St. Louis Blues: The Eleventh Day Of Bluesmas

The St. Louis Blues have been extremely fortunate to have some Hall of Fame players don the blue note. They’re hoping that they have a current one on their roster. No matter the skill, they are all compared to one player.

On the eleventh day of Bluesmas, the blue note gave to me, eleven Brett Hulls scoring. Yes, the Blues had (or only had, depending on your view point) one of the greatest scorers of all time for eleven years.

Brett Hull came from an interesting background before he arrived with the Blues. He is the son of former Chicago Blackhawk legend, Bobby Hull.

Born in Canada, he spent a good deal of his childhood in Illinois while Bobby was playing for the Blackhawks. He was able to move back to Canada when the elder Hull played for the Winnipeg Jets of the WHA.

Brett Hull was never one to shy away from controversy. Despite being of Canadian roots and having several Canadian friends playing the game, Hull decided to use his American citizenship to play for the United States hockey team.

It ended up being a great decision for him and for fans of USA Hockey. Hull, along with Mike Richter, was a big reason the USA won the 1996 World Cup of Hockey, knocking off a powerhouse Canadian team in three games. That team boasted names like Gretzky, Lemiuex, Lindros and many more.

Things weren’t always glowing for Hull though. He got passed over quite a bit even though he had a famous name.

Hull was perceived as “pudgy” and fun loving and could gain no recognition in junior hockey. He decided to go to college and got some scouting done while he was at the University of Minnesota-Duluth.

The Calgary Flames drafted him and in his second season he scored 26 goals. The Flames were quick to trade him though.

Calgary was in the hunt for a Stanley Cup championship. They felt they needed defensive and goaltending depth. So, they dealt Hull for Rick Wamsley, Rob Ramage and Steve Bozak.

The trade worked out fantastically for all involved. Calgary did win the Cup and the Blues got 11 of the most entertaining years they’ve ever had.

No, St. Louis never got their own title parade with the Golden Brett leading it through downtown. Even so, he provided a litmus test for all future scorers to live up to.

We look back on Pavol Demitra now with fondness. That might be aided by his untimely passing, but at the time he did not measure up.

Demitra played too closely to Hull’s time. So, he dealt with the brunt of the comparisons and was chastised for not being the same player.

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The same was true for guys like Scott Young, Keith Tkachuk and even Vladimir Tarasenko. No matter their skill or game style, they always get compared with Hull.

It’s no wonder really. Outside of the Great One and Super Mario, the NHL has rarely seen scorers like Hull.

He once said he was fine scoring 32 and 41 goals in his first two full seasons. Some choice words from Brian Sutter challenged him and he stepped up to it.

Not counting lockout years, Hull only scored fewer than that original 41 goals once. Even in that year – his final in St. Louis – he had 72 points.

The sad part about Hull’s tenure here was the ending. Instead of smoothing over the frayed edges, his relationship with the team fell apart and he left as a free agent.

It worked out for him of course. He won Stanley Cups in Dallas and Detroit. For Blues fans that lived through that, it was a kick to the gut.

To see our greatest player ever go elsewhere and win just rubbed the nerves the wrong way. We were happy for him, but winning with our rivals was just wrong.

You could trace it back to the Mike Keenan days. Though Hull outlasted Keenan with the franchise, as he should have, things began to crumble then.

Hull was constantly in the media chirping about something. It became tiresome to the point that, at the time, there were many who were not sorry to see him go.

Call it a lover’s quarrel or blame it on short sighted fans thinking his 27 goals meant he was done. The bottom line is people, myself included, were not completely heart broken he left.

Maybe we should have been. We have been searching for the next Brett Hull since then.

11 years was not enough. They were some of the best years the team has had, but you just wonder if Hull could have put that conference finals team over the hump.

We will never know. At least he is back in the fold now.

Next: The Tenth Day Of Bluesmas

The Blues retired his number. He is part of the organization’s front office. If the Blues ever manage to win, he will be one of the guys going down the parade route, as it should be.

We also have one final time to see him lace up the skates. It won’t be quite the same, but the Winter Classic Alumni game will give us one last time to see Hull unleash that shot.

11 years was not enough time. It was long enough though, especially since we’ve had to wait a lot longer than 11 years for the next great scorer.