The St. Louis Blues went into the regular season riding a 6 game winning streak from the preseason. They then went on to win 10 of there first 12 regular season games propelling them to the top of their conference. Never losing more then 2 games in a row the Blues where on fire this season and it appeared that they would be unstopable. The only real compitition in the Campbell Conference appeared to be the Wings and in the last game of the season the Blues got the win to take top seed in the Conference, and the Smyth division championship.


The team was led by C Eric Lindros who finished secound in league scoring with 100 points 33G and 67 assists. He also finished with a +24 rating and played in all but 2 of the Blues games this season. His linemates included LW Brad Richards who scored 40 goals and had 49 assists to take secound place in team scoring with 89 points in 82 games. On the RW team captain Radek Dvorak scored 29 goals and had 40 assists for a total of 69 points in 74 games.

The secound line included C Bobby Holik who followed up last season carreer year with another. This season the Blues 2nd line C had 35 goals and 53 assists to take third in team scoring with 88 points in 80 games. he was flanked by LW Taylor Pyatt who was aquired early in the season and proptly went on a goal scoring tear like no other Blue in the history of the Blues. Pyatt finished the season with 34 goals and 33 assists including 30 goals and 31 assists as a Blue. The RW was maned by Sergei Krivokrasov who also had a carreer year playing with Holik and Pyatt scoring 32 goals and adding 51 assists in only 77 games.


Rookie Demitri Semin who won the calder trophy in the JR last season continued to improve this season as a pro. He saw time on the Blues 1st and 2nd line and in 82 games scored 17 goals and had 25 assists. This young rookie struggled however on the defencive end of his game and was -4 on the season. Backchecking is something this young player will have to learn if he hopes to remain in CLUTCH.

D Aaron Ward led the defence with his partner Dan Hamhuis. Ward had 15 goals and 25 assists this season as he showed that not only could he play defence +33 but was more then capable of running the PP. His Partner the young Hamhuis struggled a little this season and only managed to post 11 goals with 22 assists. He was a +14 on the season and will have to improve on his defencive play in the upcoming season. The secound line was maned by Darryl Sydor who had 2 goals and 39 assists and Lubomir Visnovsky who tied in team scoring with ward with 40 points (8 goals 32 assists).

For the most part the Blues played a disciplined style. However if the need arised for some fisticufts Oleg Kvasha would step in and take on all commers. Teh Blues forward had 15 fights including takeing 7 decisions and 8 draws. Thats right no loses for the Blues tough guy. He was ranked as the 4th best enforcer in CLUTCH this season and made sure noone took any liberties with the Blues skilled forwards. Bobby Holik also led the league in hits posting 272 this season as he was hitting everything in site.

Other record breaking performances this season included Eric Lindros who scored 4 goals to tie 4 other players this season. He also posted 7 points in the same game and that is more then any other CLUTCH player this season. In the same game 4 Blues players posted a +/- of +6 to lead the league those players included Brad Richards, Aaron Ward, Eric Lindros, Darryl Sydor. They tied 2 other players for this record. The game was a 7- rout over the Predators on day 51 of the season.

In net Nikolai Khabibulin took on most of the load plaing in all but 10 of the Blues games posting a 2.95 GAA and an impressive .890 save percentage. he posted a very impressive 42 wins 23 loses and 5 ties which included 6 shutouts. He was only pulled in 11 games and when he was Fred Brathwaite would step up and hold down the fort. In the 12 games when GM Foley felt the the Bulin wall needed to be rested Fred Brathwaite steped up and was 6-0 in his first 6 games. He finished the season with an equally impressive 7 wins 3 loses and 2 ties. Brathwaite had a 2.51 GAA and an awesome .904 save percentage.

The Blues finished the season 1 win away from 50 on the season with 105 points. They scored 302 goals and only allowed 238 against. A very solid regular season for the blues however the postseason would not be kind. The Blues came out flat and where ousted by the 8th seeded Edmonton Oilers in the 1st round of the playoffs. The Only concelation was once again the Blues for the secound season in a row were defeated by the team who eventually went on to compete for the cup. Once again however they could not finish and came up short just like the Ducks from last season.