The St. Louis Blues are a few games away from 2025, and so far they're doing pretty well. While they hope to put the failure of 2024 behind them, they still have a lot to do in 2025 to get back on the road to success. The Blues are 1-2-0 in three games in January. Here's where they're succeeding at the start of the new year and where they're trending downward.
New Year, New Power for the Blues
The Blues start 2024 at the bottom of the league at strength through their first three games. They were hoping to get off to a good start in that regard with head coach Drew Bannister, who replaced Craig Berube as interim head coach in December of that year. Later, he signed a two-year contract with the team in May 2024. However, he didn't solve the power play issues, and the team started the 2024-25 season with a 9-12-1 record through the first 22 games, which led to Bannister's firing. By the end of the year, under new head coach Jim Montgomery, they were Top 15 quality players in the league in the final three games of 2024.
RELATED: Blues shouldn’t sacrifice future for 2025 playoff run
The Blues are off to a strong start in 2025, finishing in the top 10 with a powerhouse offense in Jordan Kyrou, Robert Thomas, Dylan Holloway, and Cam Fowler, who are doing well offensively and have a solid presence on the team. Excellent performance. Despite losing top power play defenseman Justin Faulk to injury recently, the Blues have thrived on the power play without him.
Bruce struggles with free throws
On the other side, the penalty kill has not changed. When Montgomery was hired in November, the expectation was that he would improve his penalty kill. In fact, the Blues have been one of the worst penalty shooting teams in the league since January 2024. They rank 24th in the league in penalty kill percentage (76.4) and haven't gone up that much even after the coaching change.
Nothing has changed in 2025. Penalty kills rank 22nd in the league. Although the team's offense has improved, its defense still struggles. They started the new year by allowing just one goal in three shorthanded games. The Blues will have to fix their penalty kill if they hope to advance to the 2025 playoffs, and it looks like they're thinking about their defense prospect in their potential customer pool.
Blues' goal difference is fair
In 2024, the Blues rank 27th in goals scored (235) and 19th in goals scored (248). Last season, they put most of the pressure on their top stars like Kyrou, Thomas and Pavel Buchnevich to score and score efficiently. They also lack defense and are not in a good position at the cap to get the depth needed to have a solid team that can control the lead.
In an effort to add depth this offseason, the Blues acquired Alexander Texil in a trade with the Columbus Blue Jackets, offering Edmonton Oilers forward Holloway and defenseman Phillip Broberg An offer was made (later accepted) and brothers Mathieu and Pierre-Olivier Joseph were signed. They acquired Fowler from the Anaheim Ducks a month before the new year. With all of these pieces before and during the season, the Blues are a team that can score but has trouble preventing them, which calls into question how good the pieces they added are and if they fit with their system match.
In 2025, the Blues rank third in the league in goals scored (12) and fourth in goals scored (12), showing they can be a top-scoring team but can't be shut down defensively. It will take the rest of the season to figure out how much of a change the team wants to make.
What’s next for the Blues in 2025
We're nearly halfway through the 2024-25 season, so the Blues don't have much time to make a playoff push. Considering all the moves they've made thus far, making more trades before the March 7 trade deadline seems unlikely. This will also be Doug Armstrong's last year as general manager, with Alexander Steen taking over in 2026, so retaining the best he can now will determine whether Steen The future of the roster under Eng. If they're not in a good position to make the 2025 playoffs by then, now would be a good time to at least draft a draft pick with the American Hockey League's Springfield Thunderbirds so they can get Some NHL experience and prepare yourself for the future.
Source link
