St. Louis Blues Story Plagiarized By Washington Nationals

The St. Louis Blues championship story seemed like it would a once in a lifetime story. Oddly enough, it was not even a once in a year story.

The St. Louis Blues had one of the most intriguing stories of all time with their first ever Stanley Cup championship. There were heartwarming elements, surprising elements and all the stuff any Hollywood writer or novelist would include in their script.

The amount of things that seemed made for a movie was almost beyond belief. All the stuff was right there.

You had a team with an unbelievable offseason. Doug Armstrong made deals like you read about, acquiring Ryan O’Reilly, Tyler Bozak and reacquiring David Perron. This was one offseason after pulling off a big deal to bring in Brayden Schenn.

The excitement among fans was palpable. Many kept their emotions cool and calm, but it cannot be said there were not those out there with championship aspirations, regardless of what any other team did.

Then, reality set in during the first couple months of the season. This was not the right mix of players and coach.

You cannot fire all the players. So, the Blues removed their coach.

It did not have the immediate impact, so fans were starting to think about blowing the team up. Thank goodness fans are not in charge.

Once the team finally gelled and Craig Berube‘s style was adopted, the Blues went on one of the best runs we have ever seen. They spent a few days in the basement of the league and by the end of the regular season were actually in contention for a division crown.

We all know what happened from then on. Toss in the tear-jerking, heartwarming tale of Laila Anderson and it was all written by the stars in the sky.

Fast-forward a few months and the Blues might have a case for copyright infringement or maybe even plagiarism against the Washington Nationals. They stole our story, dang it.

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The Nationals might not have copied it word for word, but the beats are all there.

The Nationals did not end up firing their manager. Everyone expected them to.

Much like Berube shortly after he took over, there was a lot of talk that maybe Dave Martinez was in over his head. Just like Blues fans were salivating about Joel Quenneville being available, Nationals fans were looking at Joe Girardi or maybe hoping Joe Maddon would be available in the offseason. Nobody thought Martinez would turn anything around.

Just like the Blues fans wanted the team blown up, Nationals fans were wanting to start over. I will never understand this foolish idea that you can blow up a team and be satisfied with the resulting many years of garbage you will get after that. Only in the NFL can you turn around a team overnight and even then it rarely leads to an automatic Super Bowl.

Now, like Blues fans, Nationals fans are praising their general manager for patience. They are heaping praise on him for letting Bryce Harper go and spending the money more wisely, just months after wanting his head on a pike.

There are other subtle similarities too. Stephen Strasburg is kind of like Alex Pietrangelo. Both came in with boatloads of potential and hype within the fan base. Both suffered through a lot of adversity in that same fan base and many in that group had written them both off. Both were big reasons why their team won the championships.

You could draw a comparison to Robert Thomas and Juan Soto. That’s a bit more of a stretch since Thomas was a true rookie and Soto came in 2018. Nevertheless, they are both highly talented and many expect them to lead their franchises in the future. Both heavily contributed to team success.

You have the coaching situation, already mentioned. Both general managers were ready to be taken out of the city on a rail or tarred and feathered.

Neither franchise had really even come close to winning a championship prior to doing it. Yes, the Blues made the final a few times but they had never even won a game.

The path was eerily similar too. The pundits picked against the Blues and Nationals almost every time out.

St. Louis was never supposed to beat Winnipeg in the first round. When they did, it was a nice story, but Dallas would take them down. When St. Louis beat the Stars, the story was all about San Jose’s veterans having one more run. We all know how much NBC slurped Boston.

The Nationals were not as dogged on, but many thought they would lose to Milwaukee because the Brewers offense was so hot. There was no way they could beat the Dodgers because the Dodgers were meant to go to the World Series again – just look at all the money they had been spending. While it stings Cardinals fans, we should not lie and say we did not think we would beat Washington just because we had owned them in recent playoff runs. Even national pundits like Mike Wilbon fell into that trap.

Then, just like the Blues with the Bruins, nobody figured Houston could lose. The AL just has too much offensive talent and the pitching of Houston was just as good or better than Washington.

Well, the Nationals stuck it down everyone’s throat just like the Blues. They went out there, overcame all the adversity and became World Series champions.

They’ve got stories to tell now. Max Scherzer not being able to move and having his wife dress him and then going out in a Game 7 might not be as good as Carl Gunnarsson‘s urinal story, but it is something people in DC will remember.

Like the Blues, the Nationals were not getting the job done at home. It did not matter. Washington went out and won every single road game in the World Series, something never done in a series that went to a deciding game for both teams. The Blues shrugged off several tough home losses throughout the playoffs and won their first Stanley Cup on Boston ice.

At this point, Laila might be the only thing still standing out for the Blues.

So, I suggest a quickly filed and lengthy legal proceeding to rob the Nationals of some of their fanfare. People in DC are used to a scandal. Plagiarism is nothing to be laughed at, after all.

In all seriousness, the parallels between the paths of these two teams are quite interesting. No, things did not play out exactly the same at every step, but it is pretty darn close.

Washington was never in last place in the league, but they were well under .500. The Blues did not lose their star player in free agency, but both teams were still highly thought of and had underwhelming starts to the season.

Next. Blues power play could be better without Tarasenko. dark

Every team that wins a championship overcomes adversity. However, the mountains that the Blues and Nationals had to climb was steeper than most.

Perhaps it is sacrilegious to say in St. Louis, especially when said team knocked out the Cardinals. However, I congratulate the Nationals on their first ever World Series win. Blues fans know the feeling and even the most devout Cardinals fan should not want to deprive anyone of that.

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