It has been a turbulent start to the 2025-26 season for the St. Louis Blues, and the confidence gained from last season's late success has now faded to black. The strongest part of this team from a year ago is now the weakest link, and it is sinking this franchise.
Goaltending woes are failing this team. Over the first nine games of the year, the Blues have allowed five or more goals in five of those games. That is a horrific fact, and these high goals against numbers are starting to become a trend.
What is going on?
Binnington and Hofer are equally lacking
More so from Hofer than Binnington, the goaltending has been egregiously bad this season. There is no sugar coating it, they have been as close to Swiss cheese as you could label it. Five occasions of five-or-more goals against is something you might see at the end of an 82-game schedule, not nine games into the season.
Binnington is also not free of blame, as his status as franchise goaltender is starting to dwindle. He has not had an awful start, as the defense is crumbling around him. But, with his reputation as a clutch goaltender, no matter the situation, he should be much better than this.
The tandem was supposed to be a top-tier one, and the Blues were going to benefit from having two great goaltenders for all games. But it has not been anywhere close to that to start the year.
How to fix it?
Just stop the puck. No matter what else happens in the game, if the defense is giving up a bunch of two-on-ones or the offense is struggling to pot the puck in the opposing goal, the Blues goaltenders have to just worry about stopping the puck. The Blues, as a whole, need to regroup and refocus their efforts into what kind of hockey team they want to be.
Eventually, the early-season woes are going to fix themselves. Hofer's last start against Pittsburgh started about as bad as it has been, but then he was able to pick himself back up and dust himself off for a steady performance over the next 50 or so minutes of hockey. It wasn't until the end of the game, an impeccable breakaway goal from Sidney Crosby, that this game was truly done.
Time and short-term memory loss can fix the Blues goaltending, and push the Blues back up from the bottom of the Central Division. Allowing 5+ goals a night is an absolute nightmare.