NHL Finally Singing the Blues
June 17, 2019
Last week, on June 12, the St. Louis Blues of the National Hockey League (NHL) downed the Boston Bruins 4-1 to win the team’s first ever Stanley Cup title. The Blues won the best-of-seven final four games to three. Fifty-two years after the team’s debut NHL season (1967-1968), this year’s Blues made the most of an opportunity to change their reputation as an ever-competent team that suffered letdowns in each of its 42 previous playoff runs. In the 2019 Stanley Cup playoffs, the Blues possessed more dazzle, more determination, and more puck-luck than any of its opponents.
Members of the St. Louis Blues celebrate their Stanley Cup victory over the Boston Bruins at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts, on June 12, 2019. Credit: © Bruce Bennett, Getty Images
A Blues championship looked rather unlikely early in the NHL season, as the team possessed the league’s worst record as of Jan. 2, 2019. But the team then called up the talented rookie goaltender Jordan Binnington, who helped them to turn things around. The Blues finished the season 45-28-9, good enough for third place in the Central Division of the Western Conference.
In the playoffs, St. Louis overcame the favored Winnipeg, Dallas, and San Jose squads to advance to their first Stanley Cup Final since 1970—when the Bruins swept the Blues for the title. The Blues brought a team of grinders to the final, including forward Pat Maroon, right wing Vladimir Tarasen, and center Ryan O’Reilly, who won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player of the postseason. O’Reilly tallied 8 goals and 15 assists in the playoffs.
Boston enjoyed a very good season, finishing second in the Eastern Conference’s Atlantic Division at 49-24-9. The Bruins took out Toronto, Columbus, and Carolina in the playoffs before meeting St. Louis. In the final, oddsmakers favored Boston, which featured such stars as wing Brad Marchand, center Patrice Bergeron, goaltender Tuukka Rask, and veteran defenseman Zdeno Chara, the team captain.
The Bruins captured game one in Boston, 4-2. The Blues took game two in Boston, 3-2, but the Bruins spoiled the Blues’s St. Louis homecoming with a 7-2 shellacking in game three. The Blues rebounded to win games four (4-2) and five (2-1) for a three games to two series advantage. Boston took away the Blues’ chance to win a title at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis, however, winning game six 5-1. Back in Boston for game seven, St. Louis scored two first period goals for a 2-0 lead, then added two more in the third period for a commanding 4-0 advantage. Boston managed a meaningless goal late in the fourth, but the NHL finally sang the blues as the final horn signaled the end of a long championship draught in St. Louis.
The win for St. Louis continued another title draught, however. No team from Canada—the “land of hockey” and the birthplace of 21 of 30 Blues—has now won the Stanley Cup since the Montreal Canadiens in 1993.
