St Louis Blues

Hockey people are still in awe of the incredible run the Los Angeles Kings went on to win the Stanley Cup. Not only did they beat the No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3 seeds, but they also did it as the only No. 8 seed to ever win a Championship trophy. But the past is in the past. Now, it is time to look into the future.

The Kings ended a 44 season drought when they hoisted the Cup this season. It was tied with the longest current drought in the NHL with the St. Louis Blues and Toronto Maple Leafs.

With both of these teams having waited more than 44 years to touch Lord Stanley's Cup, which team will be the first to break this tie?

The Blues came into the NHL with the Expansion Six in 1967, the same expansion that welcomed the Los Angeles Kings. The Blues made it to the Stanley Cup Finals their first three seasons, and finished with a combined record of 0-12. That's right, the Blues were swept by the Montreal Canadiens twice, and by Bobby Orr's Boston Bruins once. Since the series against the Bruins, the Blues have not reached the Stanley Cup Finals.

The Toronto Maple Leafs were the last team to win the Stanley Cup in the Original Six Era, beating out the Montreal Canadiens. Since that series, they too have not sniffed the Finals. But possibly even worse than the Blues, they have not even reached the playoffs since the 2003-2004 season.

The Maple Leafs seemed like they were primed to end the postseason drought, but then the team trailed off and finished the season with only a flicker of light left in the tank. The Maple Leafs had a strong front of the season with Phil Kessel, Joffrey Lupul, and captain Dion Phaneuf lighting the lamp. Their goals per game and power play were in the top third of the NHL this past season. Their Achilles' heel was their defense. 

The Maple Leafs had a promising goaltending tandem in Jonas Gustavsson and James Reimer when the season started. But, it quickly came to light that it was only on paper that they looked good. By the end of the season, the Maple Leafs finished 29th in goals against per game, and were 28th on the penalty kill. Their five-on-five play wasn't much better, finishing 26th.

The Maple Leafs showed in December that they could be a playoff team when they were firing on all the right cylinders. However, the wheels came off coming down the stretch.

The exact opposite could be said for the Blues.

The Blues started out the season 6-7 and were headed to miss the playoffs once again. Out went David Payne, and in came Ken Hitchcock. Hitch turned the team around, and they became Central Division Champions and the second-best team in the Western Conference. 

The Blues did not rely heavily on their offense, as it finished 21st in the NHL, and their power play wasn't much better, finishing 19th. Their five-on-five play is where the Blues excelled, finishing second in the league only behind the Detroit Red Wings. Home grown players like captain David Backes, David Perron, T.J. Oshie, and Alex Pietrangelo were regulars on the score sheet for the Blues. But their true specialty was in their goaltending.

The Blues traded for Jaroslav Halak in the 2010 offseason, and his first season with the Blues was not his proudest. This past season rivaled what he did in the 2010 postseason for the Montreal Canadiens, thanks to the heat put on by rising star Brian Elliot. Together, he and Halak went on to win the William Jennings trophy, awarded to the best goaltending tandem in the NHL. Halak and Elliot combined for a 1.89 GAA and backstopping the seventh best penalty kill.

So which team will end their respective drought first? My pick is for the St. Louis Blues. They have the natural, home-grown talent that the city can connect with; they have the goaltenders needed for a deep playoff run, and are one top six forward away from being lethal offensively. Look for the St. Louis Blues to win the Stanley Cup in the next three years.  

When the St. Louis Blues dealt Erik Johnson and Jay McClement to the Colorado Avalanche in February of 2011 for Chris Stewart and Kevin Shattenkirk, Stewart was supposed to be a major goal scorer who could spark the Blues offense.

But, while Shattenkirk has been outstanding throughout his tenure as a Blue, Stewart has struggled to say the least.

Stewart exploded for the Blues to end the teams 2010-2011campaign, putting up 23 points in the final 26 games of the season. The young winger, now 24-years-old, appeared to be full of potential for St. Louis, and was considered to be a key piece for the Blues' future.

This year though was certainly not the star studded year that the Blues organization and their fans expected from Stewart. Stewart only had 15 goals and 15 assists this year for the Blues, and was a healthy scratch on more than one occasion this season.

When asked about scratching Stewart Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock simply said "We need more from him".

The Blues apparently still think that Stewart can be an elite goal scorer for them, because the club announced Thursday that they had inked Stewart to a one year contract extension worth $3 million.

The Blues biggest weakness this season was their inability to produce enough offense, and with Stewart being only 24 years of age, he still has time to mature and show that he can be a big time goal scorer in the NHL.

In my opinion, this was an outstanding move by the Blues. You have a young player in Chris Stewart with a ton of upside. He has had time now to adjust to coach Hitchcock for an entire season, and maybe now we will see more consistent and productive play out of him throughout an entire season.

By signing Stewart to a one year deal, the Blues do not tie themselves up financially either. If things do not work out with Stewart this year, then the club can go another direction after the season is over. If things do work out, then both sides can pursue a long term deal after the end of the 2013 season.

Overall, this move should be great for both sides; and hopefully we can see the flashes of brilliance that Stewart showed in this year's playoffs on a daily basis during the 2012-2013 season.

"Hey man, what are you doing tonight? Nothing? Hey, I have an extra ticket to tonight's Blues game... you want to go?"

It was a Friday night game (November 21, 2008) against the Anaheim Ducks, and my season ticket holding friend John wanted me to tag along to a game at the Scottrade Center. Quite honestly, the old saying of "I'd rather watch paint dry" couldn't have been any more accurate.

"Hockey is the most boring sport in the world. I'm not wasting my time, or my weekend, going to watch a sport that no one cares about," I responded in an attempt to blow him off.

It was the truth. I couldn't stand hockey, even though I never gave it much of a chance. It was a low scoring sport that had no entertainment value. It was essentially soccer on ice.

I am a hometown St. Louis guy who loves the city. Well, everything but the Blues. It's not that I hated the team or sport, I just felt that little game played inside the Scottrade Center didn't matter.

That's where everything was a blur. Somehow John poked and prodded me to go to that night's Blues game. Just an educated guess, but it's plausible he convinced me through the purchase of several nine dollar beers.

"This is ridiculous. Look at all these people in their oversized jerseys. Are the stands going to be even half full?" I asked.

"Sweaters," John said

"Huh?" I shot back, knowing it was some hockey purist term he was correcting me on.

"Err, they are called ...nevermind."

We walked into the Scottrade Center. I complained it was cold. He bought two Bud Light beers. I complained if he was going to pay more than $18 for beer than it should at least be at a Cardinals game. We sat in the seats near the ice. I complained that somehow the stadium was able to get more cold.

"You never complain this much. Just give it a chance, and I promise you'll have fun. Nothing beats actually being at a hockey game live," John said.

I rolled my eyes.

It was nearing game-time, and the clock continued counting down. All of the sudden, this organ started blaring catchy, almost beautiful music from its pipes and a horn loud enough to mirror a tornado siren went off.

The team skated onto the ice and began warming up to the roar of the half full crowd.

"Huh. That was pretty cool. Still not sold out though," I said in an attempt to hide that I could have been wrong about having fun.

The team went back to the locker room. I was confused. John and I got to talking before being interrupted again by the organ music and loud horn.

The cheering was deafening as the sold out crowd filled the stadium with boos as the Ducks took the ice, then on a dime, screamed in exhilaration as the Blues came on seconds later.

I hadn't noticed the Scottrade fill up. My first look at a sold out Scottrade Center filling the ice to the roof with cheers is an atmosphere I'll never forget.

It was impressive. In my biased hatred for hockey and the Blues, I realized I had never really given the sport a chance besides a few minutes every now and then during my channel surfing.

Charles Glenn came onto the ice and gave the most amazing rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner I've ever heard. The emotion of the players on the ice was electrifying. The crowd yelling "Blues" in replace of "Home of the brave" sent pleasant chills down my spine.

Chants of "Let's go Blues" filled the stadium as the referee dropped the puck. I couldn't help but join along.

I was becoming hooked, and the game hadn't even started.

John explained the ins-and-outs of the game to me when I was confused about icing and other penalties. I wasn't sure what was really going on besides the obvious, but I was enjoying it.

The back-and-forth game ended in a 3-2 win for the Blues.

It was suddenly I who couldn't stop talking about the Blues. My constant complaints had changed into praises, and they changed over just three periods.

Hockey really was an exciting sport, and I had missed out on it for 22 years because of ignorance.

To this day, I can't name more than 20 players in the NHL who aren't on the Blues' roster. I don't watch NHL games, but never miss the Note. The games have become as important as Cardinals games—my personal schedule is worked around them.

I am a casual hockey fan who loves the Blues.

Some of the lingo still mixes me up in confusion, but I'm learning it. I still get to every game early to see the team warm up so I can hear the mix of the organ, horn and cheers. Davis' national anthem is still the best I've ever heard, and the fans screaming "Blues" at the end of it still gives me pleasant chills.

Oh, and nothing can get me more pumped up than John Belushi's character in Animal House yelling in the third period movie montage.

I was wrong about the Blues, but they've become another one of my sports' obsessions, thanks to that very first game.

I'm not even sure why I decided to share this. Just a memory I recalled after running across my Blues playoff ticket from this past season. I've become dedicated.

My friend was right though.

Nothing beats going to a hockey game live.

According to Jeremy Rutherford of St. Louis Today, Vladimir Tarasenko, one of the top prospects in the world, has agreed to a three-year entry level contract with the St. Louis Blues and will be in North America next season.

The 20-year-old right winger put up 52 goals and 48 assists in 176 games in the past four seasons in the Kontinental Hockey League.

This season, he was an assistant captain for Sibir Novosibirsk, putting up 38 points in 39 games before being traded to SKA St. Petersberg, where he put up nine points in 15 regular season games and 16 points in 15 playoff games. He finished eighth in the KHL scoring race with 47 points.

The Russian also has extensive international experience, having captained Russian U-20 team to the 2010 World Hockey Junior championship, scoring 11 points in seven games. He also played for the Russian national team in the World Hockey Championship that year.

According to Rutherford, Tarasenko was offered a more lucrative contract by the KHL.

Tarasenko was left off Russia's World Championship roster, but he did have a lucrative offer to return to the KHL. It's not known how much he was offered to stay, but sources say the Russian offer dwarfs the maximum deal the Blues are able to provide under the current collective-bargaining agreement. The base salary for a 2010 draft pick is $900,000, but can be increased with some performance bonuses.  

The Blues drafted Tarasenko 16th overall in the 2010 NHL draft, after acquiring the pick from Ottawa in exchange for defenseman David Runblad.

Many people may not know who John Davidson is because he is not a player for the St. Louis Blues. He is the president of the team, and he may not be returning next season.

The Blues were sold on May 9, 2012 from David Checketts to Tom Stillman. In Davidson's contract he has a clause that says he can pursue other career opportunities if there is an exchange in ownership. May 9 triggered this clause. Despite his heavy contract hit, the Blues need to pay the man to stay in the organization.

Davidson was brought into the organization in December of 2005 when the Blues were in the basement of the NHL. Davidson wasted no time in improving the front office. Al MacInnis was promoted to vice president, Dave Taylor became involved with player personnel and when GM Larry Pleau had to step down to senior adviser, Davidson made his best hiring in Doug Armstrong for the GM position. 

If any one person should be credited with the rise of the Blues, it is Davidson. Davidson knew exactly who he needed in the GM positions to make the team homegrown and into contenders, even if it would take a few years. 

There are currently only three players, David Backes, Roman Polak and Barrett Jackman who were drafted before Davidson became president. Since then, there are six players that receive regular playing time (T.J. Oshie, Ryan Reaves, Patrik Berglund, Ian Cole, David Perron and Alex Pietrangelo) and many others currently in the NHL or ready to come up now.

Because of these drafted players the Blues rose from the basement of the NHL in 2005 to Central Division Champs and only two points away from the President's Trophy.  The team has gone from Scottrade looking as bare as a youth hockey rink to having standing room only crowds. When Davidson was hired the Blues were last in the hearts of the city. Now, they rival the Cardinals for passionate fans.

Davidson has taken the team from the ashes of the lockout and turned them into a Cup contending team. To let him walk away would be detrimental to the team. He put in all the hard work and has made the team great. Retaining Davidson could be the difference between a blip on the Cup's radar, or another 25 year playoff streak with the teams first Stanley Cup. 

In the past five years, the St. Louis Blues' worst season was the 2007-2008 campaign in which the team finished with a record of 33-36-13 for 79 points good for last place in the Central Division.

For those that remember the high-flying NHL of the 1980s, it seemed like any team with 81 points made the postseason (which partially accounted for how the Blues made 25 straight playoff appearances, a streak which began in 1980 and ended in 2004).

Gone are the figure-skating days where a scorer's 100-point season was barely a blip on the radar. Not when Wayne Gretzky eclipsed the 200-point plateau in 80 games with regularity. True enforcers roamed the ice and no one—I mean no one—messed with the other team's top skill guy. And in a broader context, a hockey team had to be truly atrocious to miss the playoffs.

In today's NHL (take this season for example), the 8th place team in the Western Conference, the Los Angeles Kings, earned 95 points. Last year, the Chicago Blackhawks also placed 8th even though they earned 97 points on the season. 

Every team that punches a ticket to the playoffs is there for a reason—they either have talent offensively, an All-Star caliber goalie, smothering defense, excellent special teams, or a combination of those strengths.

So when the Blues caught fire for nearly five months following the appointment of Ken Hitchcock (who replaced the overmatched Davis Payne) and finished with 109 points, expectations were reasonably high for the young, but maturing Blues. St. Louis earned its first Central Division title in 12 long years.

After handling the San Jose Sharks in Round 1, the Blues seemed to have a clear path to their first Stanley Cup appearance since the 1960s.

The flawed and aging Detroit Red Wings were ousted by the Nashville Predators. Phoenix knocked out the dangerous Chicago Blackhawks. And in Round 2, the Coyotes were in the process of dispatching the Preds.

Essentially every team in the Western Conference that gave the Blues fits during the regular season was headed for the golf course—if the Blues could just hold up their end of the bargain against the Kings. 

It was billed as a showdown of mirror-image teams—low-scoring, great goaltending, physical hard-checking forwards. But something seemed very wrong about this matchup. How could a team that included Anze Kopitar, Dustins Brown and Penner, Mike Richards and Drew Doughty end up scoring 16 fewer goals than the offensively-challenged Blues?

At the trade deadline, while the Blues stood pat, sitting in first place most of the year (but also handcuffed financially), the Kings were scrambling and addressed their low-scoring ways by picking up Jeff Carter from the Columbus Blue Jackets which re-united him with former fellow Flyer Richards.

As it turns out, all questions about the Kings (and the Blues) were answered in the playoffs. L.A. never clicked until it brought Carter aboard, who was like a missing piece in a "Where's Waldo" jigsaw puzzle. Apparently the Kings found Waldo just in time.

The Kings, a supremely talented team, had underachieved all year. The St. Louis Blues, by contrast, were finding success by playing a perfect team system brought in by Hitchcock. But that also meant the Blues were walking a fine line with little margin for error, lacking the offense to overcome many mistakes.

When the Kings dominated and eventually swept the wide-eyed Blues in four games, ignorant fans and critics were quick to call the Blues squad a 109-point fraud. When in reality, it was the meeting of two teams headed in opposite directions—both toward who they really were, talent-wise.

And as the Kings have gone up 3-0 in their series with the Phoenix Coyotes, it is all the more confirmation that there is no hotter team in the NHL playoffs than the Kings. They have a world-class goalie in Jonathan Quick, plenty of hard-hitting grit in captain Dustin Brown and defenseman Willie Mitchell, and loads of offensive wizards like the aforementioned Kopitar, Richards and Carter.

Yes, the Blues were a mirror-image of the Kings—just minus all those players mentioned in the previous paragraph.

The Blues had a very successful campaign despite being hit with concussion after concussion to their top contributors, but they persevered. Young guns T.J. Oshie, Patrik Berglund, David Backes, and David Perron finally have a taste of playoff hockey in their mouths.

We expect they are already looking forward to a second helping in 2013.

The St. Louis Blues left the Staples Center battered and broken. The team that had the best defense in the league was outscored 15-6 in a four-game series, and was swept by the Los Angeles Kings. However, this should not be viewed negatively, because it was anything but. 

The Blues made it to the playoffs for the first time since 2009, won their first playoff game since 2004, and won their first postseason series since 2002. All of this from a team that was supposed to be a seventh seed coming into the season.

All of the hard work came from the coaching change. Ken Hitchcock took a team that had no real sense of identity, except for their youth. He took the players and molded them into a team. Every player bought into his defense-first game plan, and it worked.

David Backes became one of the most underrated captains in the league, leading by example and doing whatever it took to help the team win. David Perron came back from injury and became one of the pure goal scorers that the Blues needed. T.J. Oshie matured under Hitchcock and now is a great assistant to Backes. Alex Pietrangelo is quietly becoming one of the best defensemen in the league, and he is only 22. Kevin Shatterkirk has become a blue-line stud and had the Blues winning their trade with the Avalanche last year.

But perhaps the best outcome of the entire season is that Blues fans finally get what they have been needing for the last 10-plus years. Solid goaltending.

Jaroslav Halak started off the season terribly, and it looked like the Blues were going to have a long season ahead of them.

Cue backup stud Brian Elliot. Elliot took the NHL by storm this year, grabbing a hold of the top of the goalie world and never letting go.

Halak picked up his game when Hitchcock came around, and the two became the best tandem in the NHL. The two goalies combined for a 1.89 GAA, good enough to secure the William M. Jennings Trophy. The last time the Blues won the Jennings was in the 1999-2000 season, when they also won the Presidents Trophy.

The Blues were only two points out form winning the Presidents' Trophy this season, and Blues fans should be happy that they did not win the trophy.

As stated earlier, the team did win it in 1999-2000, but lost to the No. 8 seed Sharks in seven games. It is a hollow trophy, and by not winning it, the Blues had their sights on a better trophy. Unfortunately, they failed. 

However, there will still be a banner hanging up in Scottrade this next season. The Blues, for only the second time in team history, won the Central Division. The Blues battled against playoff teams throughout the season and came out on top. 

So why should fans not be upset with this Blues team?

They had success in a season in which they were supposed to scrape into the playoffs. But most importantly, they saw a fanbase increase dramatically.

In my 19 years of living, I have never seen the city of St. Louis be so interested in hockey. The team gave fans hope, and now they are beginning to believe.

Hopefully next year the team will raise the Cup, but I'm perfectly happy with a playoff win.

There's always next year.  

The morning after their season came to an abrupt end, the St. Louis Blues put an honorable final touch on 2011-12 with a banner on the introductory page to their Web site, reading, “Thank you fans for turning this town blue.”

Beneath that, it reads, “2011-12 Central Division Champions.”

Proceed to the main page and there is a two-minute video citing a handful of other head-turning milestones from the recently concluded campaign.

It is kind of hard for one to keep a straight face and say they saw any of that coming.

Take a backward skate by about seven months and ask any hockey enthusiast who they would favor in an eventual first-round 2012 playoff series between the Blues and San Jose Sharks.

This author, for one, would have responded with another question.

The St. Louis Blues are making the playoffs this year?

The 2011-12 Blues changed coaches and changed expectations on the fly and ultimately put in their first postseason appearance in three years and only their second since the 2004-05 lockout.

Those revised expectations were hardly met when the Central Division champions―that’s right, Central Division champions, ahead of Chicago, Detroit and Nashville―were swept by the Los Angeles Kings over the weekend.

But the only appropriate way to assess a season is by factoring in the full scope, including all 82 regular-season games and any bonus action that follows. And from training camp through at least the final week of November, there was no reason to think the Blues would be among the last 16 NHL teams standing after April 7.

That changed not long after Ken Hitchcock supplanted head coach Davis Payne on Nov. 6. The Blues were 6-7-0 at the time of the move, then started the Hitchcock era on a 4-0-2 unbeaten streak and had a 14-8-2 overall record by the end of the month.

Under Payne, the 2011-12 Blues were outscored, 35-32. Over 69 regular-season outings under Hitchcock, they went 43-15-11 and tallied a cumulative 178-130 scoring difference in their favor.

Out of seven total midseason replacements, Hitchcock’s .703 winning percentage upon replacing Payne constituted the NHL’s best turnaround of the year. All the more impressive considering he was the first of those seven replacements, meaning his Blues had the most time to cool off from his instant impact.

As it happened, they never exactly cooled off in the end. They were just extinguished by a Kings team who, upon replacing Terry Murray with Darryl Sutter in December, charged up a .622 success rate over 49 games, the second-best improvement by a midseason replacement in 2011-12.

But before that happened, which was less than a surprise given this group’s lack of playoff experience with one another and goaltender Brian Elliott’s lack of familiarity with the role of favorite, St. Louis cracked triple-digit points for the first time since 2000-01.

The final win regular-season total of 49 was the most this franchise has consumed since its Presidents' Trophy-winning campaign in 1999-2000 and the second-most in any of its 44 seasons of operation.

The ride could have ended much like that faulty follow-up to the regular-season championship in 2000, when the Blues were dislodged out of the first round by San Jose.

The current edition of the Sharks, not unlike the Washington Capitals over in the Eastern Conference, mustered the seventh seed in their bracket after a turbulent, underachieving regular season.

Having lost in back-to-back conference finals the previous two years, San Jose’s core group certainly ought to have had the requisite incentive to defy their position in the standings en route to a deep 2012 playoff run. And the Blues, ostensibly the exact inverse to the Sharks, could have been easy prey in their opening round confrontation.

Not to be. The Blues made like the 2009-10 Chicago Blackhawks and 2010-11 Vancouver Canucks by abolishing the Sharks with relative swiftness, claiming the series in five games.

With that, St. Louis merely advanced to the Western Conference semifinals for the first time in 10 years. Anything the Blues were to achieve after that would just be a bonus drizzle on syrup on their sundae.

Although they achieved precisely nothing in the subsequent en route to LA’s sweep, their foundation is indubitably in place.

With Elliott and colleague Jaraslav Halak both under contract for next season, along with at least five defensive and eight offensive regulars plus the nascent likes of Jaden Schwartz, the Blues have every cause for optimism.

Accordingly, in 2012-13, they will have no excuse to be one of the victims rather than one of the perpetrators of gridlock in the ultra-competitive Central Division.

The arrival of those privileges and responsibilities could not have been foreseen at any point through the first quarter of this season. That alone makes 2011-12 a successful season for St. Louis.

After dominating the San Jose Sharks in the first round of the 2012 Stanley Cup playoffs, the St. Louis Blues find themselves in an 0-2 hole to the Los Angeles Kings.

Now, they head out to LA to try to stop the bleeding in Game 3 on Thursday.

A lot must change for Ken Hitchcock’s crew if the Blues are going to turn things around.

Let’s take a look at three players who are going to have to step up their efforts for the Blues to avoid losing their third straight game.

Brian Elliott

It’s hard to pin the Game 2 loss on Elliott, as both he and the entire defense played terribly.

But, five goals is still way too many to allow in one playoff game. He’s going to have to increase his focus and pick up his teammates after their mistakes.

With Jaroslav Halak slowly getting healthier, this might be Elliott’s last chance to save his starting goalkeeper position.

If he can hold the Kings to one or two goals on Thursday, there’s no reason the Blues shouldn’t win Game 3.

Alex Pietrangelo 

Pietrangelo wasn’t at all to blame for the Game 2 loss, since he was out with an injury.

Clearly though, this Blues team needs him more than they need any other defenseman.

Therefore, Pietrangelo is going to have to come back on Thursday and have a monster game.

He’s going to need to be sharp on defense and also spark some offensive chances if the Blues are going to be more competitive in Game 3.  

David Backes

Backes is the captain of this team, and with that title comes greater responsibility.

It’ll be his job in Game 3 to make sure his teammates are ready to play. If he can’t get his teammates more involved in the first period on Thursday, it’ll reflect poorly on him.

He has three points already this series, assisting on two of the Blues’ three goals and scoring the other one, but he needs to motivate his teammates to play as hard as he’s playing.

Great leaders make their teammates better, too. He needs to keep tapping away and wearing down the Kings’ defense so his teammates can get better shots.