Ice Hockey · 2019 · Boston, USA
Last to First: The Blues' Stanley Cup
Dead last in the NHL standings on New Year's Day, the St. Louis Blues win a Game 7 on the road to capture the franchise's first Stanley Cup in its 52-year history.
Blues 4-1 Bruins (Game 7)
Result
Last in NHL
Standing, 3 January 2019
52 years
First Cup in franchise history
The St. Louis Blues held the worst record in the NHL on 3 January 2019, a position so bleak that the team's fortunes seemed to be a punchline more than a playoff contender's story. A mid-season goaltending change to rookie Jordan Binnington, and the unofficial adoption of the 1980s song 'Gloria' as a locker-room anthem, coincided with a complete turnaround in form.
The Blues climbed from last place to a playoff spot and kept winning, reaching the Stanley Cup Final against the Boston Bruins. Game 7, played in Boston on 12 June 2019, went the Blues' way 4-1, with Ryan O'Reilly capping a playoff run strong enough to win him the Conn Smythe Trophy as postseason MVP.
It was the first championship in the franchise's 52-year history, achieved via one of the most complete regular-season reversals in modern NHL history, worst record in the league in January to Stanley Cup champions in June. The turnaround remains a standard reference point for any team seen as written off partway through a season.
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