To remember the improbable year of the 2018-19 St. Louis Blues, we look back at the highs and lows of the 2018-19 season:
Blockbuster day to start free agency
On July 1, the 2018-19 season officially began with the first day of free agency. The Blues added a familiar face in winger David Perron, and a newcomer in gritty Maple Leafs center Tyler Bozak. But the biggest move of the day – possibly the biggest move in the NHL – was trading with the Buffalo Sabres for forward Ryan O'Reilly and have sent forwards Patrik Berglund, Vladimir Sobotka and Tage Thompson.
Homecoming for Pat Maroon
He grew up wearing the Blue note and learned to skate on the rinks of south St. Louis County – then finally on July 10 he became a member of the Blues organization. He took a lesser offer to come home and be with his young son and bet on himself with a one-year contract. Although it was a bumpy start, he has become the hard-hitting Big Rig that Blues fans expected to see. And he scored one of the biggest goals in Blues history. But we'll get to that in bit.
Her relationship with the Blues began thanks to a hospital visit from Alex Steen and Kelly Chase, then Laila Anderson became one the most inspiring Blues fans we've seen. The 11-year-old who suffers from a rare form of cancer, Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis, was fighting for her life for months and has now been able to enjoy the Blues playoff run.
Ninteen games into the regular season the Blues were next to last place in the NHL and after adding a lot of fire power in the offseason, the front office had seen enough. Then head coach Mike Yeo was let go and assistant Craig Berube was named the interim replacement. Something had to give for the Blues after they failed to make the playoffs last season, falling one point short when they lost to Colorado in their 82nd game. They lost in the second round under Yeo in 2017, after he was a midseason replacement for fired coach Ken Hitchcock.
It wasn't a pretty sight, seeing Robert Bortuzzo and Zach Sanford going after each other during practice on Dec. 10. Some players shrugged it off as "stuff that happens," but on the outside it looked like a perfect summary of a dysfunctional team. Boy we're the outsiders wrong...
The lowest of lows, NHL's worst record
Can you remember what you were feeling on January 3 about this Blues team? When they were bottom of the barrel in the NHL and talks of trading captain Alex Pietrangelo, Vladimir Tarasenko and more talent were daily discussions. Then they became one of just four teams in history to make the playoffs after being in last place anytime in January.
And next, they could be the first of those teams to win a Stanley Cup.
Jordan Binnington's arrival
He was the No. 4 goalie on the Blues depth chart coming into this season – then on Jan. 7 he got his first NHL start and it was a shutout. Now he's a finalist for rookie of the year.
The 11-game, franchise-record winning streak
It started on January 23, a day before the All-Star Break, with a win against the Anaheim Ducks and took off from there. Then the tone-setter for the streak was the 3-goal comeback against the Florida Panthers and the team took off. A shut-out against the best in the league (Tampa Bay), back-to-back wins against Nashville, 3 straight shut-outs against the West and the biggest one of all, the OT winner against the Maple Leafs.
Trolls try to rattle Binnington with old tweets
There's always someone that will try and rattle the goaltender before a big game. Forwards, D-men and bloggers? That's what one guy tried to do from a Winnipeg blogger by digging up Binnington's personal tweets back in 2014. They tried to make it out to be a horrible moment in the rookie's career, Binnington handled it with grace and then showed the only digging Winnipeg would be doing is their golf balls out of the sand pit.
Hometown kid wins Game 7
On Wednesday night in Boston for Game 7, it finally happened. The Blues first Stanley Cup in franchise history: