The St. Louis Blues ended a tremendous season by bringing Lord Stanley’s Cup to the Gateway City. As countless media outlets noted, over six months the Blues went from last place to first in the National Hockey League.
Let’s look at a few lessons from the guys on Clark Street…
“Over, did you say over? Nothing is over until we decide its over…Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?
https://speakola.com/movie/john-belushi-animal-house-blutos-big-speech-1978
Avoid the temptation to give-up early. Sitting in last place back in January, the Blues – like most teams – could have settled for just playing out the schedule. They pressed on, using an 11 game winning streak to push themselves back into contention.
Trent Green Syndrome
Remember when the St. Louis Rams’ star quarterback went down in pre-season, replaced by a former grocery clerk from Iowa?
Jordan Binnington, an untested young goalie, stepped-in when Jake Allen hit a rough spot. Allen’s career includes better than three wins for every two losses and almost 15,000 minutes of ice time. The Blues with Allen could be competitive. With Binnington they dominated. Unexpected change spurred the team to success.
Interims can be magic.
Craig Berube took over a team in free fall. As an interim head coach, getting the Blues back to mediocrity was probably what most expected. Yet, he proved capable of motivating a bench full of underachievers and matching other coaches’ chess moves on the ice.
Immigrants make great workers.
Aside from the big guy from Oakville High School, the St. Louis Blues included no native born St. Louisans. The Stanley Cup roster included a bunch of Canadians, a couple of Swedes and Russians, and, well a guy from Salem, Massachusetts. [ https://www.hockey-reference.com/teams/STL/2019.html ]
If the Blues had been limited to United States born players the cup wouldn’t have come to St. Louis. Immigrants made the Blues winners.
And, one great performance offsets decades of frustration.
Chicago Cubs? They went better than a century between World Series wins. [ http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/chc/history/postseason_results.jsp ] Every Wrigley Field veteran knew about the curse. I remember a classic Mike Royko column from 1984, the year the Cubs went down three games to two to the San Diego Padres. In it, Royko and a friend lament how hard it is the for the youngsters, the fans who dared dream of success. It was up to veterans of failed decades of Cubs baseball to help the kids get through yet another, inevitable disappointment.
Now Cubs fans plan for the playoffs.
By the Cubs’ standard, a 52 year championship drought was a yawn. The Blues have won and now we know they are capable of bringing the cup back to St. Louis again. Life is good (and, next year Blues tickets will probably cost more).
LGB
Glenn