It’s only been six years since the St. Louis Blues won their first and only Stanley Cup. A lot has happened since then. The Blues are coming off a short rebuild, making the playoffs in 2025 after two consecutive years of being on the outside.
Since their 2019 championship, the Blues have made the playoffs four times, but have never made it out of the Second Round. They’ve also seen two coaching changes, and several of their stars have left the franchise. Now, we’re going to turn back the clock to see what happened when the Blues hoisted the Stanley Cup.
Other Sporting Champions in 2019
NBA Champion
The Blues were not the first team of the Big Four sports to win their first championship in 2019. The Toronto Raptors won their first NBA Championship against a tough Golden State Warriors team that had made the NBA Finals five times and had won three championships at that point.
In the playoffs, Raptors forward Kawhi Leonard made one of the most memorable shots in NBA history against the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals. That shot won them the series and pushed the Raptors to the Eastern Conference Final, where they defeated the Milwaukee Bucks in six games. Leonard also won Finals MVP that year.
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In the 2018-19 season, the Raptors were not expected to make the Finals, let alone hoist the Larry O’Brien Trophy. They had only ever made it as far as the Eastern Conference Finals until former president, Masai Ujiri, and general manager Bobby Webster made a franchise-changing trade that saw longtime guard Demar DeRozan, center Jakob Poeltl, and a protected 2019 first-round pick go to the San Antonio Spurs for Leonard and guard Danny Green.
MLB Champions
The Washington Nationals also won their first World Series pennant in Major League Baseball (MLB) in 2019, beating the Houston Astros 4-3 in a hard-fought series.
Leading up to this victory, the Nationals started the playoffs in a National League Wild Card (NLWC) game and won it 4-3 over the Milwaukee Brewers to advance to the National League Division Series (NLDS) against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Nationals beat the Dodgers in the five-game series, 3-2, winning the series-deciding game, 7-3. Now, if you’re a St. Louis Cardinals fan, you won’t like remembering this one. The Nationals advanced to the National League Conference Series (NLCS) against the Cardinals and swept them 4-0 to move on to the 2019 World Series. Since then, the Nationals have not made the playoffs and are nowhere near a playoff spot.
NFL Champions
In 2019, the Super Bowl was the only championship game in which no NFL team won its first championship. However, it did mark the end of Tom Brady’s New England Patriots’ dynasty, winning their last Super Bowl against the Los Angeles Rams. Super Bowl LIII was hosted in Atlanta at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, where the Patriots won their sixth championship during a Brady dynasty that lasted roughly 18 seasons.
The Patriots defeated the Rams 13-3. New England began their 2019 playoff run against the Los Angeles Chargers in the AFC Divisional Game, beating them 41-28. The Patriots advanced to the AFC Conference Championship against the Kansas City Chiefs and won by a narrow 37-31 margin to advance to the Super Bowl.
2019 Pop Culture/Entertainment
Top-Grossing Movies of 2019
In 2019, Disney/Marvel produced the top three films at the box office. First was Avengers: Endgame amassed roughly $2.8 billion worldwide after its release on April 26. The second was the live-action remake of The Lion King, released on July 19 and had a gross profit of about $1.66 billion. Frozen II was released on Nov. 22, 2019, and ranked third with a gross profit of $1.450 billion worldwide.
Top Songs of 2019
The artist who took over the music industry charts in 2019 was Lil Nas X, whose song “Old Town Road,” featuring Billy Ray Cyrus, was the number one song on the Billboard Year-End Hot 100. In the second spot, it was “Sunflower” by Post Malone and Swae Lee, from the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse soundtrack. In third, it was Halsey with her hit song “Without Me”.
NHL 19 Cover Athlete
Many who play EA Sports’ NHL video game probably remember the iconic cover from 2019, with defenseman P.K. Subban of the Nashville Predators doing his famous kneeling punch celebration. The game was released on Sept. 14, 2018, ahead of the 2018-19 NHL season and received an 8.9/10 rating by Imagine Games Network (IGN).
NHL 19 was playable on both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and many of the game’s features, like Be A Pro, EASHL and Franchise Mode, are still available today. EA put former Blues forward Vladimir Tarasenko on the cover of NHL 17 two years before. He won the Stanley Cup with St. Louis in 2019.
Top Video Game of 2019
The top-rated video game at the time of the Blues’ Stanley Cup victory was “Disco Elysium,” which had a general rating of 90/100 and was released only on Oct. 15 for PC. However, a runner-up was the remake of the 1998 hit game “Resident Evil 2,” which had a rating of 90/100 and won the Game of the Year Award for 2019.
The Blues are a long way from the team they had in 2019. Despite all the failures they’ve suffered in the past five seasons, they have started to turn a corner, and as they give their younger players more experience, they should become a consistent playoff team in the years ahead.
