The St. Louis Blues are 6-8-3, and are looking like surefire contenders for Gavin McKenna if they stay on the same trajectory and end up selling off talent elsewhere. But that didn't stop Sara Civian of Bleacher Report from saying the Blues were "Cup-bound," when using one word to describe them.
Civian wrote, "The Blues look bad, like, really bad. Jordan Binnington is in a funk, and the rest of the roster is gasping for air. Last time they looked this bad, they *checks notes* won the Stanley Cup."
While the Blues had gotten off to an awful start in 2018-19 and ended up winning a Cup, right now the narrative is that general manager Doug Armstrong may be looking to further retool his underperforming hockey team. Should he follow through, it means that he doesn't feel the current squad is is capable of turning their season around.
Currently, the Blues are 27th in both goals for and goals against, which speaks highly of the disaster that this team has been in early on. Pius Suter is their current points leader, with 10 in 17 games. If you do the math, he'll finish with between 48 and 49 if he keeps pacing the team at the current rate. A paltry number from a leading scorer.
These aren't your 2018-19 St. Louis Blues
Go back to the 2018-19 season, and while the Blues were 7-7-3 after 17 games, with just one more win than they have here in 2025-26, they at least were able to score and stop opponents from scoring. With 56 goals through those first 17 games, the Blues averaged 3.3 per contest. In 2025-26, they have scored 47 times, or 2.76 per matchup.
As for goals against, the 2018-19 team allowed 53 through 17 contests, or 3.11 per game. This season, that number sits at 65, or 3.82 per matchup. So if the Blues want to end up repeating what they did in 2018-19, they need to dramatically improve in both areas and quickly.
Right now, it's tough to make a real comparison between the 2018-19 Blues and the 2025-26 team. Their points totals may be close, but the 2018-19 team wasn't playing completely uninspiring hockey after 17 games. The Blues' productivity showed they could still score and were at least average defensively early on. Ultimately, that Blues team was solid offensively while they became an elite unit defensively.
Even with a pessimistic outlook, history has shown the Blues can overcome adversity
Lately, the Blues have shown flashes of looking good in the net, allowing just two or fewer goals in three of their last five contests, and even posting a shutout against the Buffalo Sabres. Defensively, they have looked better as of late, and that could entice some fans to start having flashbacks to 2018-19.
The Blues can even look to the 2018-19 season and say to themselves, "You know what, this isn't over yet by any means." And to an extent, they're right. This season is only 17 games old, and nothing is set in stone at this point. So there's inspiration with that 2018-19 team.
But if the Blues want to change their narrative, they need to enjoy more outings like their wins against the Edmonton Oilers, Buffalo Sabres, and Calgary Flames, where they held strong defensively. Still, they can't rely on their defense and goaltending to carry them every other game, and it's why the Blues need to get better with their scoring.
When you take out the total nine goals they scored in their second and third games of the season, they have been hard to watch when possessing the puck. So, while it's still possible to emulate the 2018-19 season, it's only going to happen if the Blues start finding the net more than they have been, while their defense keeps playing like they have, for the most part, in recent outings.
It's fun to make connections between how poorly things have gone early in 2025-26 to the way things were early in 2018-19. Fans can look back on it as a way of hoping 2025-26 will turn around in the same fashion. But if this is going to happen, the Blues must start playing better hockey starting right now.