St. Louis Blues: Why I Still Believe

Ryan Leatherman: First-time blogger, Long-time St. Louis Blues fan, eternal believer.

But I’m not going to lie; my belief was challenged Wednesday night, right around 8:00 p.m. For the full match recap, check out Bleedin’ Blue.

I was sitting on my couch, listening to the NBC announcers laud the hated Hawks as they trotted towards the locker room after the first period, and I was grousing about twenty ugly minutes of hockey by my St. Louis Blues. I had just seen a twenty-minute comedy of errors, including but not limited to: three goalie changes, defensemen screening our own goalie, egregious retaliatory penalties, turnovers in the defensive zone, sloppy passes, recurring shots of Coach Hitchcock looking baffled and five (FIVE!) goals against.

Pessimistic thoughts, the nagging doubts I’ve had over the last few disappointing years, all began to return. We’ve got a talented roster that can’t put it all together. Is this team lacking effective leadership? Is Hitchcock’s system really to blame? Is our inability to choose a true starting goaltender making both members of the tandem weaker? Is Scottrade Center built upon cursed Native American ground?

I flashed back to my treasure trove of painful recent St. Louis Blues memories. I remembered losing to an LA Kings team two years in a row, a team that resembled us in every way, but with the added ability to score clutch goals. Four in a row lost after two OT wins against the Blackhawks with an entire top-six forward group coming back from injury. Above all, I recalled the look of utter bewilderment on the faces of the Blues less than a year ago when, by some ill fortune, the Minnesota Wild ran away with the series without so much as a whimper from the Note in retaliation.

But then, something happened, something improbable, an augury of a bright future.

First, a goal deflected off Steen’s skate. I was thumbing through Magic the Gathering card spoilers when the puck went in. I harrumphed and paid a bit more attention. A series of impressive shifts followed after Steve Ott raced off the ice in serious pain. Suddenly, the “let’s go Hawks” chants had a bit less fervor. Then, on a struggling Power Play, Jay Bouwmeester tapped the puck under Crawford’s pad with so little force that it actually got through.

I was seeing something I’m not sure I’ve ever seen from the Blues in recent years, especially not when facing an opponent of the Blackhawks’ caliber: heart in the face of adversity. Tenacity when down for the count. Aggressiveness with the chips stacked against us.

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Then, on a shooting angle thinner than a slice of Imos, Backes floated one past Crawford.  Tie game. That alone would have been cause to celebrate, but seventeen minutes later, and an hour and a half after I was fearing the season was surmounting to a failure, the Blues did something even more impressive.

They were exhausted and short a forward, facing the embarrassed and enraged defending Stanley Cup Champions. Against the odds, the Blues hung in there in the third period, killing penalty after penalty, with Jake Allen playing like the lights-out-number-one goaltender we’ve been dying for since Cujo left.

In the Overtime period, I saw things I never thought I’d see, like Magnus Paajarvi skating on the same ice as Patrick Kane and looking acceptable in comparison, and all three Blues skaters staying on the ice for over ninety seconds in the defensive zone, lingering long enough on the rush for Vladimir Tarasenko to do what he does best in the slot for the game-winner.

Next: St. Louis Blues Comeback Of The Century

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I have experienced a lifetime’s worth of sadness as a Blues fan, but this game is a grade-A example of why my optimism persists despite all odds. The deck was stacked against a blue-collar team, yet they managed to whip the defending Stanley Cup Champions in front of a flabbergasted and dead silent crowd of 21,000 plus in the United Center.

And in that beautiful silence, I thought to myself: I hope to write, eight months from now, that I was sitting around at 8:00 p.m. Nov. 4, considering whether or not to turn off the game that reversed the fortunes of the St. Louis Blues for good.