St. Louis Blues: Winning Breeds Hate Across The League

The St. Louis Blues are normally seen apathetically across the league. Winning the biggest prize has renewed some old rivalries.

As much as we love the St. Louis Blues, the truth is our team is often an afterthought around the country. Fans in Pittsburgh or Las Vegas or Florida don’t really give the Blues a second thought, unless they are playing them that night or in a playoff series.

Don’t act surprised at that. It happens to all teams.

As Blues fans, if they are not playing Edmonton or Carolina or Arizona that night, do we really care much about those teams? Sure, some might pay attention to the Oilers because of Connor McDavid and company, but not other than that.

Even rivalries fade if teams are not doing well. When the Chicago Blackhawks were pretty bad in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, most Blues fans put them in the past.

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Our rivalry was all about Detroit and all the scum on that team that could not be beaten. Chicago lost its luster.

The same was true in reverse when the Blues were rebuilding in the late 2000’s. Chicago looked elsewhere for rivals since the Blues were not on their level.

Winning breeds rivalry, though. Winning breeds hatred.

When your team is winning, you think the world should love every player on that squad. When another team is winning, you hate them for their very existence.

I’ve been on both sides of this. When the Chicago Bulls were a dynasty, I could not figure out why anyone would hate the greatest player in the game.

Conversely, because the San Francisco 49ers and New England Patriots refused to ever lose, I couldn’t stand them. They needed to be broken up.

Sometimes it happens quicker than the time it takes to form a dynasty. Sometimes bad blood has been there, but forgotten.

The Philadelphia Flyers have not been a true rival of the Blues since the 1970’s. However, wounds are not always forgotten and now that the Blues have won a Stanley Cup, some Philly fans are hating on our boys in blue.

There is reason behind this too, as pointed out in the linked article above. Even Blues fans might not remember that their season was turned around in Philadelphia.

Jordan Binnington pretty much came out of nowhere, even for Blues fans. Blues fans have had plenty of goaltenders come from obscurity against them, so the Flyers had to deal with it on January 7, 2019.

Binnington shutout the Flyers in his NHL debut. Like Blues fans don’t believe some of the no-name goalies that have bested them will amount to much, so Flyers fans think about Binnington.

"I also have a personal bone to pick about Binnington, because I watched him looking very average in the AHL with my own two eyes, and part of me does not want to admit that he’s actually That Good, and not just a fine goalie benefitting from a team playing a tight defensive system in front of him. I refuse to be wrong. – Madeline Campbell, Broadstreet Hockey"

It is also of significance that the entire Gloria phenomenon was started in Philadelphia. In a bar called Jack’s NYB, a few players heard the DJ continually getting requests to “Play Gloria” and it went on to local history from there. No doubt that bar got a few heated glances from Flyers fans after the fact.

Then there is the fleecing of the Flyers for Brayden Schenn. Ok, as time goes on, we won’t be able to call this a fleecing because Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee look like they’ll be solid/good NHL players.

However, in the short term, there is little doubt the Blues won that deal. Flyers fans tried to play it off like Schenn was just a power play guy and then he proceeded to have a 70 point season in St. Louis. Oh, and we will take the Stanley Cup over any amount of prospects the team in orange might have.

The truth is that hate might be a strong word. Perhaps it is applicable to Flyers fans, since they even hate Santa Claus, but still.

It’s just fun to poke back and forth and remember the rough and tumble days when the Blues actually forced the Flyers into becoming the Broadstreet Bullies. Since those days, there haven’t been many reasons to dislike the other team unless you lived through those times.

Next. Parayko won't win Norris, but not for lack of talent. dark

But, winning breeds hatred. So, as long as the Blues are near or at the top, there will be plenty of other fans ready to spit hate our way.

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