The St. Louis Blues are 9-11-7 for 25 points and are falling behind in the Central Division standings. Their most recent 4-1 loss to Anaheim painted a picture that this team is painfully average and potentially worse than many believed.
With each passing game, there is either one of three things that are failing the Blues. It is either the offense or the defense, and almost always the goaltending. But, with the defensive unit looking much more complete recently, the stigma has been placed exclusively on the other two areas of the ice.
So, what is the bigger problem, offense or goaltending? Let's talk about it.
Offensive stalling
Over the last nine games of competition, the Blues havre scored a total of 24 goals. That is an average of 1.9 goals per game. It does not matter who is in your net, it could be Igor Shesterkin of the New York Rangers or Jake Oettinger of Dallas, you are not going to win hockey games in today's NHL with under two goals a night.
The leading scorers at the moment are Jordan Kyrou with eight goals, Dylan Holloway with seven goals and then Justin Faulk, Pius Suter and Jake Neighbours with six goals apiece. If the season was about 15 games in, that is not a bad spread, especially if you want to think about things like depth scoring. But the Blues have played 27 games.
Goaltending disaster
Both Jordan Binnington and Joel Hofer have not been good this season. There is no other way of writing it, they have both been underwhelming throughout. After 27 starts between the two of them, there is no excuse for this outcome.
Each have their fair share of early hooks, as well as complete disasters, allowing upwards of seven goals in a contest. Binnington's last pulling after allowing two goals on five shots against Anaheim resulted in a shouting match with head coach Jim Montgomery, which has thankfully spilled over and reconciled.
Who is the bigger detriment?
Of these two areas, the offense has been the worst party here. Goaltending issues are prevalent all over the NHL. Edmonton is a disaster, Calgary has had some issues, as well as Toronto. But those teams, outside of Calgary, are sticking in games due to their ability to score goals.
Of course, the Blues do not have Connor McDavid or Auston Matthews, but somebody in the top-six should be in the double-digits in goals right now. That is truly unacceptable.