3 reasons why Blues missed 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs

Montgomery is a coach who has been on the edge of greatness, but he has not been able to get his team over the top. When he was the coach of the Bruins, he was able to take over an established team in the 2022-23 season that featured veteran stars in Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci and Brad Marchand. The Bruins dominated the league and set NHL records for regular-season wins and points.

Yet when the playoffs started, they faced an upstart eighth-seeded team in the Florida Panthers that was not intimidated. Even though the Bruins went up by a 3-1 margin, they could not get the final win. Montgomery’s record-setting season came to an end with a first-round upset that sent shock waves up and down Montgomery’s spine.

Montgomery was a shaky coach the next season and while his team earned a seven-game triumph over the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round. It took an overtime goal in the seventh game to allow the Bruins to advance, but they were flushed the following round by the Panthers. Montgomery was shaken to his core and it showed at the start of the of the 2024-25 season when his team struggled badly.

The Bruins fired him early in the season and the Blues hired him within days. Montgomery was able to get the Blues on track and they made the playoffs with a 44-30-8 record. They displayed grit and hunger while going 35-18-7 under Montgomery’s leadership. The key to the season was a 12-game winning streak from mid-March through early April that allowed the Blues to make the playoffs as the No. 8 seed.

Painful result in 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs

The Blues were on the verge of a Panthers-like upset as they had a 3-1 lead in the seventh game before the Jets scored two goals in the final two minutes to send the game to overtime. The Blues would lose in double overtime. How could Montgomery be anything but unsure of his coaching ability?

That clearly showed this season as the Blues played beneath their talent level most of the season. They have been on another strong closing stretch — 8-3-1 after Monday night’s victory over the Minnesota Wild — but they failed to match last year’s playoff appearance. Quite a bit of this is on Montgomery’s leadership.

Binnington failed to play like an All-World goaltender

The Blues havea big-time goaltending presence in Jordan Binnington, but he did not have a decent season

He was talented enough to win the goaltending job for Canada in the Milan Olympics, and he helped take that team to overtime of the gold medal game before Jack Hughes gave the United States the triumph with his huge goal.

Binnington may have been Canada’s best goaltender, but he struggled with the Blues. He has a 12-20-7 record with a 3.28 goals against average and an .875 save percentage.

That is not what the Blues expected and they went with Joel Hofer for much of the season as a result of Binnington’s struggles. Hofer had a 2.57 GAA and a .910 save percentage while playing 45 games — five more than Binnington.

The Blues could trade Binnington in the offseason and his name was involved in trade rumors prior to the NHL’s trade deadline. While it’s not fair to blame the Blues overall problems this season on Binnington, he certainly played a role in the team’s failure to more the Stanley Cup playoffs.