St. Louis Blues Tage Thompson Earns Braggin' Rights

The St. Louis Blues players are done at the 2018 IIHF World Championships. While the medal coming back is not the one wanted, one of the team’s youngest has the most bragging rights.

When the St. Louis Blues announced Tage Thompson was going to be part of Team USA at the 2018 IIHF World Championships, it seemed like a great idea. A young player having a chance to keep his legs loose and get some extra experience is rarely a bad thing.

The reality was something of a mixed bag for Thompson. He opened the tournament strong, but things went downhill a bit from there.

Thompson opened the tournament with an assist in the very first game. Clearly he knows how to raise his game against Team Canada. His first point came against the Canadians, which is no surprise since he has experience against Canada in big games from the World Junior Championships.

However, it was those in-between games that did not hit the high notes for Thompson. Thompson played over seven minutes in that opening game. He was lucky to get around two minutes per game after that.

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Sadly, the final game of the tournament was another slap to the face of sorts. Thompson played a total of 44 seconds, all of which came in one shift in the first period.

Thomspon is young and has plenty of years to get these international experiences. Still, it is disappointing that coach Jeff Blashill saw fit to play him so little.

However, Thompson has some memories and definitely has bragging rights heading into 20181-19 with the Blues. Not only did he win the bronze medal, but he knocked off the largest number of Blues by doing it.

Team Canada entered the tournament with four Blues on their roster. They ended the tournament with three, after Jaden Schwartz picked up an injury.

Even without Schwartz, they were loaded. Brayden Schenn, Connor McDavid, Colton Parayko, Ryan O’Reilly, Aaron Ekblad and more were all on this team.

Despite all that talent, they underperformed. They got upset by Team Switzerland in the semifinal and also lost to a seemingly undermanned USA twice.

Thompson, of course, did not figure into the scoring in the bronze medal game. Nevertheless, it was a rather easy win for the Americans.

Both teams scored in the second period, with Team USA getting the first goal. Then it was all red, white and blue in the third with three unanswered goals coming.

The only negative for this game was the Blues players not getting any glory. Schenn, Parayko and Joel Edmundson all had solid tournaments, but Schenn and Parayko finished with minus-1 plus/minus in this game.

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Ultimately, these tournaments are basically of little use other than bragging rights. So, with the Americans winning, Thompson will have a little extra ammunition to use in the locker room next season.

Some of his teammates might point out his lack of playing time, but that doesn’t matter. To the victor go the spoils.

Thompson finished the tournament with a goal and three points. You can check out the other final stats of the Blues players here.

Sweden ended up winning the entire tournament. They took down Switzerland in a shootout, with the final score of 3-2.

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St. Louis Blues Tage Thompson Earns Braggin’ Rights

By Todd Panula | May 20, 2018

The St. Louis Blues players are done at the 2018 IIHF World Championships. While the medal coming back is not the one wanted, one of the team’s youngest has the most bragging rights.