Why St. Louis Blues Fans Should Not Root Against Vegas

The situations are different and yet the same. However, there has been so much time between when the Blues were new and now that fans forget.

When the Vegas Golden Knights clash against the Washington Capitals for the Stanley Cup, St. Louis Blues fans will be divided on who to support, if anyone. However, while you can choose to cheer for anyone, Blues fans should not root against Vegas.

Let me reiterate that. I’m not saying you need to be for Vegas. Anyone is more than welcome to want Washington to win. You are more than welcome to be hoping for Ryan Reaves to win a championship with the Golden Knights. There are plenty of reasons not to simply root against Vegas however.

The main reason people are simply against Vegas is because they are the new team. Some Blues fans feel it would be embarrassing for a brand new team to win before St. Louis does.

Newer teams have already won the Cup. While they were not first year clubs, there are several teams that came into the league with the Blues or after that won it all and the Blues have yet to. So, that is a reason but not a great one.

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The big reason not to root against Vegas is that they are the modern-day Blues. While I was not around during that time, I imagine there were plenty of blue-blood fans rooting against the Blues back in 1968.

The reasons would have been quite similar. Everyone would have said the deck was stacked in St. Louis’ favor, even though they were not the only expansion team to enter the league like Vegas has.

People say that the Blues just snapped up all the players that were great in their day but unwanted by their current teams – i.e. so many former Montreal Canadiens. St. Louis did not have to play all the tougher, original six teams. They got to go through all the expansion teams in the playoffs. So, the league could have been said to be biased toward giving the expansion teams a slot in the final.

Sounds pretty familiar right? Vegas’ expansion draft has been labeled rigged, after the fact, when nobody had any problem with most of it during the draft. This has gone the Knights’ way and that has been gifted to them, etc. and so on. Whether you believe any of that or not, it is an actual belief of some out there. Forget the fact that hockey is about the hardest sport to actually rig, but people love conspiracy theories.

Beyond the conspiracies, the teams themselves were/are similar. They were made of extremely talented castoffs.

The goaltenders were previous Cup winners that managed to carry teams to multiple championships and single-handedly guided their team through much adversity on the way to the final.

You can almost hear the fans in other cities saying the same things too. How can hockey work in the desert/St. Louis? If you’re not a mega-city or in Canada, it simply cannot work out according to some. The ’68 Blues and ’18 Golden Knights thought otherwise.

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Again, pick whichever team you want to win. There are former Blues on both sides, so there is nothing wrong with picking a side, if you choose.

However, the paths to the final are similar so being against Vegas for the sake of it is the same as those fans with their noses in the air back when the Blues made it.

Be mad at the league. Be mad at the Blues for not making the playoffs this season. We can’t be mad at Vegas because they’ve just gone out and gotten it done, just as the Blues did in their first season.

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