Twenty years ago the St. Louis Blues finished the regular season as the best team in the NHL. Arguably, at the time, the best team in franchise history.
It is time for this team to be recognized for the great team they were. They won the Presidents Trophy with a 51-19-11-1 record and 114 points. The most points in franchise history.
This Blues team should not be remembered for the team that lost in seven games in the first round to the number eight seeded San Jose Sharks. The Sharks finished with a 35-30-10-7 record and 87 points.
Although the 1999-00 Blues had two future Hall of Famers that anchored the defense, Chris Pronger and Al MacInnis, the team did not have a true superstar. The roster was made up of well-balanced and well-traveled players.
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The Blues top six defensemen that season was Pronger, MacInnis, Marc Bergevin, Jeff Finley, Todd Reirden, Dave Ellett, and Ricard Persson.
That season Pronger won the Norris Trophy, Hart Trophy, and led the league in plus/minus.
The bottom four defensemen were great defensive specialists, but they did not put fear into the opposing teams.
In goal, behind the defense was Roman Turek. Turek had a career year with 42 wins and a GAA of 1.94 in 67 games, good enough to win the William H Jennings trophy for lowest GAA. His back up that year was Jamie McLennan who finished with an almost identical 1.96 GAA in 19 games.
Upfront the Blues were led by the late Pavol Demitra. That season Demitra led the team with 28 goals and 75 points. He also won the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy for sportsmanship. Demitra only had eight penalty minutes in 71 games played.
Overall the Blues had four 20 goal scores; Demitra, Pierre Turgeon, Michal Handzus, and Scott Young. The fact that Handzus had 53 points and finished fourth in scoring ahead of Young and MacInnis, just shows how great of a defensive team this was.
The team only had two players that played in more than 40 games, that ended up with a negative +/- for the season.
The mastermind of this defensive juggernaut, coach Joel Quenneville, won the Jack Adams award for best coach. He also went on to win 307 games with the Blues, their career leader, and 890 wins overall second best all time.
As you can see, this team was a great team, as evident by all the hardware they won that year. They just didn’t win the one that counts, the Stanley Cup.
It’s hard as a fan to look back on this team and remember all the great accomplishments they had. As fans we usually remember a season for how it ended, whether you made the playoffs and if so how did you exit the playoffs.
Although the Blues exited the playoffs way too early, this team should be remembered as one of the greatest teams in franchise history. Not as a team that disappointed and failed.
Hopefully, this season, St. Louis management will not only recognize the 20-year anniversary of this team, but they will also honor them somehow throughout the upcoming season.