St. Louis Blues: Why Washington Winning Is Good For The Blues
The St. Louis Blues have been waiting 50 years for that elusive Stanley Cup. While they keep waiting, the most recent champion should give Blues fans hope.
The St. Louis Blues are in that category of always a bridesmaid, never a bride. It has been that way for 50 years. Whether you’ve been there for all 50 or just a couple, we all hope it’s not another 50 before the streak comes to an end.
As Blues fans, we will keep waiting because that’s what we do. There are fans out there that pretend to give up. They convince themselves they won’t put up with the heartbreak. It’s all nonsense because so few ever actually follow through.
One day our sorrows will end. The fact that the Washington Capitals are 2017-18 Stanley Cup champions gives us reason to think the end is not so far off.
The Capitals have been just as cursed as the Blues, perhaps just not for as long. They’ve had similar issues as well.
The Capitals have struggled getting by certain teams in the playoffs, just as St. Louis has. They’ve had problems with their best player coming up in crunch time, just as the Blues have.
The Capitals have goalie issues. That’s the ever present issue for St. Louis, no matter what era you think of, with the exception of those early years.
Getting Over The Opponent Hump
The biggest reason fans were hoping that 2015-16 was the Blues year was the fact that St. Louis knocked off the Chicago Blackhawks. Chicago had long stood in the way of Blues championship pursuits and beating them seemed like the first step.
Perhaps doing it in the first round was too early. The Capitals had playoff ghosts of their own.
Whether you’re talking about the early days of the franchise or the 90’s teams or even today’s squad, the Pittsburgh Penguins always seemed to have the Caps’ number.
Making matters worse for Washington, Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby got drafted close enough for them to always draw comparisons. That added even more fuel to an already heated fire.
It seemed like destiny for Washington to win once they beat the Penguins. Things were not easy against Tampa, but when people look back on this championship, they’ll almost forget about the Lightning. Fans will remember beating Pittsburgh and then winning the final.
Who knows if Chicago will bounce back or if their cap issues will push them toward the back of the pack. Regardless, St. Louis has other rivals. Perhaps Nashville is now the hurdle St. Louis will need to jump over. Regardless, we have now seen that demons can be exercised.
Getting Past A Certain Round
Like the opponent hurdle, the Blues have had similar issues to the Caps in getting deep into the playoffs. Again, it seemed like 2015-16 was the year since the Blues got to the conference finals.
Still, learning from Washington’s perseverance is key. Ovechkin had never gotten past the second round. Once he and his teammates finally did, they were not going to be denied.
The Blues could have had that result, but they took too many games and too much energy in that previous season. If they learn from the Caps and their history, it can be done.
You need a lot of luck along the way. It can be done in St. Louis though.
A Star Coming Through
Sadly, I’m at that age where athletes no longer seem old. Ovechkin is only 32 and still flying along.
That said, his playing days are fewer in front than behind. Many were wondering if he would ever get the chance to hoist the Cup with so many disappointments behind him,
It was never for lack of trying. He was always trying to score, but he was often gripping the stick too tightly as they say.
Ovi had 21 points in his second ever playoffs, but it was downhill from there with 10 being his high prior to this year.
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Suddenly, he had enough. He grabbed his team, told them to follow his lead and he came through. Ovechkin ended this year’s playoffs with 15 goals and 27 points. Coming off a playoffs with eight points in 2017, that is a huge turnaround.
The Blues are hoping for similar from Vladimir Tarasenko. Despite both being Russian, the players are incredibly different. Even so, the talent is in Tarasenko. He just has to bring it out.
We have seen it come out of him before. In 2016, he had nine goals and 15 points. Like the team around him, it dried up against San Jose.
Like Ovechkin, he has to find a way to get it done anyway. Superstars come up big when the lights are brightest and the Blues need that from Tarasenko to win it all. Seeing Ovechkin do it this playoffs gives us hope that even stars that were given up on in crunch time can turn it around and get it done.
It was not just Ovechkin for the Caps and it can’t be just Tarasenko for the Blues. You need all your best players clicking at the right time. When your best player leads by example, though, it has a lifting affect on everyone.
The Goaltending Problem
The backup goaltender started the playoffs. When a switch was made, the beleaguered netminder was leaking goals like water through a strainer.
No, that’s not the Blues story the past few years, though it does seem like it. That is what happened with the 2018 Capitals.
Braden Holtby was not in net when the playoffs began. The Caps fell down 2-0 to Columbus and the switch was made. Holtby helped the Capitals win that first round, but it was not pretty.
In those first two rounds, Holtby was letting in soft goal after soft goal. It seemed impossible for the Capitals to get past the second round with a goaltender like that. Fans wanted him gone.
Thankfully fans are not in charge. Holtby rebounded and was a huge reason the Capitals won the last two rounds. He outdueled his counterpart in Tampa and even the shadow of Marc Andre-Fleury was not enough to outdo Holtby’s acrobatics in the final.
The Caps had a lot of offense and some good defense, but Holtby was a gigantic reason they won. Replace Holtby’s name with Jake Allen and you have all the same things going on except the Cup win.
As you can see, with the exception of Holtby’s insanely low goals against in his rookie year, the two goaltender’s numbers are fairly similar.
There are some ups and downs and bumps in the road, but there is not a big difference.
The playoff numbers are slightly farther apart, but that is only because Holtby has a larger sample size. Allen has only featured in three playoffs and one he was the backup. That was his only statistical anomaly and the Snake has put up fair-to-good postseason numbers overall.
The fact that someone similar to Allen can win a championship gives the Blues hope. Fans can sit there and whine about needing this guy and that, but all fans everywhere complain about their goalies.
Pittsburgh fans wanted Fleury out. Hockey fans and goalies is the equivalent to baseball fans and a manager’s handling of the bullpen. It’s always being done wrong in the fans’ eyes.
Allen can win and given the right team in front will win. Holtby is not a carbon copy, but they’ve both had the same struggles. Holtby overcoming the talk and the doubters shows that the Snake can do it too.
Overview
There are differences between these Capitals and the Blues for sure. The Capitals, viewed from the outside, are deeper than the Blues and one could argue more talented at the top.
There are a lot of similarities though. I’m not talking about having ex-Blues on the team either. I saw a lot of talk about two more ex-Blues winning, but that was going to happen even if Vegas won. Also, T.J. Oshie and Lars Eller have distanced themselves from St. Louis enough for the connection to not be as bad as someone like Brett Hull.
The connections are there and it shows why you should hope every year. This was not the Capitals team that was supposed to win.
They were not the best in the league. They were not getting the goaltending and not enough supplemental moves were made at the deadline (all fan complaints in every city, but particularly in St. Louis). It did not matter and the team won it all.
They won because their goaltender shrugged off all the noise and got it done. They won because their best player stood up and led the team, both statistically and emotionally.
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Those are things we have yet to see happen at the correct times with the Blues. That does not mean it can’t happen or won’t.
Maybe we’ll never see the parade down Market Street. Only fate and the powers that be can know. This year’s final result gives me hope that it can happen and it does not require blowing anything up to happen.