COLUMN: I can pile on the Blues for finally being eliminated from the playoffs; we won't; I'm actually commending them for lasting as long as they did

ST. LOUIS -- It would be easy to pile on the St. Louis Blues (again) for finally coming to the realization of what we all knew months ago.

In all honesty, this is not a playoff team. I've been writing this in past columns for months now. But it finally took until the penultimate home game for the official ball to drop on their 2023-24 season when the Blues fell 5-2 against the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday, coupled with a Vegas Golden Knights 7-2 win against the Minnesota Wild to officially close the door on what will be a second straight season of non-playoff hockey.

I'm sure Buffalo Sabres fans won't feel sorry in the least for Blues fans, but in reality, this doesn't happen here often. In fact, it'll be the first time since 2009-10 and 2010-11 the Blues will go two straight years without playoff hockey.

There was a sense of walking into the locker room Friday if reality, a somber mood and a feeling of knowing it finally came to an end. But even through some of the what-ifs for the Blues -- who have games remaining against the Seattle Kraken on Sunday and at the Dallas Stars on Wednesday to close things out -- put themselves through, and they'll have plenty of time to be kicking themselves for some of the bad losses that have them in this position. Sure it's real easy to pile on them now.

But not here, not right now, not in this moment.

Had they gone out and curled up in a cocoon and allow the Hurricanes, who I think have a legitimate shot at winning the Stanley Cup this year, beat them into submission, then it would have been a different story in this space. But the Blues knew the odds were stacked against them, and yet they still went out and competed until the last dying breath.

In the end, it simply wasn't enough.

"Certainly I can't fault the effort. Certainly the effort was here from our group tonight," Blues interim coach Drew Bannister said. "We made three mistakes on the first three goals and they made us pay, and that's what good hockey teams do. We certainly created enough offense to grab a lead or separate a little bit more but we failed to kind of cash in on some of the chances that we had."

Isn't that somewhat of a microcosm of the Blues' losses? Create plenty, convert few. I can't fault the effort here tonight either. Carolina is a superior team, so much so that they afforded to sit four players tonight (Jordan Staal, Teuvo Teravainen, Jalen Chatfield and Brett Pesce) and replace them with four more bonafide NHL players, including one (Scott Morrow) making his NHL debut.

"We had some chances," Blues forward Brandon Saad said. "[Frederik Andersen] made some big saves, we didn't capitalize and then you see the final result."

Honestly, I had this bunch written off months ago, and to a certain extent, they proved me wrong. And those that battled are to be commended for that. And the one initial takeaway from covering this team this year is there has been some positive growth from some of the youth the Blues put in situations to gain valuable experience in these situations that will only make them better in the long run.

And then there were the players, through inconsistency and high-end play that believed until they were told that the belief could no longer be valid. Unfortunately for them, that came tonight.

"Obviously I thought we had a pretty good stretch here," Blues defenseman Colton Parayko said. "I don't know exactly what our record's been, but we've definitely been playing well I think. Maybe there's a couple that we'd like to have back. For some time, we've been playing good hockey and I think we've just got to look forward. We've got a good group in here. Just keep pushing, all the way until the end. A couple more games, win some more games."

The Blues have been in playoff mode for months now. At times, they've excelled like nobody would expect, and at times, they disappointed to no end. And when you have that kind of inconsistency in a league so good, chances are you're not going to be where you want to, on the inside looking out.

"It's been an emotional month, month and a half here," Saad said. "It's been fun hockey. A lot of competing. I think we grew a lot as a team. Obviously a tough result here tonight.

"Any time it's worth doing something it makes it hard coming out on the other end. It's a tough night for sure."

There are many nights you can walk into that Blues locker room and it's a jovial mood. Not tonight, and rightfully so.

Disappointment -- and reality -- finally settled in. 

"It's been a lot of ups and downs," Bannister said. "We've found ways to fight our way back into the playoff picture numerous times over the last two months when ... and a lot of it was on us. There were times where we didn't play good hockey and consistently we were able to get ourselves back into it, but I think if you want to be a playoff team, you have to consistently play good hockey through, not only the whole year, but certainly when you come back after Christmas when points are hard to get. 

"When I look back at probably that three-week stretch after the All-Star break where we went below .500 really hurt us. You can pick apart the games we lost. I'm sure there's four or five games that we should have won, and that's going to be a learning experience for us that we had opportunities and if we win four or five of those games, that's just in the time that I was here, over an 82-game schedule, all of the sudden we've got over 100 points and we're in a solid playoff spot. There's things obviously to build towards that were positive and things we can take from that were negative that are going to make us a better hockey team moving forward."

It still doesn't take the sting away.

"How can't you be disappointed," Bannister said. "You start training camp in September. A lot of guys are here earlier than that, practices, games, travel, you battle through it to get to this point in the season and then it's kind of ripped away from you. We were a part of that. We have to take ownership in our game and it needs to be better, but certainly we got ourselves in position where we were fighting for the playoffs the last two months. It's tough when you're in a grind, game to game means as much as it did. There were a lot of ups and downs. The next two games are still important for us to continue to build for next year and we want to win hockey games, and I think it's important for us to make sure that Sunday here we take pride in our game and we put on a good performance for the fans that have supported us."

Blues fans will get one last chance to see a team together they most certainly won't see again on Enterprise Center ice in 2024-25. And the Blues will put on one last show for them before they sign off in Dallas on Wednesday. And then one of the more intriguing off-seasons for general manager Doug Armstrong will begin, because he and his management team will be tasked with making the improvements necessary. Start righting some of the wrongs of recent past.

I've said it in previous columns. I'm not sure how much he can change a roster still chalk-full of no-trade clauses next season, but this roster certainly can't look like this moving forward. Or else this feeling they have tonight will repeat itself, and the fans will grow even more angry.

As for some of the promising aspects of this season, we've come to see Jordan Binnington rise up again as one of the elite goalies in the game; Robert Thomas has and is growning into a bonafide No. 1 center; Jake Neighbours leads the next wave of Blues filled with promise; who's not excited about Zack Bolduc, and Parayko showed he has the ability to anchor a strong defensive corps with with the proper support.

There's intrigue moving forward, but for this Blues group, for as flawed as they were on many occasions, this is likely going to be a 90-plus point team, and if that's considered rock-bottom for this fan base, you will have plenty to look forward to moving forward.

"Us guys in here, no matter what the odds are, kind of where we were at in the season, we never gave up and we won't give up," said Thomas, who reached 60 assists to become the first Blue to do so since Craig Janney (68) in 1993-94. "That's what I'm taking away from this."

Oh, and about Thomas basking in personal accolades, think again. It says a lot what his mindset is, the right mindset.

"It's nice. I would have rather been playing in the playoffs," Thomas said. "You never know what's going to happen here, but I think that's my main priority."

The Blues pulled you in, and as small as the percentages were, they made it exciting until the very end. Unfortunately, a bitter end. At least they had a chance, and that's something nobody imagined from this group even going back as far as when they made a coaching change.

Again, I know it's easy to pile on them now. At least give them a small token of appreciation for keeping flickering hopes alive for as long as they did. I am.

For as flawed a roster as it is, that's quite a feat. Save the piling on for another day.