As Blues players conducted an autopsy on the carcass of their lost season, it was apparent they’d been thinking about a cause of death for quite some time.
From the eight-game losing streak in October and November, to the post Ryan O’Reilly trade malaise, the Blues have had a long time to diagnose exactly where things went wrong. For the first time since 2007-08, the team finished below .500. The Blues missed the playoffs for just the second time since 2011.
The end result was a 28-point tumble from a 109-seaosn in 2021-22 to an 81-point campaign in 2022-23. It was the second-biggest drop in the league, behind only Florida (from a Presidents’ Trophy-winning 122 to a Wild Card 92 points).
But, to many of the Blues, it all started off the ice.
Justin Faulk lamented a lack of professionalism.
“I think our group let some stuff slip, let our habits slip, how we carry ourselves day-to-day,” Faulk said. “We need to be grown men in here, be mature, show up, do your work. That’s in practice, that’s in the gym, that’s off the ice. It’s just working hard and knowing what you’re asked to do and what it is. Then, the on-ice performance comes.”
Brayden Schenn wondered if players acted a bit too selfishly.
“Probably boils down a little to guys worrying about themselves,” Schenn said. “Realistically, that’s what happened. When you do that, and you worry about yourself and your individual play, you’re not as worried about the team as much. It’s tough to win in this league. That’s a culture you don’t want to have is guys worrying about themselves.”
Robert Thomas longed for the Blues culture to reappear after it was absent to begin the season.
“Whether it’s playing for each other, whether it’s little details on the ice, off the ice, I think those things are crucial to winning,” Thomas said. “It wasn’t there at the start of the season, started to come back at the end, but I think we have a lot of work to do this summer to get back to what’s made this franchise successful in the past.”
Jordan Binnington asked for individual accountability.
“At this level, you’ve got to be on top of yourself,” Binnington said. “This is the best of the best, alpha dog, whatever you want to call it, league. The treadmill’s moving fast, so you’ve got to stay on it and stay with it. I don’t know of any particular situation, but if that’s being said, it’s something to listen to and look in the mirror and hold yourself accountable and ask yourself if you’re doing the best you can.”
Each player had a different way of explaining their personal feelings, but it’s clear that the Blues culture was broken this season.
St. Louis has been a franchise built on depth and contributions from everywhere, a plan that banked on the sum being greater than the individual parts. When they won the Stanley Cup in 2019, they did so with depth both up front and on the blue line. When they zoomed to 109 points last year, it was thanks to nine 20-goal scorers.
At their best, the Blues were a team built as a team, and, as Schenn said Saturday, “from the very beginning, we didn’t come together as a team.”
“You have to get back to holding each other accountable, demanding more of each other,” Schenn said. “That slipped throughout this year, no doubt about it. Individually, too, you have to find ways to keep getting better, whether that’s on the ice, off the ice. Accountability is a big thing, goes a long way. We feel in our locker room from Day 1, we probably didn’t have enough of it.”
Of course, the Blues traded their captain in O’Reilly, and the club’s longest-tenured player in Vladimir Tarasenko, but the team wasn’t in a good place even with those players around.
Faulk said it was an oversimplification to say the Blues overall lacked work ethic off the ice (“I know what guys do and what guys go through to be in this position. You don’t get in this league by not working hard. You don’t sustain yourself by not working hard off the ice.), but pointed to a host of other factors that define professionalism.
“It’s how you carry yourself day-to-day,” Faulk said. “It’s who you are as a person, are you a good teammate? Are you coming in, do you care about your guys? Are you checking in, seeing how they’re doing? Are you making yourself available to your teammates, whatever it is? Are you working hard? Are you eating right? Are you doing all these other things? Are you a pleasure to be around?”
As the Blues turn the page towards the next stage of their organization — will next summer be another long one? — the players understand the culture has to change from within.
