St. Louis Blues Show What’s Wrong With Small Market Perception

The St. Louis Blues winning the Stanley Cup was a dream come true for Blues fans. For others, it was unacceptable that a team from the outside could win.

The St. Louis Blues winning the Stanley Cup was a dream come true for the entire city and fan base. Fans had waited their entire lives, or close to it, just to witness that moment.

Local businesses also felt the boom as well. All the cash spent on merchandise or food or drink helped those stores and restaurants and bars thrive.

However, we live in an age where haters gonna hate. There is always something to complain about and mostly it has to do with perception.

As of writing this, we are a little over two months removed from the Blues vanquishing the Boston Bruins to win their first ever Stanley Cup. Even after all that time, there are still people whining out there that the Blues were undeserving or lucky.

If you’re a Boston fan, you’re almost excused. You truly felt you had one of the best teams in the entire league, getting hot at the right time. If nothing else, Boston has become so accustomed to winning after such a long time without any championships.

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However, even outside of Boston, there are a lot of salty people. A day or two, perhaps even a week after, it is understandable, but let it go.

The Blues were not lucky. They were a really good team that had a horrendous start to the 2018-19 season. There were some picking the Blues to go far in the playoffs before the year began, so why is a Stanley Cup so unimaginable?

They finished the year with 99 points. They went from the fewest points in the league on January 3 to the best team in the entire NHL. That should be celebrated, not denigrated.

Few nationally would have had a problem with the San Jose Sharks winning. They finished with 101 points. That is only one extra regulation win more than the Blues.

Boston only had four more regulation wins. Toronto had one more point. Defending champion Washington had three more wins and 104 points. Perennial contender Pittsburgh actually had one fewer win than St. Louis. So, where does this perception come from?

Sadly, it is something in all of us and covers all sports, not just hockey. There is something in our minds that struggles to grasp the idea of smaller markets being good.

We have becomes so accustomed to big markets winning or teams that bought all their stars. Teams drafting well and making shrewd moves does not sit right anymore.

Whether we like it or not, these are the facts of sports. A Superbowl of Cleveland and Carolina might be blockbuster on the field, but the eyeballs would not be there the way they would for a Los Angeles vs. New York game.

Of course, the Superbowl is the Superbowl and will draw no matter what. Go the the NBA and it gets even worse.

The NBA lived for years off Boston vs. L.A. in the 1980’s. Chicago, one of the biggest markets in the country, came along at the right time as well. Even so, the league probably wanted the Bulls to be playing the Lakers or Houston every year instead of smaller markets like Salt Lake City (Utah Jazz).

Baseball is just as bad. If anyone but the Yankees or Red Sox or Dodgers win, it just does not sit well with the nation.

The Cardinals are acceptable just because they’ve done it so much. Heaven help the baseball world if Baltimore or Tampa or Arizona won. Sure Kansas City was a good story, like the Blues, but outside of that market, people did the same thing. Some how, just because of the city, a team did not deserve to win.

We are all guilty of that. I have done it and, most likely, so have you.

The difference is it used to be we just would not tune into the game. If it was a series with the Yankees against the Brewers, I would not care. If it was Denver against Milwaukee in the NBA Final, I probably would not even check out one game.

I would not say any of those teams were undeserving. There would be no protest from yours truly about how my team was robbed for this reason or that.

It is sports. There is a winner and a loser and just because your team lost does not mean you were still better than the team that won.

We need to get over our personal biases. Just because people in St. Louis think of the New England Patriots as cheaters does not take away the fact they have won six championships. Just because you might not enjoy a certain city or think it does not have enough nightlife or whatever does not make that city’s team undeserving of a championship.

There have been times in the NCAA tournament where my college team lost and you felt they had not played their best, so the team that won was not actually better. They were better on that day though and it’s a single-elimination tournament.

The NHL plays a seven game series. You don’t have to feel bad about your team’s effort and you can think they could have done certain things differently, but the Blues deserved every win they got.

They overcame a terrible non-call in the San Jose series. They outlasted a heck of a tough team in Dallas and outmuscled and outdueled a heavy favorite in Winnipeg.

If Boston fans want to hang their hat on the fact that all their wins were pretty much blowouts, so be it. That does not automatically mean you were the better team. It meant you had a better offense.

The Blues were never built as a pure offensive team. They had enough scoring to outdo their opponent as long as they played solid defense to start with. They were never going to win games that had eight goals or more.

They were still the better team. Perhaps the Blues do not have the high-end talent or the marquee superstars of other teams, but they have a better team in the dictionary sense of the word.

They had 20-plus players all playing for one goal. For a period of a few months, they had an entire group not worried about their own scoring or contracts or anything personal. It was all about the team. Thus, they ended as the best team in the league.

If you do not believe they will win in 2019-20, that is your opinion. That changes nothing about 2018-19. They are completely separate issues.

The Blues were the best team in 2018-19 because they won the Stanley Cup. They were not lucky.

They had to play four of the best teams in the league and they beat all four. The size of the city or whether you want to watch this particular hockey team does not change that.