The St. Louis Blues have started the 2026-27 season with a mediocre 1-2-1 record, second to last in the Central Division ahead of only the lowly Chicago Blackhawks (who the Blues lost to the other day). They've lost three in a row in the process, their power play is awful, and their top players aren't performing up to their potential.
Of all the players underperforming, Robert Thomas has been the most disappointing.
The Blues need their captain
From trade rumors at last year's trade deadline to being named captain over the summer, it's been a whirlwind few months for Robert Thomas. While Thomas finished the 2025-26 season strong, ending up with 64 points in 64 games, he started poorly and didn't get his game on track until after the Winter Olympic break. It's a critical reason the Blues were so far outside the playoff race for most of the year, and his resurgence was why they came within striking distance of a playoff berth at all.
It's early, but through four games, Thomas has zero points and a minus-5 goal differential. That's bad for any team, but Thomas is the Blues' best player; we saw last season what happens when the top of the Blues' lineup underwhelms. The team needs Thomas to lead the way, both in scoring and as the guy wearing the "C."
The reason for optimism
Thomas's box scores look rough. Under the hood, there's reason to hope this slump will sort itself out. According to Natural Stat Trick, Thomas has a commanding 68.44 expected Goals For percentage (xGF%) at 5-on-5. That's third among Blues forwards, and the two players ahead of him are his linemates Dylan Holloway and Jimmy Snuggerud. So, where are the points?
Again, small sample size, but Thomas is only firing 3.7 shots per 60 (S/60) so far this season; that's down from last year's 5.0 S/60 and the lowest mark of his career since posting 2.9 S/60 in 2020-21. If he's able to shoot the puck more, the goals will certainly come: his career average shooting percentage of 15.9 is solid.
What's really sinking Thomas is the team's PDO, which is a combination of a team's shooting percentage and save percentage when a given player (or players) is on the ice. When Thomas is on the ice, the Blues are shooting a whopping zero (0!) percent, and their goaltenders are sporting an .850 save percentage (SV%). Four games in, and it's safe to say Thomas has been tremendously unlucky.
There's enough reason to believe that Thomas (and, by extension, the Blues) can turn things around by stringing a couple good games together. If Thomas continues to struggle, though, it's going to put a lot of strain on the team's depth--and it's going to get late early all over again.
Add us as a preferred source on Google