You’ve said it, 32 teams aiming for the ultimate trophy. At the end of every season there’s only one winner. Even with the best team there is no guarantee of reaching that goal. We’ve seen it so often that all of a sudden, the underdogs start to win and gain momentum round after round. Hockey is certainly the most unpredictable sport ever.
From 2019 Wikipedia St-Louis Blues won the cup when being 32nd in January :
Season summary
The Blues started the season sluggish, and head coach
Mike Yeo was fired on November 19 with the team's record at 7–9–3.
[5] Craig Berube, who had served as assistant coach with the Blues since 2017, was named the interim head coach.
[5] St. Louis began the 2019 calendar year with the worst record in the league; 15–18–4 and 34 points recorded.
[6] Soon after, rookie goaltender
Jordan Binningtonjoined the team. On January 7, he won his first game in a shutout and took over as the team's starting goaltender. The Blues then went on a franchise-record 11-game winning streak and had a 30–10–5 run to finish the season. They clinched a playoff spot on March 29, 2019.
[7][8]
So either Marty gets fired in 4 days, or he gets a great Assistant Coach soon... and we get back Mailloux, Roy from the AHL and maybe one goalie to replace Primeau... Patrick Laine comes back... well we still have chances for a 25th cup! ;-) ...
But I agree... All this needs to start with Hutson on 1st PP shift...!