The Blues' list of playoff heartbreaks in their 51 years of existence is just soul-crushing disappointment after soul-crushing disappointment.
Three straight finals sweeps to start the franchise, early round playoff exits to hated rivals, Steve Yzerman in 1996 and the list goes on and on and on.
It doesn't help that it seems as if the hockey gods have it out for the franchise by making beloved former players and coaches into champions on other teams.
Brett Hull, Chris Pronger, Doug Weight, Brendan Shanahan, Scott Stevens, Scotty Bowman, Al Arbour and Joel Quenneville all raised the Stanley Cup somewhere other than St. Louis.
The Blues have made the playoffs in 42 of their 51 seasons, with that memorable 25-year streak nestled in between from 1979 and 2004.
And not once did they bring it home. Not one measly time.
Still, we keep coming back for more.
I might've missed out on the majority of the heartbreak for the franchise due to the fact I wasn't born until Chris Pronger's first season in St. Louis (you can go look that up), but I feel the familiar dread before the dawn of a new Blues playoff campaign all the same.
The weight we've all been carrying for this historically frustrating franchise has to come off at some point, right?
Maybe these guys right now are the ones to make it happen.
After the first half of the 2018-2019 season, this team had already been tagged and body-bagged by the rest of the league.
The additions of Ryan O'Reilly, Tyler Bozak, hometown kid Pat Maroon and the re-acquisition of former Blue David Perron had fans more excited than I had ever seen them before for the start of a season.
Then, they look up in January dead last in the NHL in points with a head coach fired and general gloom in every direction they looked.
Now I'm sitting here writing about the Blues starting their first-round playoff series against the Jets.
It can't be said enough just how crazy the turnaround has been.
Rookie goaltender Jordan Binnington became the most talked about guy in town, new coach Craig Berube lit a fire under everyone and the stars started to play like stars.
Once again, the Blues have baited me in, like I'm sure they have all of you.
We're going to put ourselves through the anguish that is playoff hockey once again, knowing devastation usually awaits us.
If these guys do it, though, they will become one with this city.
The team that finally gives Blues fans that parade down Market Street will achieve saint-like status in St. Louis.
There's no doubt, this is a Cardinals town. But we've been spoiled by them.
A Stanley Cup is what we crave. I'd trade more than a decade of losing seasons of Cardinals baseball for one Stanley Cup.
I don't think it's a stretch to call Blues fans the most tortured fan base in sports.
Like all playoff hockey, this postseason will involve some more torture.
Here's hoping we can all finally let out some 51-year-old happy tears at the end of it, though.