Blues’ amazing turnaround brings Cup to St. Louis
BOSTON – It took 52 years for the Blues to win their first Stanley Cup, and the last 160 days were the most memorable.
At the end of Jan. 2, St. Louis was last in the NHL, 31st out of 31 teams, and today it will be planning a parade.
Rookie Jordan Binnington’s strong goaltending led the Blues to their Cupclinching 4-1 win Wednesday against the Bruins in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. He made 32 saves and set a rookie record with 16 playoff wins.
“Jordan Binnington coming in — that’s a story for the ages,” Blues general manager Doug Armstrong said.
In December, Binnington was the Blues’ No. 4 goalie. He didn’t make a start for St. Louis until Jan. 7. Now, he is one of the top goalies in Blues history because he delivered the first Stanley Cup to the city.
The Blues didn’t just win for themselves, they won for generations of frustrated fans and all of the many players who have worn a St. Louis jersey and never were able to lift the Cup.
Several minutes after the Blues celebrated the win, former Blues Bernie Federko, Chris Pronger, Brett Hull and Keith Tkachuk were in the bowels of TD Garden hugging each other.
This team also won for superfan Laila Anderson, 11, who suffers from hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis, a lifethreatening immune disease that results in the body making too many immune cells.
The championship was also for a fan base that struck with the Blues through many disappointing playoff runs. This was the franchise’s first trip to the Stanley Cup Final since 1970, when they were swept by the Bruins. St. Louis has known much heartache when it comes to sports. It lost its NFL team twice.
But the Blues also made it clear that they won for each other. In the middle of the season, they were written off as an underachieving team. Coach Craig Berube replaced Mike Yeo in November and he wasn’t able to immediately change the team’s direction. In the second half of the season, the Blues began to show promise.
“What a group of guys we have to fight our way back in the standings,” defenseman Colton Parayko said. “We have a special group, and we knew we had it in the beginning. We just had to turn the page.”
Armstrong was thinking he might have to rebuild the Blues early in the year. He considered making some trades, and he headed over to Russia to watch the World Under-18 tournament because he thought the Blues might have a top 10 draft pick.
“I was over in Russia and we came back to beat Florida with two goals in the third period and then beat Tampa Bay 1-0 and then beat Nashville back-toback,” Armstrong recalled. “That’s when the ‘For sale’ sign went down in the St. Louis office.”
Laughing, he said, “The guys just needed me to go to Russia to get going.”
Armstrong said he wasn’t as surprised by the team’s second-half surge as he was about their early-season struggles. After making offseason moves, including landing Ryan O’Reilly, he thought he had a quality team.
When O’Reilly spoke to Armstrong after the trade, he said, “Let’s go win a Cup.” Neither man probably thought it would be this fast.
In this Stanley Cup Final, O’Reilly scored in four consecutive games, including the clincher, to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as MVP. The last player to score in four consecutive Stanley Cup Final games was Wayne Gretzky in 1985.
“Does it in both ends,” Blues center Brayden Schenn said of O’Reilly. “Selke winner, chances are, Conn Smythe winner, Stanley Cup champion all in one year. The guy is an absolute beast.”
Schenn was particularly animated after the game. He seemed to understand how important this success was to so many people in St. Louis.
“It doesn’t feel real,” he said. “It’s absolutely incredible. I can’t even explain. It feels like a video game we’re in. It’s what you dream of as a kid, posing with the Stanley Cup, getting to lift it. We’re going to party hard.”