The St. Louis Blues closed out the 2025-26 season against some division rivals, the game against the Pittsburgh Penguins not withstanding. When the schedule was released, a final game of the season against the Utah Mammoth should have been a game fighting for playoff position.
Instead, it was just two teams going in opposite directions, at least for one year. The Blues are done and the Mammoth will be in the playoffs.
Nevertheless, the Blues came out strong in their final game of the year. They were buzzing and had the first four shots of the game, including the first goal of the game.
Less than four minutes into the game, the Blues got the opener thanks to Pavel Buchnevich. Somehow, from just two feet away from the goal line, Buch nearly scooped it over the goal. Instead, he managed to get it over the goalie and into the top netting for a 1-0 lead.
However, the Blues started to fade late in the period. Utah started finding their sea legs and tied the game up with a little over three minutes left.
A break down the ice eventually found Michael Cerone as he crossed the blue line. A quick move and a shift toward the left circle, followed by a laser wrister beat Joel Hofer over the blocker for a 1-1 game.
Once the second period started, it didn't take long for Utah to come out hot. Just 45 seconds in, Lawson Crouse got a deflection to make it 2-1.
Moments later, it was 3-1 in favor of Utah and it felt like the game was slipping away. Jim Montgomery rolled the dice and challenged for goalie interference. The Blues won when it was shown that the man in front clearly had his stick pushing Hofer's pad out of the way, so it remained a one-goal game.
That woke up the Blues and they tied the game at 8:14. Robert Thomas kept up his hot streak, scoring on a wrister to tie the game 2-2.
Thomas scored again less than three minutes later. This time it was a fantastic pass from Cam Fowler near the left point and he found Thomas on the right for a gorgeous tip-in and a 3-2 lead.
With just over a minute left in the period, Utah tied the game. While it led to some entertaining hockey in the third, it was worrying the Blues couldn't see things out to the break.
The Blues snuffed out Utah hope in the third. They outshot the Mammoth 11-3 and gave Hofer the night off for all intents and purposes.
The game winner came at 17:03. A turnover at the offensive blue line kept the puck in for the Blues. Then, Logan Mailloux picked one off near the right wall, cut to the goal and swished a backhander in for the 4-3 lead.
The Mammoth got a decent push at the end, but the Blues were too stingie. As the game wound down, the Blues found a second hat trick in 11 days for Thomas as he scored on the empty net.
The Blues closed out the season 5-3 on the good side.
Pro: Thomas
For the past two years, we've seen the upside of Robert Thomas in the final two or three months of the season. If we could only get that sustained over an entire season, the Blues would have a legitimate superstar on their hands.
Thomas has the ability to take games over, even in a playmaking role. He's got slick mitts, can stop on a dime and has a really good shot when he chooses to use it.
We saw everything in this game. The empty netter is what it is, but the quality of the wrister and the deflection is truly top notch stuff.
The Blues just need this kind of Thomas in October and November too.
Con: Losing focus
The Blues were the better team through much of this contest. They still had some blips where they allowed the Mammoth too much momentum.
The game could have been 3-1 Utah very easily. Even without the interference, the reality is that the Blues managed to fall flat three times in a row and weren't ready to open up the second either.
The teams traded 11 shots per period, with Utah getting the double sticks in the second period. The Blues started looking like the early-season team that was one of the league's worst in the middle frame.
They ended up winning, but the inability to hold leads is worrisome.
Pro: Hofer
Like so many games this year, this game didn't have the 10-bell saves from the Blues goalie. Also like so many other game, the Blues still needed their goalie.
Hofer was just solid positionally and made the saves he needed and also a couple he wasn't expected to. Just his ability to see pucks through traffic and pick up deflections is impressive.
Hofer has likely won the starting job for next season, but the Blues shouldn't just hand it to him. Keep Jordan Binnington and find out for sure this is just the Hofer we'll get all the time
Overview:
This was the way you want to close out a season, playoffs or not. It would have been very exciting to win this way and also clinch on the final night, but that wasn't in the cards.
Still, the Blues showed they can compete and do well against anyone in the league. Utah didn't have their full complement of players, but they didn't have nearly as many scratches as you'd think. That was odd since you'd think they wouldn't risk injury, but they wanted to still play well heading into the second sesaon.
For the Blues, it was good to see them dominate around 60% of this game. Utah had flurries and pushes, but when the Blues had their eye on the prize, they were unstoppable.
The defense fell into a bad habit here or there. Fowler wasn't necessarily to blame, but he just seems to catch your eye when he's on the ice for opponent's goals. Hopefully we get the Fowler of two seasons ago next year, because 2025-26 was much more rough.
From and overall perspective, this game continued to prove the Blues can and will beat anyone when they play their style. They simply have to find a way to bring that out of themselves in October, November and December.
If they played a came or two over .500 in those months and still had this late run, they'd have been a playoff team for sure. Instead, they had to have a strong final month and a half and even then it wasn't enough.
Don't listen to the blow it up crowd. This team has pieces and just needs some suppplementing.
Thomas showed he can be a big-time point producer and just needs more consistency, like the team. Hofer is showing he can be a top-level goalie, at least in the regular season.
Mailloux and Philip Broberg are a great pair. The top line was nearly unstoppable down the stretch.
St. Louis needs more secondary scoring, but Jordan Kyrou can bounce back. Dalibor Dvorsky will have another year of experience and Jake Neighbours will definitely score more if he's paired with some higher end talent.
2025-26 was a disappointing season. It opened with so much promise, thinking they'd build on a team that should have beat the 2025 Presidents trophy winners. It went south quickly and the team just never recovered until it was too late.
More consistency and finding room for prospects like Justin Carbonneau to grow if he's ready will really help. Of course, there's plenty of options to do with those three first-round picks too.
It'll be a fun offseason, but it's always depressing when the games come to an end. At least the Blues got a win against a team that's owned them to end this season.
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