As the final minutes tick lower and the threat of a loss grows, hockey teams down a goal or two will almost always pull their goalie out of the net and put an extra skater on the ice to give themselves a 6v5 advantage in a last-ditch effort to tie a game. This has been an established practice in the NHL for decades, dating back to its first use by Art Ross in 1931. Teams in today’s game understand this and know how to adjust their gameplay in these situations on both sides. The success rate of pulling a goalie is low, and most of the time, the team that does it ends up losing by more than they would have if they had kept their goaltender in net.
The 2024-2025 St. Louis Blues against the empty net
Thanks to the great stat-keeping from MoreHockeyStats, we can break down 6v5s over the entire 2024-2025 regular season, where there were a total of 1,002 6v5 opportunities across the league. These resulted in 218 goals for and 524 goals against the team with the empty net - showcasing the lopsided outcome of 300+ more empty-net goals than 6v5 goals. However, the St. Louis Blues stood as an outlier as the only team in the league to allow more 6v5 goals than empty-net goals scored.
Over the course of the regular season last year, the Blues faced an empty net 33 times, only scoring on that empty net 11 times and allowing an embarrassing 13 goals against. As any fan can attest, this is the single worst way to lose - watching what should be a hard-fought victory slip away in the final seconds over and over is incredibly demoralizing.
Of course, this Achilles Heel caught up with the Blues in the now infamous game seven against the Winnipeg Jets, in which they scored twice with Hellebuyck pulled in the final minutes, the second of which tied the game with 1.6 seconds left. Absolute heartbreak ensued when the Jets were able to steal the win in double overtime in what is now considered an all-time classic. This experience led to 6v5 defense being one of the biggest points of emphasis for both fans and individuals within the organization to improve coming into the new season. While the season is still young and the Blues haven’t found themselves leading late in the game very often thus far, it does appear that this weakness has improved.
Have the Blues improved this season?
The Blues have seen their opponent pull their goalie five times so far this season, and have allowed zero 6v5 goals against, along with notching three empty-netters in those games. These have come from Jake Neighbours, Pius Suter, and Justin Faulk. Having this monkey off their back and mental block seemingly erased sets the Blues up for success, contingent on the team continuing to improve and actually finding themselves in situations where they can close out games in the third period. If this team can resolve some of its more glaring issues, the players and their fans should be in for a season with less last-minute heartbreak.