For the last few months, I’ve been telling my friends and nearby season ticket holders that this Blues team has a different feel to them. They have a different team psyche, a different constitution.
Sometimes they can remind you of the 2009 Blues who gave up three goals to Boston in 1:39 with just over 3 minutes left in the 3rd period, turning a 2-1 lead to a 4-2 deficit only to score two goals in the last 1:20 of the game and then win the game in a shootout.
Sometimes they can remind you of the 2016 Blues who went 14-4 in their last 18 regular season games before winning two Game 7s in the playoffs and playing 10 of 14 one goal games in the 1st two rounds of the 2016 playoffs.
Early in the year they could remind you of the 2005 to 2008 Blues who didn’t qualify for the playoffs.
In all cases though, the 2019 version sure has a different feel and a different resolve than the Blues of years past. Some of it is as simple as the players rarely seeking hits at the expense of taking themselves out of the play, something that was all too common not that long ago.
Other things are less noticeable but even more important. In some years past, when the going got tough, the team would get going, going home that is. This season, when times get tough, the team almost appears to find more resolve and determination. The examples are almost countless this post season. They have earned 3rd period come from behind wins in Games 1 and 5 (two goals) of the 1st round and found a way to win 2-1 in Game 7 against the Stars when the Stars only goal was a result of poor positioning of referee Marc Joanette who effectively provided the assist to Mats Zuccarello. They rallied to win 4-2 after blowing a 2-0 lead by giving up two goals in two minutes, one a short-handed goal. You can see their tougher mettle shining through.
This mettle was even more evident last night. On Wednesday, the Blues showed tremendous determination coming back from 2-0 and 3-1 only to lose the game in overtime on a play that should have been blown dead, a call missed by all four on-ice officials that is not reviewable. They also lost Vince Dunn, one of their top four defensemen. On Friday, the Blues jumped all over the Sharks in the 1st period, getting a quick goal and a later goal, exiting the period with a two goal lead. Martin Jones was the only reason it wasn’t more and easily could have been four or five. As the game progressed, the Blues did just enough to preserve a 2-1 victory. I’ll review the game in more detail tomorrow morning.
There are other qualitative and quantitative examples of how this Blues team is different. Wednesday night’s overtime excluded, the Blues are substantially better about filtering themselves and complaining less to the referees than years past. The prior Blues teams seemed to whine incessantly to the referees with little success. This year’s version will do it occasionally, especially with a few specific players, but overall the level of whining is significantly reduced. Instead of focusing on what they can’t control and sulking in feeling wronged, they appear to focus on real task at hand, continuing to perform and persevering toward the outcome they desire to earn.
Since Coach Craig Berube has taken over, the team has taken control of its own actions, put in place a high degree of accountability, and sharpened their focus to the matters and tasks of greatest impact. They are not easily distracted and they don’t allow for excuses or to feel sorry for themselves. When Brayden Schenn was tripped without a call on a Blues power play, allowing the Stars a 2 on 1 during which they scored, Berube would not hear of commenting on the trip but rather said that his own team needed to be better in getting beat down the ice. He wouldn’t give the team the excuse of officiating for the goal. In a way, Berube is preaching what I have been saying for years, win regardless of officiating.
This was never more evident than after Wednesday night’s game where you could hear the determination and resolve in the post-game interviews. Berube would not really comment on the overtime goal but rather shifted the focus to the team’s response for the upcoming Game 4.
Berube seems laser focused on making sure that the Blues don’t get distracted from the most important jobs and tasks at hand. While the Blues have had very good coaches in the past, I’m not sure they have had a coach who has been able to keep the players so focused on actions they can control. Perhaps they have, just not in my lifetime.
I think Ken Hitchcock pegged what I had been noticing for months when he said “with what they’ve gone through as a team, if you come out on the other side, you build that resilience, and you build a steeliness to your personality that’s hard to defeat…..They could have gone the other way. It could have been a really tough year but they drew upon their character and their competitiveness and they pushed it in the right direction…….I see trying to beat their team in a series is not going to be easy because of what they’ve gone through” (Thanks to Benjamin Hochman for posting the quote a while back). I believe Berube had a strong hand in pushing the right direction. The embrace between Pat Maroon and Berube after Maroon’s series winning goal was pretty good evidence of that in my humble opinion.
Will Berube be able to continue to make adjustments and help push the team to heights they have never seen before? We’ll learn more tomorrow afternoon in San Jose.
It’s a great day for hockey.
NHL Champions for Charity Playoff Edition
In what I hope becomes a Hockeybuzz tradition, Hockeybuzz Sharks blogger
Steve Palumbo and I placed a wager on the series. If the Blues win, Steve has agreed to make a donation to the
Gateway Area Multiple Sclerosis Society (@mssociety on twitter) whose mission is help each person affected by MS in St. Louis address the challenges of living with MS. They help by raising funds for cutting-edge research, driving change through advocacy, facilitating professional education and providing programs and services that empower people with MS and their families to move their lives forward. I selected the MS Society to honor St. Louis Blues Anthem singer Charles Glenn. Read more about Charles
here.
If the Sharks win, I will donate to the
Hydrocephalus Association (@HydroAssoc on twitter) whose mission is to connect individuals to larger communities that can provide support and understanding, to educate national and state policymakers, the medical community, and the general population, and to advance treatment and eventually find a cure for Hydrocephalus.
I hope that our wagers will inspire players and fans to pledge donations for each win their team makes in the NHL playoffs.
NHL Champions for Charity Regular Season
Given that the Predators pulled out the division title, all be it not without some controversial officiating in the last couple of games, Best Buddies Tennessee
https://www.bestbuddies.org/tennessee/ is the beneficiary. Best Buddies Tennessee is dedicated to establishing a volunteer movement that creates opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment, leadership development and inclusive living opportunities for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. As a side note, I recently got to experience a Best Buddies even in the St. Louis area that was led by the Eureka high school football team. It was a lot of fun and brought a lot of joy to those involved.
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