We Won the Cup

I still wake up several times a week and my first thought is, "we won the cup."

My History

I guess it was always probably ingrained in me. Twisted into the double helix that makes my DNA. But I remember one of the first times watching a game, sitting cross legged on our floor on Comet Drive, the neighbors crowded around are SD TV in Bellefontaine Neighbors. I don't know the exact year (as years don't mean much in your youth), but I bet I've been a Blues fan since 1989.

My first live game was October 19th, 1991 against the Blackhawks. I know this because the ticket and newspaper clipping still hangs on my wall. It was a 4-4 standoff. Brendan Shanahan, Nelson Emerson, and Brett Hull scored for the Blues. 39 penalty minutes were given out.

I lived through the Scott Stevens controversy, the Fox glowing puck, Mike Keenan, a half dozen of false prophet goalies to lead us to the promise land, Gretzky, and the double overtime goal by Steve Yzerman, and Brett Hull raising the cup in Green and again in Red.

Like many Blues fans, I've had my heart broken time and time again. And every September, my heart starts pumping that blue blood and I have a fleeting thought that, "this, could be the year."

Blues Pre-season Setup

The Blues had missed the 2017-2018 playoffs by one point. It was an embarrassment. Even in the final stretch of games where we could get in still, there were players that just didn't seem to care. Guys that seemed excited for the prospect of some time off and golf.

Doug Armstrong needed to add some pieces. Our defense was weaker than it had been, we didn't have a center after sending Paul Stastny away, and our goaltending was atrocious.

David Perron, like a loyal dog, keeps coming back home. For the third time, the Blues signed Perron. He's played for something like 4 teams, but the Blues are the only team he has signed a contract with.

Hometown boy, the Big Rig himself, Patrick Maroon was fielding offers from many teams. Big guy was in high demand, but he took less money than was being offered to play for one year in St. Louis.

The Blues were desperate for a center. So Army went all in on all the centers that were available.

Ryan O'Reilly was the big trade. The Blues sent half a dozen pieces including franchise player Berglund to Buffalo for ROR. Ryan had lost his smile. The dysfunctional Buffalo Sabres and frustration with the product on the ice had Ryan seriously considering quitting the game he no longer loved.

He got a second choice in St. Louis, calling Armstrong and saying, "Let's go win a cup."

"Hey Ryan - Doug Armstrong calling." https://t.co/Igr20bJzKL #stlblues pic.twitter.com/Y3M2aK7AOn

— St. Louis Blues 🏆 (@StLouisBlues) July 2, 2018

Tyler Bozak signed with the Blues in July of 2018. He had been a Maple Leaf his entire career. It was not an easy decision to leave the only club he had ever known, so he wrote a Player's Tribune as a sort of trip down memory lane/explanation to the fans in Toronto.

He famously signed off the article with

I want to win a Cup. So damn bad.That’s why I signed in St. Louis. There’s your headline. Print it

The Blues had also lost our backup goalie from the previous season. Jake Allen was slotted as the starter, and with no real options available, we signed Chad Johnson and sort of hoped that Allen could string together a winning record for 60 or so games and average goaltending from Johnson could get us over the edge.

The Season Begins 

Sal and I made the tough decision to not buy our season tickets this year. I was in Japan a ton and the previous year we saw something like 7 losses out of the 10 games we made it to.

At first, it felt like we had made a good decision. The Blues lost a lot. It was getting so pathetic that I was finding myself not wanting to settle up somewhere to watch the game on Saturdays.

And honestly, I think the Blues subreddit is what kept me interested. When I was in Japan and feeling isolated, this small internet community was the thing that gave me a sense of home when it was 3 AM central time. They kept me coming back.

But it was hard. The losing kept happening. Player morale was at an all time low. Fights were breaking out at practice between players. There were rumors of a split locker room, half the room thinking Pietro wasn't a good leader, the other half defending him to death. Doug Armstrong started listening to offers for franchise players like Tarasenko and Pietrangelo.

The only bright spot was Ryan O'Reilly, not wanting to give up, staying late after practice to work with the young guys, putting up the numbers. Just being a general leader. But everything else was bleak. (I almost became a baseball fan it was so bad)

There were two events, that once put in place, forced the direction of the rest of the year.

1. Mike Yeo being fired
2. Anaheim grabbing our backup.

The Turnaround

Mike Yeo was fired mid-November and Craig Berube was named interim head coach. Berube had not had much coaching success, most thought his interim was a true title and that the Blues would go after a big name like Quinnville. 

Things didn't immediately turn around, but the thing Berube immediately said is the locker room sucked and he needed to get attitudes changed. 

While Berube worked on the morale, the Blues kept losing. #TankForHughes started trending in St. Louis, a reference that the Blues should just pack up this season and get a number one draft.

It was becoming comically bad. The Blues subreddit changed all the topics to actual Blues music. Tickets were selling for $10.

During this time, Sal and I bought tickets for a game early in the year. They were cheap, something like $30. Our friends had never been to a game. We told them it would probably be a lose, and they took that risk.

And in desperation, the Blues sent backup goalie Chad Johnson to the AHL for a conditioning stint, hoping the change of scenery might get something out of the team or the goalie.

There's a clause to protect players that say if you send an NHL player down to the AHL, they have to clear waivers. Which essentially means if the Blues send down an NHL player, every other team in the NHL gets a chance to claim him on waivers. This is to protect players from getting lost in minor leagues systems if they could play NHL games for another team.

Johnson had played so badly, this was a low risk situation. I didn't think anything of it, until I refreshed Twitter and... what the hell?

Anaheim grabbed our backup goalie. There was a collective sigh in St. Louis and fans just sort of agree, "Well, fuck it. Season is completely over. This is hilariously tragic now."

The Blues looked around the league for an available goalie... hell, a duffle bag full of pucks, to backstop Jake Allen.

Rookie goaltender Jordan Binnington, a goalie completely lost in the Blues system, something like the 4th goalie in line, so lost that he was actually loaned out to the Bruins AHL team for a while, was brought up. He had only played one NHL game before. I fully expected him to sit on the bench and maybe get 3-4 starts.

What we brought was the change we needed. He brought a confidence to the locker room that had been lacking. Not only did he win his first game, he got a shutout against the Flyers, 3-0. And the miraculous thing wasn't just that win, it was that he just kept doing it. And there were heavy hitters he was taking down. Tampa Bay, Dallas, Washington... all felt the wrath of Winnington.

Remember that game I told you about? The one that we bought tickets for and lowered the bar so far for expectations that our friends were regretting buying tickets. Well that game happened to be the 11th win in a row, a franchise record, and we were there with our bargain bin tickets. Halfway through the second period, as a particularly huge hit landed, my buddy David turned to me and said, "I think I'm a hockey fan now.

The Feel Goods

This blog could be 30 pages long. All the positive stories and records that came out of this last half of the season are incredible.

We all heard about Laila Anderson. The very sick girl who brought the Blues incredible luck. The Blues decided to haul her along through the cup finals. I dare you to watch that video and not cry.

The Blues keeping Chris Thorburn up from the minors in order for him to get the NHL insurance.

The Blues sent the entire staff to a game in Boston. 

Then there's the records

• Most playoff wins in franchise history (duh)
• O'Reilly matches franchise post season points record
• Binnington is the first rookie goalie to win 16 wins in the postseason
• Blues tied the record for most road wins in the playoffs
• O'Reilly wins the Con Smythe
• Binnington with record for most wins as a rookie

The final buzzer happened and it took weeks to sink in. I didn't sleep for the first four days, I was too excited. And then seeing an estimated 349,000 people downtown to celebrate the Blues was the most incredible positive energy I've ever been a part of. 

I don't think I'll properly have closure until I get the Stanley Cup tattoo I always wanted to get. That will be the day I can sit back, let it wash over me, and get closure.

But the important thing is... we won the cup