EDMONTON, Alberta _ In winning the city's first-ever Stanley Cup a year ago, the Blues became St. Louis sports legends
They won't be legends this year.
A season unlike any other in NHL history ended with a thud Friday night for the Blues. After a Game 5 loss in which Brayden Schenn said the Blues "fell asleep," the symptoms were more severe in Game 6.
They got knocked out _ knocked out of the playoffs, that is _ by the young, hungry Vancouver Canucks in a 6-2 loss at Rogers Place. So the Blues are done. Done for the season and done for the Edmonton bubble with their first-round ouster.
They were the only top-four seed in the Western Conference to be eliminated in the first round, and one of only two overall. (Washington got knocked out in the East.)
Vancouver moves on, claiming the best-of-seven series four games to two, with a second-round matchup against the Vegas Golden Knights starting next week.
After three games with Jake Allen in goal, coach Craig Berube went back to one of the heroes of that Cup run, Jordan Binnington. But Binnington, who struggled more than he thrived in Edmonton, couldn't revive his old magic. He lost for the fifth time in five starts here _ two in round-robin play and three times against the Canucks.
The Blues got a third-period goal from Jaden Schwartz to make it 4-1, and pulled Allen, who replaced Binnington in the second, in favor of a sixth attacker with 8:25 left in favor of an extra attacker in what must be some kind of record. But Allen had to go back in less than a minute later because of a neutral zone faceoff and during that stretch Game 5 hero Tyler Motte made sure there was no miracle comeback with a goal and a 5-1 Canucks lead with 6:51 left.
Schwartz added a second goal in the waning minutes, but then Vancouver countered with an empty-netter.
Things unraveled in a hurry in the second period. And before you knew it, the Blues were down 4-0 and Binnington was on the bench again.
On a delayed penalty against St. Louis, more sloppy play in their own end led to an Antoine Roussel goal and a 2-0 Vancouver lead just 2:09 into the second period.
And before you could say "defending champs ousted" _ it was 4-0 Vancouver and looked very much like the Blues had checked out. Troy Stecher, the man who stunned the Blues and Binnington with the game-winning goal in Game 1, took advantage of some way-too-casual play by the Blues in the back end to make it 2-0 at the 6:49 mark of the second.
And then Brock Boeser made it 4-0 on a power play at the 8:06 mark after Oskar Sundqvist took a slashing penalty. Three goals in 5 minutes 57 seconds for Vancouver. See you later Blues. And see you later Binnington who once again just didn't look confident in net.
He was pulled after the Boeser goal, with 11:54 left in the second, replaced by Allen. Binnington's postseason meltdown included 19 goals in his last 3 { games. To put that in perspective, he gave up only 20 goals in his first 14 NHL starts during the 2018-19 season.
It was all Vancouver in the early going Friday. Just 3:45 into the game, Jay Beagle won a puck battle along the boards on a giveaway by Jacob de la Rose, and then skated in and beat Binnington for a 1-0 Vancouver lead.
The Blues couldn't get anything going. All the puck possession and zone time belonged to the Canucks who had a whopping 13-4 edge in shots on goal with just under nine minutes left in the period. But with 7:52 left, Motte was called for holding Schwartz.
Although they couldn't convert on the power play, that seemed to get the Blues going. But not for long.
It was all Vancouver in the early going Friday. Just 3:45 into the game, Beagle won a puck battle along the boards on a giveaway by Jacob de la Rose, and then skated in and beat Binnington for a 1-0 Vancouver lead.
The Blues couldn't anything going. All the puck possession and zone time belonged to the Canucks who had a whopping 13-4 edge in shots on goal with just under nine minutes left in the period. But with 7:52 left, Game 5 Canucks hero Tyler Motte was called for holding David Perron.
Although they couldn't convert on the power play, that seemed to get the Blues going. They had the final seven shots on goal in the period, and took the last 22 seconds of a Beagle penalty for holding Schwartz into the second period.
