Blues try to go from worst to first vs. favored Bruins
The Boston Bruins and St. Louis Blues will meet in the Stanley Cup Final, a rematch, sort of, of the 1970 series that ended with Bobby Orr’s famous goal and headlong celebration, with help from Noel Picard.
Boston has been in the finals three times in the past nine seasons, but this is St. Louis’ first trip in 49 years. Unlike that series, this one is expected to be more evenly matched. Seeing the famous photo of Orr scoring the 1970 Stanley Cupwinning goal to beat his Blues doesn’t bring back bad memories for Scotty Bowman.
“Not really,” the legendary coach said. “Because we didn’t have a big opportunity to win that series.”
Orr and the big, bad Bruins swept Bowman’s overmatched, expansion-era Blues in that series. Now 49 years later, this is a showdown between two of the NHL’s best teams since Jan. 1.
Coming off a sweep of Carolina in the Eastern Conference finals, the Bruins are favored in the series that begins Monday in Boston. Goaltender Tuukka Rask is the front-runner to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP. Brad Marchand is playing some of the best hockey of his career with 18 points in 17 games, and there’s a mix of veterans from the 2011 Stanley Cup-winning team and fresh players eager to get their names etched on the trophy.
“I think as you get older, you appreciate it even more, and you realize how hard it is to get to this point and advance and be thankful and stay in the moment,” center Patrice Bergeron said. “But then it’s back to work, and there’s a lot of work in front of us.”
Unlike in 1970, these Blues won’t go away. They woke up last in the NHL on Jan. 3 before winning 30 of their final 45 games to roll into the playoffs, where they beat the Jets, Stars and Sharks. Craig Berube, who replaced Mike Yeo as Blues coach in November, said teams would rather avoid those tough times. But they’ve made his players stronger.
“We were trying to get on the right track,” Berube said after the Western Conference finals-clinching Game 6 win Tuesday. “Once we got going in January and February, I knew we had a good hockey team. Once you get in the playoffs, anything can happen. We’re here and we did. They believed they were going to make the playoffs, and we’re here.”
The Blues are here in part because of rookie goaltender Jordan Binnington, whose first start in January coincided with the turnaround. They adopted Laura Branigan’s catchy 1980s pop hit “Gloria” as their victory song, rallied in the playoffs around young fan Laila Anderson, who has a life-threatening immune disease, and became the NHL’s latest surprise.
“The last couple months in the city have been crazy,” star winger Vladimir Tarasenko said. “The support is amazing. They give us a lot of power. Unbelievable.
“They (Bruins) are a hard team to play against, a really skilled team. But we have a hard team, too. It will be some interesting games.”
A benefit for the Bruins is they should get captain and defenseman Zdeno Chara back after he missed Game 4 against Carolina.