St. Louis Blues fans will always remember the hometown hero. However, that moment was almost an inch away from celebrating a different player.
A year ago, St. Louis Blues fans were celebrating Pat Maroon being a hometown hero. The Big Rig had not yet coined that exact term for himself, that would come about a month later, but that’s what he was after he scored a double-overtime, Game 7 goal against the Dallas Stars.
However, as human beings often do, we forget the others involved in those kinds of plays. In football, we remember the big catch, but perhaps not the block that was absolutely necessary to clear the way.
In basketball, we remember the shot, but perhaps not the pass that set it up or the screen that got that player open. For baseball, we remember the pitcher throwing the strike or the homerun, but maybe not the catcher calling the pitch or the double that put a man on second before the homerun.
That’s just how our brains are often wired. We remember the big details, not the small ones.
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Robert Thomas is no small detail though. We simply cannot forget his involvement in that play, if for no other reason than he almost scored himself and kept the moniker of hometown hero off of Maroon.
Tyler Bozak did his part by winning the faceoff. Without that, the entire play never happens.
From there, the puck comes toward Maroon. Big Rig doesn’t win it cleanly, but he gets enough of John Klingberg‘s stick to keep the puck in the circle.
From there, it is all Thomas. Thomas takes the puck to the wall drawing Klingberg away from Maroon.
The other defenders peel off to guard their own men. This opens up space right around the faceoff dot.
One quick stickhandle by Thomas brings the puck past the dot and into prime scoring position. Thomas then beats Ben Bishop over the left shoulder for what could have been the game-winning goal for the rookie.
One inch lower and Thomas might have been the hero instead of Maroon. One could argue that one inch lower might have nicked off Bishop’s shoulder, but we’ll never truly know how tight that angle was.
Thomas will continue to have a good career with the Blues. He is too talented to not live up to his potential and there is still room for growth for the young forward.
However, one can’t help but wonder how much of a legend he might have become if that was his goal instead of Maroon’s. It was all right there for him and just missed.
He went down to one knee like former Blues great Brett Hull. He showed all the skill necessary by avoiding Klingberg’s stick, peeling off the wall and beating the goaltender cleanly.
Fate just had other ideas. It was meant to be that the St. Louis kid would be the one to send his childhood team to the conference final with a tap-in off the rebound.
Now, even though he only suited up for the Blues for one season, Maroon will be the one we remember. He was in the right place at the right time.
Thomas did a lot of great work to set that goal up. Just like the guy that passed the ball to Michael Jordan for the shot that won North Carolina the National Championship or who was on base when Albert Pujols smacked a gigantic homerun against the Houston Astros, Thomas’ play will likely get lost in the shuffle of history.