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The St. Louis Blues' first-round playoff loss to the Winnipeg Jets will be one they dwell on for a long time. They made the Jets uncomfortable all series long, notably Connor Hellebuyck, and had them on the ropes.
St. Louis took an early 2-0 lead in Game 7 and maintained a two-goal lead heading into the third period. They held the Jets off until the dying minutes, but two goals in the final 1:56 sent the game to overtime.
It was a missed opportunity to upset the Presidents' Trophy winners and advance to the next round. The Jets could easily dust themselves off and run the table now, and the Blues must deal with the heartbreak.
The Blues must've felt good entering Game 7 with Mark Scheifele out of the lineup and Hellebuyck in terrible form. However, they couldn't capitalize and hold on for two more minutes.
It was a good first season for Jim Montgomery behind the Blues' bench. He took over the team midseason and led them on a miraculous run to the postseason. He didn't fix one glaring weakness, ultimately leading to this team's demise.
Blues' 6-on-5 defense cost them the series
The Blues had a fatal flaw during the 2024-25 season that they hoped wouldn't pop up during the playoffs. The team was dreadful at defending when holding a lead, and the other team pulled the goalie, as they allowed a league-worst 13 goals during the regular season in this scenario.
They were also the only team to allow more goals than they scored, which is an incredible stat considering the number of times a team pulls their goalie at the end of a game.
The Blues avoided that disaster through the series' first six games, allowing zero. However, they saved it all for Game 7, as the Jets pulled their goalie with a two-goal deficit, and Binnington allowed two goals in the final 1:56. It was far from Binnington's fault, as the team completely folded once the Jets put that extra man on the ice.
It's hard to understand the Blues' strategy when the Jets pulled their goalie. Scott Arniel did it early, which proved to be a shrewd move considering how many mental mistakes St. Louis made with Hellebuyck on the bench. It started when they iced the puck under not a lot of pressure with four minutes remaining, and it led to four more icings before Cole Perfetti's tying goal.
It might've been in the back of their minds about their poor form at 6-on-5, but every player on the ice seemed to grip their sticks a little tighter when they were down a man. St. Louis looked like they were trying to hold on for dear life, and it backfired. Rarely can you blame something so black-and-white, but it was undoubtedly their 6-on-5 defense that ended the Cinderella run.
Connor Hellebuyck was terrible, but the Blues didn't capitalize
Hellebuyck will win the Vezina Trophy this season. He was far and away the league's best goalie, but he became a shell of himself in the first round. It wasn't the first time he struggled when the lights got bright, and many were labelling him a choker.
Hellebuyck never looked comfortable at any point in the series, but the question that has to be asked is why St. Louis didn't have the killer instinct when he began struggling.
Hellebuyck's most significant weakness in this series was shots on goal, but St. Louis failed to get many towards the net. In his losses alone, Hellebuyck allowed 16 goals on 66 shots.
It's mindboggling that he allowed that many goals in three games, but it's important to point out that St. Louis wasn't getting many shots on him. Their game plan should've been to funnel shots to the net, but they didn't get it done.
Game 7 was the most glaring issue with their failure to get shots. It took until the second overtime for Adam Lowry to finally score the winning goal, which was a total game time of 96:10.
The Blues only had 29 shots on goal, which is astonishing considering most goalies have 50-60 saves in a double-overtime game. The Jets were able to fire 47 shots in the direction of Binnington, which was against a Blues team prioritizing defense.
St. Louis scored two goals early in Game 7, and one more might've been the dagger for Hellebuyck. However, they allowed him to settle in until they finally scored again with 31 seconds remaining in the second period.
Hellebuyck's struggles were forgotten by the time he skated off the ice as the victor, but Montgomery and the Blues have to be wondering what might have been if they had just capitalized on the Jets' most significant weakness in the series.
