For the first time in franchise history, the St. Louis Blues are the Stanley Cup Champions thanks to the heroic play of Jordan Binnington.
The St. Louis Blues are the 2018-19 Stanley Cup Champions. They defeated the Boston Bruins 4-1 in Game 7 while being led by rookie netminder Jordan Binnington.
Binnington entered the night looking to rebound after the Blues fell to Boston in Game 6 at home with a chance to clinch the Cup, and he did.
After a few solid first shifts by St. Louis to start, Boston absolutely dominated, with the building rocking, outshooting St. Louis 12-4 in the period including some ridiculous stops.
His hot play in goal allowed for St. Louis to get on the board thanks to a deflection from the Conn Smythe winner Ryan O’Reilly, and they would never look back scoring four-straight goals on their way to a championship.
Binnington ended up making 32 saves in the game, becoming the first rookie goaltender to win a Cup since Matt Murray did it with Pittsburgh in 2015-16. The only hiccup for his night came under two minutes when Matt Grzelcyk found the back of the net with the game already out of reach.
It truly was a remarkable year for the Blues who were in last place in the NHL in January. They decided to change coaches in November with Craig Berube taking over for Mike Yeo, leading the Blues to a 30-10-5 record after the start of the new year in January.
Even with all of the success in the second half of the year, St. Louis still was not picked by most to get out of the first round. They would end up beating the Winnipeg Jets in six games to then beat Dallas in a tough seven-game series. San Jose would give them a run but ultimately fall short in six games as well.
The Final saw falling to Boston 2-1 after a blowout loss in Game 2, and most had them not coming back in the series. But the play of Binnington along with the coaching of Berube helped lead them back to win two more games all the way to a Stanley Cup.