectacular goaltending.

Wayne Babych became the franchise’s first 50-goal scorer (54), and the offense had five 30-goal scorers, including Jorgen Pettersson (37), Brian Sutter (35), Perry Turnbull (34) and Federko (31). There were 10 players who reached the 20-goal plateau, including Mike Zuke (24), Tony Curry (23), Larry Patey (22), Blake Dunlop (20) and Blair Chapman (20).

The Blues’ 4.4 goals-per-game average was the highest in their history, setting franchise records in even strength goals (251) and power play goals (85).

“The depth of our team was so good that year,” Federko said. “We had all these guys who were high first-round picks that (former Blues GM) Emile Francis was able to bring in through trades and give them another chance. I think it was our depth — we had a good checking line, good penalty killing, good power play — and obviously ‘Lutey’ was unbelievable.”

Lutey would be Mike Liut, who went 33-14-14 and won the Lester Pearson Award as the NHL’s MVP, as voted by the players.

“It really came down to that: Liut kept us in most games,” said Berenson, who coached the 1980-81 team. “I can’t say that we were outplayed dramatically, but we were often outchanced. It was a race to see who could score the quickest and fastest goals, and once we got up on teams, they opened up a little more and we could really fill the net. But Liut was the MVP on that team, there’s no question.”

This Blues club set a single-season record with 45 wins and was the first to eclipse 100 points (107). After a first-round victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins in the postseason, which Mike Crombeen ended with a Game 5 game-winner in double-overtime, the team fell in the quarterfinals to the New York Rangers.

“Unfortunately we lost (Turnbull) in the playoffs, and we got bullied in that series,” Federko said. “I’ve always said that if we had Bobby Gassoff (who passed away in a tragic accident in 1977), there’s no question in my mind that we would have been a much better hockey club. Because in that era, you needed that guy who made sure everybody respected your team, and ‘Gasser’ was that guy. He would have been the front and center of our defense, and it would have been a different story.”

Hull & Oates!

It was a magical time for Brett Hull and Adam Oates, and thus the Blues, who had also acquired a future Hall of Fame defenseman in Scott Stevens.

“We had some good players and a really good group of guys, but obviously Hull and Oates were pretty spectacular,” Stevens said.

Hull scored 86 goals, which remains the third-highest single-season total in league history, including 50 over the course of 50 games. Oates finished with 90 assists, and more than half of his 54 primary helpers came on goals by Hull. Oates assisted on 20 of Hull’s league-leading 29 power play goals.

“Just so consistent,” Stevens said. “They hung out a lot and just had such chemistry on the ice. Oates could make that perfect pass right in his wheelhouse. He was that good at finding Brett, and Brett was so good at finding that quiet soft spot on the ice. You could always count on them.”

The Blues were 39-18-9 (87 points) and in first place in the NHL standings in early March, but made one of the worst trades in club history at the trade deadline. They sent Geoff Courtnall, Cliff Ronning, Sergio Momesso and Robert Dirk to the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for Garth Butcher and Dan Quinn.

“It was tough because we pretty much gave up our second scoring line,” Stevens said. “Hull and Oates were so good, but Courtnall, Ronning and Momesso scored (a combined 51 at that point in the season) and won a lot of games because everyone was trying to shut down Hull and Oates. That line was good at making the other team pay, carrying the offense when we needed it.”

The Blues went 1-4-2 in their next seven games after the trade, then rattled off a franchise-record seven-game winning streak to end the regular season. In the first round of the playoffs, they overcame a 3-1 series deficit to beat the Detroit Red Wings, but in the Norris Division finals, they fell behind 3-1 to the Minnesota North Stars and couldn’t come back. The spectacular season came to a disappointing end.

It was also an unhappy end in St. Louis for Stevens, who was awarded to New Jersey in a controversial ruling by abitrator Judge Edward Houston as compensation for the Blues signing Brendan Shanahan from the Devils. It worked out well for Stevens, who won three Stanley Cups, but not for the club that lost him.

“We thought we’d be there for four years, and it only turned out to be one, but it was one great year,” Stevens said.

This is a year in which the Blues set a franchise record for most points in a season (114), which still stands today, and yet it’s a year any fan who remembers the finish would rather forget.

If the early years were about Hall/Plante, Sutter/Federko and Hull/Oates, this team was led by Al MacInnis and Chris Pronger. One defenseman or the other seemed to be on the ice for the entire game; MacInnis averaged 5:59 per game on the power play and Pronger was at 5:43, while the remainder of the blueliners combined for 6:16.

Pronger finished with 62 points in 79 games and a plus-minus of plus-52. He went on to win both the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s top defenseman and the Hart Trophy as the league’s MVP, becoming the first player to do that since Bobby Orr in 1972.

“Prongs, the season that he had was incredible,” MacInnis said. “I remember that season particularly because there was no question he was the most valuable player in the league. He was obviously a huge part, carrying the team.”

The Blues set a franchise record with a 10-game winning streak on the road, helping establish a new mark for single-season victories (51), en route to the organization’s first Presidents’ Trophy for the most points in the league.

Scott Young closed with a career-high 40 goals, while his center, Pierre Turgeon, pumped in 52 assists and 82 points.

“We had some pretty good balance and character guys, like good teammates,” MacInnis said. “We had some good top-end players, like Turgeon, Young, (Pavol) Demitra and (Lubos) Bartecko. But you also had some good hard-working guys like (Craig) Conroy, (Mike) Eastwood, (Scott) Pellerin and (Jamal) Mayers … guys who excelled at their role and knew their job.

“With (coach) Joel Quenneville, team defense was huge. He always had his team compete hard without the puck, defend hard and kind of let the offense look after itself. Like I said, we had balanced scoring at the top, but he made sure that everybody was playing hard away from the puck. I would say team defense was probably the No. 1 thing that made us successful.”

But that success ended in the first round of the playoffs. The Blues forced a Game 7 after falling behind, 3-1, in their series against the San Jose Sharks, but in part due to a 65-foot shot from Owen Nolan that got by goalie Roman Turek, who had a club-best 42 wins in the regular season, they became just the second team since the Presidents’ Trophy was established in 1985-86 to be ousted in the opening round.

“I can’t remember a lot to be honest, but obviously we would have been the heavy favorite going in,” MacInnis said. “I wish I could comment why or what happened, but I just don’t remember exactly. In saying that, we were the favorite, and we should have had more success.”

For any team waiting more than a half-century for its first Stanley Cup, it’s going to be special when it finally happens. But the story of the Blues’ worst-to-first, history-making tale was something straight out of Hollywood.

The Blues began the season with a record of 7-9-3, triggering the firing of coach Mike Yeo on Nov. 19 and the promotion of Craig Berube. But more than a month later, on Jan. 3, the club stood in last place in the NHL standings with 34 points.

“I think there was a lot of different reasons why we came together halfway through the year,” Edmundson said. “We had a lot of new faces in the dressing room, and you definitely play better when you know all of your teammates and you want to win for them, and you’ll do anything for the guy next to you. I think it took us a while to bond as a team, but once we became best friends, things just started clicking.”

That familiarity with one another made a difference, yes, but Berube’s influence on the dressing room was next-level as well. He created a new level of accountability, along with a positive approach that helped develop a resiliency not seen from this roster.

“We had (Berube) in there and his intensity is contagious, and we kind of thrived off that,” Edmundson said. “And the last piece was (goalie Jordan Binnington) coming up and stealing the show.”

Binnington, who began the season fourth on the Blues’ goalie depth chart, went 15-2-1 in his first 18 starts with a 1.49 goals-against average, a .942 save percentage and five shutouts. He helped the defense build a streak in which the team did not trail for a span of 517 minutes and 28 seconds, the eighth-longest stretch since league expansion in 1967-68.

“We just rallied around him,” Edmundson said. “He’s been one of my best friends since 2011 — that’s when we got drafted together — and it wasn’t an easy process for him. There were definitely some dark days, but over the past two years, he’s kind of dialed it in and become a professional. I knew he had it in him the whole time, but the way he did it in the NHL, it was remarkable. Crazy, actually.”

The Blues had a chance to win the Central Division on the final day of the regular season, but finished third. The team won three games in Winnipeg in the first round of the playoffs, which would be a trend in the postseason, going 10-3 on the road, including a win in Boston in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final.

“When we got rolling, we knew there was no team that could really stop us,” Edmundson said. “Once we got through the first round against Winnipeg, one of our toughest opponents, we knew we had it in us to win it all. We would have been really shocked and disappointed if we didn’t win the Cup — that’s how confident we were.”

So there’s our list. What do you think?

If you believe that we left off a well-deserving club, you’re probably referring to 1967-68, 1969-70, 1985-86, 2000-01 or 2015-16. Two of those teams went to the Stanley Cup final and three others went to the Western Conference final, whereas one of ours was upset in the first round and two lost in the second round.

Here’s our response: As mentioned earlier, we wanted to put together a list that “well-represented different eras of the organization’s rich tradition.”

In the Blues’ first three years of existence, the roster was relatively similar, so picking the 1969 team covers a majority of those players.

The 1985-86 team gets a lot of attention because of the Monday Night Miracle victory over the Calgary Falmes in Game 6 of the conference finals, but as Federko, who was on both clubs, said recently: “We had much more talent on that ’80-81 team. Our ’85-86 team, it was kind of like the team the Blues had this year, where everybody played for each other. We were a good team talent-wise, but the heart was bigger than anything.”

A solid argument could be made for the 2000-01 team that lost in the conference finals to the Colorado Avalanche, but again, it was much the same roster from the previous year when the Blues won the Presidents’ Trophy and Pronger held up both the Hart and Norris trophies. Likewise, the 2015-16 team that fell to San Jose in the conference finals could be in the conversation, but some of those players were on this year’s team.

For those of you who agree with the final five, how do we decide which one is the best? The Cup is going to be the clinching factor for many of you, but just to add a little context to the argument, we summoned Luszczyszyn, our resident analytics expert. He designed an era-adjusted model that compares goal-differential in an apples-to-apples manner.

“Often, the best indicator of a team’s strength is goal differential,” Luszczyszyn said. “That figure varies from year to year, though, as league-wide parity differs, as does the amount of goals per game. That can be controlled for, though, in order to put every season in the same context to create era-adjusted goal differential. That’s what the below chart aims to measure, putting past historic Blues’ seasons into the context of the 2018-19 season.”

So using the model, the 1999-2000 Blues are the best, but for those still clinging to the champs, Luszczyszyn makes a qualifier.

“Last year’s Stanley Cup-winning club finished the season at plus-24, which pales in comparison to the other top seasons,” he said. “But as everyone knows, everything changed in the new year for St. Louis. In the 45 games since Jan. 1, the Blues had a plus-44 goal differential, good for a pace of plus-80, which would’ve eclipsed every other season in Blues history.”

Well, there you go.

The Athletic’s Shayna Goldman designed the depth charts for this story, and A.J. McBride created the top collage. The photo credits are as follows: (top left) Scotty Bowman, Getty Images; (bottom left) Mike Liut, AP Photo; (center) Alex Pietrangelo, Getty Images; (top right) Chris Pronger, Scott Young and Marty Reasoner, AP Photo; (bottom right) Adam Oates and Brett Hull (Associated Press).

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