Six games into the 2026-27 season, the St. Louis Blues are 3-2-1 with seven of a possible 12 points, sitting at a .583 points percentage that sits just above the league average of .551. The team has scored 21 goals, allowed 18, and has been close to the definition of average. They have taken 156 shots, faced 149, and a 100 PDO. By the numbers, this has been an ordinary team that has not been lucky or unlucky.
So what has surprised through the first six games of the season?
McDouble Berg-ger line
Mason McTavish, the Blues' acquisition from the Anaheim Ducks, has been the team's most offensively impactful forward. He leads the team with four goals, seven points, and a plus-4 rating, with two of his goals coming as the game-winner. He has done it on 23 shots on goal with a 17.4 shooting percentage. Linemate Connor McMichael, who came to the Blues as part of the Jordan Kyrou deal, has matched the pace with two goals and four assists, and Jonatan Berggren has chipped in a goal and two assists. Together, the trio has scored every game-winner the Blues have managed so far.
Penalty kill has been excellent, the power play has not
The Blues have killed off 17 of 19 penalties (89.5 percent) and scored two short-handed goals, from Pius Suter and Dillon Dube. As impressive as that feat is, they also have as many goals shorthanded as they do on the power play, which has converted only two of 14 chances (14.3 percent).
A bit of a surprising factor behind this is that the Blues have had 14 power plays but have been shorthanded 19 times. Brandon Carlo's 19 penalty minutes currently lead the team by a wide margin, and as impressive as the penalty kill has been, it is questionable to hold at this rate over 84 regular season games. If the discipline doesn't improve, the Blues will either need to find ways to get more chances on the man advantage or stay out of the penalty box.
Thomas is playing well, but has little to show for it
Team captain Robert Thomas has two assists, no goals, and a minus-2 rating through six games this season. He has averaged 19:28 per game, which is the most of any forward on the team. He has a 58 Corsi percent, 7.5 points better than the team's number when he is off the ice, and has won 51.2 percent of the faceoffs while starting only 41.7 percent of his shifts in the offensive zone. He draws some of the toughest minutes of any player on the team.
The results just simply haven't been there. Thomas has taken six shots without scoring, and the Blues goaltenders have stopped 78.4 percent of shots with him on the ice so far. This kind of bad luck tends to even out throughout the season, but it is not the start to the season he has needed. If the Blues are going to find long-term success this season, his teammates are going to need him to start finding ways to shoot the puck more often and put points on the scoresheet.
Injuries have hit hard, but the replacements are holding on
The injuries have hit the blue line and hit it hard. Defenseman Logan Mailloux looked great in the preseason and appeared on his way to picking up right where he left off in the 2025-26 season. Depth defenseman Tyler Tucker was fighting for a roster spot and is out after a knee procedure and has yet to play in a regular season game.
Up front, Dube will be re-evaluated after eight weeks with a neck injury, putting his return in early December, and Alexey Toropchenko has managed only five minutes in the regular season before landing on IR with an upper-body injury.
The replacements have (mostly) come through in their limited action. Defenseman Justin Barron was claimed on waivers from Nashville on Sept. 27, and has been among the biggest surprises with a plus-3 rating through three games, a strong shot share of attempts (53.1 percent) have come with him on the ice, and he has even managed to block six shots. Fellow defenseman Theo Lindstein has an assist and four takeaways and has been among the defensemen in rotation at this point in the season.
Up front, Zach Dean has struggled with a minus-3 rating through two games, and Dylan Peterson, who just made his NHL debut on Monday against Ottawa, played just under nine minutes, looking very sharp, comfortable, and a spark plug of a fourth-liner.
Hofer dominance in the crease
Goaltender Joel Hofer has started four of six games and is 2-1-1 with a .920 save percentage, a 1.76 goals-against average (GAA), and a shutout. While the league average save percentage has continued to drop over the past few seasons, currently hovering around .885, Hofer's is among the highest it has been in his NHL career.
Stanley Cup-winning goaltender Jordan Binnington has been the opposite. Over two games, he has a .847 save percentage, a 4.50 GAA, and a minus-2.7 goals saved above average.
A bit of context does play a part here, with Binnington averaging around 29.5 shots against per game, while Hofer is averaging 22. Not to mention that two games is a small sample size for the veteran goaltender. Still, the Blues team's save percentage of .880 sits just below league average, and Hofer is the reason it isn't worse.
The kids have arrived
Four Blues U-22 players are already playing meaningful minutes for the team this season. Jimmy Snuggerud (22) has three goals and an assist, and his 34 shot attempts are second on the team, only to McTavish's 36. Dalibor Dvorsky (21) has two goals on 10 shots. Defenseman Adam Jiricek (20) has a goal and is averaging 16:37 a night and leads the Blues defensemen with 12 shots on goal. Lindstein (21) has appeared in three games with an assist and is averaging 14:49 per night. Together, they have accounted for six of the team's 21 goals.
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