St. Louis Blues Have And Continue To Prove Toronto Not NHL's Best

The St. Louis Blues won the 2019 Stanley Cup. However, there are some in larger markets that still think championships are won on paper.

Those of us in St. Louis know full well that the St. Louis Blues are the defending Stanley Cup champions. However, though nobody will ever take that away, it does still feel like the Blues are an afterthought.

Despite returning 99% of the roster that won a championship, there were some on NHL Network (and other places) that picked the Blues to finish low in the standings. Mike Rupp even picked the Blues to finish outside of the playoff picture.

That’s fine. The Blues have made a habit of proving people wrong.

So, how does any of this have to do with the Toronto Maple Leafs? Well, one of our colleagues at Editor In Leaf seems to think the Leafs have the best roster and will be the NHL’s best team.

Now, in his defense, James Tanner does not explicitly say the Leafs are going to win the Stanley Cup. Even so, stating a team will be the NHL’s best is heavily implying that would happen at the end of the year.

Maybe that could happen. The Blues, interestingly, are the case study.

More from Editorials

St. Louis got off to a slow start, turned things around with a coaching change and went on a run for the ages. Maybe it is Toronto’s turn to end a 50-plus year drought.

That’s not the argument, at least for me. We don’t and can’t know the answer to whether they win until they make the playoffs and do it.

The issue I have is boldly claiming to have the best roster and the best team when your squad is 10 points back of the NHL’s best. It is fine to think you have a quality team that should be better, but to flat-out say they’re the best is a step too far.

My problem with this idea is that it boils down pro sports to names on paper and numbers on a stat sheet. While there is more nuance to Tanner’s argument, stripped down, it seems like the argument is based on names alone. All-Star teams have plenty of big names and I will take an actual team, complete with role players, over the fanciest names in the league.

One comment that is especially puzzling is one regarding results. Apparently wins don’t mean that much?

"Fans and analysts have an extremely difficult time analyzing the game beyond the results and that’s understandable – it’s human nature. But results are random, and 32 games into a season results are a less reliable predictor of future performance than roster strength. – James Tanner, Editor in Leaf"

As Blues fans, we can’t argue the part about 32 games into the season. The Blues were well into January before we really started seeing what kind of team they were.

However, the part about results being random seems a stretch. Yes, goals and power play numbers are random. Not since the days of Brett Hull could you honestly expect anyone in the league to score almost on a nightly basis.

Still, wins tend to tell us a lot about a team. The Blues were not a good team at all at the beginning of 2018-19. To say they should have always been thought of as the best in the NHL would almost cheapen the fact they were not and turned it around.

The fact that Tanner says the Tampa Bay Lightning are also one of the two best teams in the league also cheapens his argument. Like the Leafs, the Lightning do have a heck of a roster compiled. That same roster also flamed out spectacularly in the first round of the 2019 playoffs.

Just because something is shiny does not mean it is gold. Just because Tampa or Toronto have flashy names does not automatically mean they will win.

It is somewhat the same in baseball and what I dislike about east coast thinking. New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox fans seem to believe they should win every year just because you spend the most money.

That definitely helps, but it does not make you a champion. You have to go out and prove it.

You cannot sit there and argue that injuries have derailed Toronto’s ascension to the throne. The Blues are missing their top scorer and have had more injuries than anyone cares to count, to key players too.

Those players don’t have the league-wide cache as some of Toronto’s, but the Blues have had to replace almost half their lineup. Yet they actually are the best team in the NHL (tied) through 36 games.

The amusing thing is the Blues prove part of Tanner’s point, but also disprove it too. The fact the Blues came from such a poor start and won means Toronto can do it too.

On the flip side, St. Louis has had plenty of teams with bigger names than the one that won the Cup. The difference is the team that won was a total unit, from the biggest name to the guys that played five minutes. You can’t measure that based solely on how a roster looks.

Next. Current All-Star Format Won't Benefit Blues. dark

I could also dispute the claim that Jake Muzzin is a number-one defenseman or Frederik Andersen is the best goalie in the world. Those are more debatable arguments for a later date.

The bottom line is games and championships are not won on paper. Thinking you have the best team just because you have high-profile names does not make it so.

Home/Editorials

St. Louis Blues Have And Continue To Prove Toronto Not NHL’s Best

By Todd Panula | Dec 21, 2019

The St. Louis Blues won the 2019 Stanley Cup. However, there are some in larger markets that still think championships are won on paper.