St. Louis Blues Top 5 Worst Teams In Franchise History
The St. Louis Blues have actually not had too many clunkers in their 50 year history, at least not in the grand sense. They have had some bad seasons though, like any team.
The St. Louis Blues have been a model of consistency overall since they entered the league in 1967. For a long time, they had the longest active playoff streak in the NHL (1979-2006).
That does not mean they have not had some bad seasons. Interestingly enough, their inaugural season was not all that great.
The Blues only won 27 games and went 27-31-16. However, they caught fire in the playoffs and went all the way to the Stanley Cup Final, so it is hard to consider that a poor season.
There have been plenty of other clunkers along the way. Some were worse than others and as usual, it’s up for debate.
Here are our five worst seasons in Blues history though.
5. 2007-08
Record33-36-13
People are going to wonder why I included this season. There were others that the Blues had fewer wins or fewer points.
33 wins is not great, but it’s not the worst thing to ever happen. The Blues also had 79 points that season.
However, it was just the culmination of a bad situation. The Blues were trying to rebuild and it was the final season before things actually turned around.
Making matters worse was the brief glimpse of hope the previous year. In 2006-07, the Blues had 34 wins, 81 points and finished in third in the division. It seemed like they were turning the corner early.
While the total of wins only went down by one, the Blues finished last in the division. It was a punch to the gut and felt like a step back.
St. Louis at least had an excuse this season. They were a team in transition.
You had David Perron and Erik Johnson playing their first seasons and David Backes was still a pup. TJ Oshie and Patrik Berglund were not on the team yet and the Blues were clinging to life with veterans like Keith Tkachuk and Andy McDonald.
The mixture just never came together. The record might not have been bad, but the hockey was just not that great.
St. Louis was trying to come to terms with Andy Murray’s style of play and found themselves only a spot away from the bottom of the conference. Things rebounded the next season, but this one was not fun to deal with.
4. 1973-74
Record: 26-40-12
This team was not so much bad as they were disappointing. The Blues in this year had some good players. They had an all-timer in Garry Unger and Pierre Plante.
They just were not good enough defensively. They scored over 200 goals, but allowed 248 against. That wide of a gap is just going to be too hard to overcome.
The team was also an important first in Blues history. This squad was the first team in Blues history to miss the playoffs.
Like others with dubious history, they were nowhere near the worst. The team that scored the fewest amount of goals was that inaugural team that made the finals. This team had some good parts, but just could not put it together consistently enough.
Perhaps what was disappointing about this squad, overall, was missing the playoffs in the time they did. In the 70’s, it was almost impossible to miss the playoffs, but the Blues managed to do it in this year.
3. 1977-78
Record: 20-47-13
This season was just a mess for the Blues. Clearly winning only 20 games makes them, statistically, the second worst team in team history, but they had some excuses.
This team was affected by a lot of behind the scenes turmoil. The Blues ownership was in flux prior to the season.
Before the season began, the original team owners (the Salomon’s) sold the team to Ralston Purina. The pet food company really only bought the team because their leaders were convinced it was good for civic pride.
The Blues, again, had some good pieces. Unger was still in his stride and Bernie Federko was in his first full season. They just could not win.
Like that 2007-08 squad, this team was a mixture of talent. They had some young players and some at the ends of their careers. For whatever reason, the talent never gelled. This Blues team ended up with the fourth fewest goals scored in team history.
The Blues goaltending situation did not help matters. St. Louis went through five goalies in this season with three playing double-digit games.
Again, like that 07-08 team, fans were hopeful this was the turnaround. Unfortunately, things would have to get worse before they got better in this instance.
2. 2005-06
Record: 21-46-15
Some might be scratching their heads as to why this team is up so high. They won one more game than the 1977-78 team.
That’s about where the comparisons ended. The Blues were gutted, physically and emotionally prior to this season.
Chris Pronger was dealt away when the owners decided to make the team a shell of itself in order to make a small payroll look better to prospective buyers. There were still a couple good names on the team, but it just was not there for anyone coming out of the lockout.
To show how bad things were for the Blues, their leading goal scorer was Mike Sillinger. I consider myself a devout fan, but I completely forgot Sillinger even played for the Blues.
It was a good business decision, but the Blues traded Sillinger away. It’s hard to rally behind a team when they trade away your leading scorer even if it makes sense in hindsight.
That’s, perhaps, what made this team so bad. Not only were they bad, but they were bad when the excitement for hockey’s return was so high.
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After missing an entire season, fans were foaming at the mouth to see the return of their favorite teams. Think how badly we want hockey to return during the dog-days of the summer and then amplify that by 100.
Then, suddenly, you’re slapped in the face by reality. You have a bad team with no prospect of turning it around.
The Blues finished with the worst record in the NHL. Even the team that sits atop our list can’t claim that feat.
It was the beginning of a long dry stretch. This team was the first of three straight to miss the postseason and they’d miss five years out of six.
It was almost enough to turn one away from the game after being spoiled with that long stretch of playoff runs. Almost.
1. 1978-79
Record:18-50-12
Some teams can claim others had fewer wins. Some can claim others had fewer points.
This team can’t do any of that. The only thing they can claim is Colorado was worse that season.
The 1978-79 Blues team was an improvement over their predecessor in one category. They scored over 50 goals more. Unfortunately, they allowed almost 50 goals more as well.
Nothing went right for this incarnation of the Note. They set a franchise record for futility with the fewest wins and least amount of points in team history. Even the lockout year teams had more points than this particular one.
The Blues just had too much of a gap from top to bottom. In an age when guys were starting to put up 100 points for fun, only Federko came even close. St. Louis had plenty of good guys, but they were built more like a team in today’s age as opposed to the offensive juggernauts of the late 70’s to early 80’s.
The one good thing about this team was it was the darkness before the light. The Blues almost doubled their win totals the next season and did not miss the playoffs for a quarter century.
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If you had told fans they’d have to endure this season before they got 25 years of playoffs, most would have accepted it. You never know that at the time though, so this one had to be hard to sit through.
No matter how much potential talent you have on a roster, 18 wins just does not cut the mustard.