St. Louis Blues: What I’m Thankful For
In spirit with the season, and in order to avoid the moniker of ‘speculation rumormonger’ by writing another trades column, I’d like to share with my fellow Blues fans some things I’m thankful for this holiday season.
- Vladdy
If you would have told me four years ago that the Blues would have one of the most dynamic offensive players in the sport of hockey locked up to an 8 year contract at the age of 24, I would have thought you were losing your mind.
Yet here we are, nearing the end of 2015 with Vladimir Tarasenko striking fear into the hearts of our enemies. He a deadly predator on the ice. Whatever move he uses, it usually works, especially pulling that one push-off-the-shoulder-of-the-defenseman-across-the-goalmouth thing he always does. When nets sleep, they have nightmares about his wrist shot.
Game in and game out, the opposition sits down and studies hours of game tape just to stop Tarasenko. They sic their best defensemen on him. We’ve seen goons take whacks at him. Attention NHL: it isn’t working. Tarasenko is on pace for 46 goals, and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he breaks 100 points on the season.
But here’s why we should all be thankful for Vladimir. This summer, during what could have been a costly and dramatic contract negotiation, Vladimir was focused on one thing: the Cup. That’s the mentality of a winner. Tarasenko got paid, sure. But his focus on winning and success as a team was far more important to him than a dollar sign.
If Vladimir Tarasenko doesn’t have a letter on his chest within the next few years, I’d be shocked. We’re privileged to have him.
- Jake the Snake
Mason…Bishop…Elliot…Halak…Miller…Elliot again…
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. This is the goalie who can take us over the top.
For once, I’m buying it.
Jake Allen is a bona-fide #1 goaltender. He can carry this team. He can help us win in the playoffs. He can’t however, win games for us (I’ll say it again: our failure in the playoffs stems from an inability to come from behind, not goaltending (See point #3)). But with better scoring depth, Allen can save us in those tight 2-1 kind of games, where one save on a breakaway is the razor-thin line between victory and defeat.
For the last month, I’ve seen Allen pull saves that would bring a tear to Houdini’s eye. Sure, we lost to Chicago when they invaded Scottrade, but the save Allen made on Marko Dano nearly gave me a heart attack. (Just ask my girlfriend. She thought I was choking on a hot wing. (I was, partially.)) Gumby couldn’t have reached that far out. Absurd. Ridiculous. Routine for Jake Allen.
And his puck handling…Jake Allen is effectively a third defenseman on the ice when pressing offensively, especially on the man advantage, which can lead to great scoring chances. Then, factor in his aggressive play…that Hasek-esque poke check he pulled in the waning seconds of the third period of a tie game against Buffalo last week was just reckless enough to work, and thank god it did (Another moment in which I nearly died while watching a Blues game. The offender: an inhaled Pringle).
Jake’s confident, young and trained under Martin Brodeur. I hope he sticks around long enough. I’d like to see how thick his playoff beard can get.
- Gumption
We may be ravaged by injuries and flying by the seat of our pants, but these boys in blue have some serious chutzpah this year. We are only a quarter of the way through the season, but the St. Louis Blues have already come back from behind in the third period five times. In fact, the last three games have each gone to extra time due to a Blues third period comeback.
Against the Red Wings and the odds, Tarasenko electrified the crowd with serious puck wizardry with less than three minutes left to tie the game at three. Sure, the Wings won in the overtime, but getting that vital point from an Eastern Conference matchup was sweet.
In Buffalo, Brouwer broke a six game pointless streak to tie it, and then a wrist shot ricocheted like a bouncy ball off of Fabbri, Ullmark and into the back of the net. The Blues had looked off all night, but a few good bounces assisted by a friendly post (or four) sealed the game.
And sure, we lost last night to the Penguins, who must have read my article and saw fit to make me look bad. Yet, if it wasn’t for Pietrangelo using his otherworldly puck handling skills to force the offensive play and somehow shoot a puck through Marc-Andre Fleury, we wouldn’t even have made it to OT.
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Panger often said that ex-Blue Vladimir Sobotka had gumption, some sort of plucky determination. The Blues have always had some form of this grit. The Blues have been the working-class-blue-collar grinders of the Midwest for nearly fifty years now.
Yet the last few years, especially in the playoffs, we become shrinking violets when behind. Other than the first two games of the Blackhawks series in 2014, I don’t think the Blues won a single game while trailing in the playoffs since 2012. I’m not trying to ruin Thanksgiving here, but something in this team’s chemistry has to change to create the winning attitude we need.
Case in point: The Hawks were down 3-0 after one period in game one of the playoffs last year, and they come back and won a cup. We need that mentality. No, that won’t make us anything like the Blackhawks (thank god). We need gumption, and we’re starting to build it. That determination and never-say-die attitude that Panger calls gumption is finally start to meld with skill, and the results speak for themselves.
- Tom Stillmann
Finally, I think a big thank you is due to Tom Stillmann, the current owner of the Blues. Stillmann loves hockey, and his commitment to this team is something to be admired. Signing Pietrangelo, Stastny and Tarasenko in a competitive salary-cap era shows that his group is willing to open their deep pockets to keep this team competitive.
It could be so, so bad. Not too long ago, no one wanted to come to St. Louis. We were a hockey backwater. Hell, the team nearly stopped existing in the 1980’s, and it took Purina (yes, the dog food company) stepping up to keep the team in town.
Even in recent years, where faith is hard to come by here in St. Louis, Tom Stillmann and co. have stood by our beloved team, giving us a fighting chance. Due to the goodwill of the St. Louis Hockey ownership group, the Note flies proudly in St. Louis, and for that I am very thankful.