When it comes to the 2025-26 season, there aren't a lot of teams the St. Louis Blues are clearly better than. However, Vancouver is one of those teams.
The Canucks are dead last in the entire NHL. The Blues helped improve the Canucks' chances of landing the first overall pick in the 2026 NHL draft with a win over the weekend.
Despite having three goals overturned due to replays, the Blues couldn't knock off the Calgary Flames earlier in the week. So, they had to travel farther west to pick up a W.
Still, the Blues aren't a playoff team, and it showed in the first period. These two lowly teams combined for only nine shots on goal. The overall chances put towards net wasn't that much higher than that total either.
Basically, nothing happened in the first period. Even the cliche of teams needing to feel each other out wasn't really applicable here.
Nevertheless, the Blues got things done in the second period. St. Louis jumped on the Canucks.
In the case of the first goal, that was almost literal. Robert Thomas got a great shot from point-blank range, but it was stopped by the right pad. Pius Suter was in a great position for a rebound, but then the puck actually banked off of him and in as he was sliding into the goalie. Still, it ended up counting and tied the game halfway through.
St. Louis wasted no time taking the lead. 1:19 after Suter's goal, the Blues were up one when Pavel Buchnevich finished off a great pass from Philip Broberg.
Then the third period became somewhat of a special-teams battle. While both teams only took one penalty in the third frame, both scored on the ensuing power plays.
Filip Hronek scored on the power play at 8:32, and that made Blues fans sweat it out. In the end, St. Louis got the job done. They sealed the victory with a power play goal of their own by Jordan Kyrou in the empty net for a 3-1 win.
Pro: Mailloux and Broberg
When you make certain trades, of course, the idea is to get more ice time for prospects and younger, untested players. However, I highly doubt even Doug Armstrong knew this would happen.
Since the trade of Justin Faulk, the Blues swapped pairs around, and it's almost exclusively been Philip Broberg together with Logan Mailloux. Even a trade optimist like myself was very apprehensive about how the first couple months of the season went.
Now, for whatever reason you think it might be, Mailloux has morphed into exactly the defender the Blues wanted. Clearly, the confidence shown by handing him the reins, coupled with putting him with Broberg, has sparked something in him.
Time will tell if this is sustainable. I'm not sure anyone had him labeled as a top-pair defender, while Broberg actually might be. So, who knows if the pair stays together, but they're playing lights out together right now.
Con: Lost statistical battle
Yet again, the Blues manage to win; when the box score says they shouldn't. It's great they can overcome these things, but it's not great that it is happening.
St. Louis lost the faceoff battle. They lost the special teams battle. Vancouver was more physical with 26 hits to the Blues' 18 and St. Louis didn't block as many shots either.
As mentioned, it's great to get the win, but Vancouver is a somewhat rudderless team. The fact that they outdid the Blues in so many categories isn't something to feel very good about.
Pro: Snuggerud
It seems weird to point out a guy who had no stats in this game. Keep in mind that's a technicality since he should have had a point, but the goal was called back, keeping him off the score sheet.
Nevertheless, Snuggy is continuing to improve and show signs that he can be a top-line winger in the NHL. I don't want to put pressure on him by using legend comparisons the way we did with Colton Parayko and Chris Pronger, but I just see him as a potential modern Brett Hull. I'm not saying he can put up those kinds of numbers, but he's got that mentality where he really wants to score every time he's on the ice.
If he continues to grow and develop just enough of an overall game, he's going to be a star, and he already is. He got the third star of the game, even with no stats.
Overview:
This was a weird game. The Blues felt like the better team for the large majority of it, but never truly pulled away.
Vancouver is clearly the lowest team in the league, and their record is evidence of that. I'm one of the few fans that wants the Blues to always try and win every game, even if a good draft position is lost.
Still, even I have to admit that it feels weird helping out the Canucks' draft position possibilities by beating them. That's just the nature of this beast right now.
Overall, it was an ok game. You got the win, Jordan Binnington had a pretty easy night and got his numbers a little better, and you get timely scoring.
My worry is that we're seeing better results that mask a similar problem. The Blues are starting to look more and more top-heavy.
The Robert Thomas line that has Snuggerud is still providing the bulk of the offense. The Buchnevich and Kyrou line did get two goals, but the top line was still creating more and drawing more defensive attention.
St. Louis has to find a way to spread scoring out. That might be a harsh criticism for this game alone, but it's more than fair to judge how the team has done, even in this swing of better play.
If the Blues are just a one-line show going forward, next year won't be much different than this year. All it takes is an injury or two to derail everything if you're reliant like that.
Wins are wins, and this team simply needed to learn how to win again. With that said, the fact that the Blues didn't beat the Canucks in those categories is still concerning. This is easily the worst team in the league, and you let them hang around and also only had five shots on goal in the first and third.
But, enough nitpicking. I'm happy with a win, especially on the road.