I don’t know about you, but I was soooo excited all day on Sunday, June
9! I was cocksure that with the Stanley
Cup in town, the St. Louis Blues would come out flying and bottle up the Boston
Bruins in all three zones to finally claim hockey’s top prize! On the other
hand, my girlfriend Pam said she was sure it would not be tonight.
Trying to put game 6 out of my mind for awhile, there was another area
of deep emotion on this day. My son David
and wife Marleen repacked their stuff to start tomorrow morning’s long trek
back to Germany. I gave David my late father’s gold wedding ring with stones to
resize and wear. We looked through more
old photos together.
Since they didn’t feel like playing volleyball or socialize much, I took
them to Pam’s to grill a whole lot of food items for dinner as we watched the
Blues trail Boston, 1-0 after one period.
Naturally, it was a power play goal by Bruins’ veteran Brad
Marchand. The Blues had 20 penalty minutes
in the game to just 10 by the Bruins.
It was still 1-0 entering the third period. So, there was a great deal of hope for a St.
Louis comeback. But hope subsequently
turned to mush. Ryan O’Reilly’s third
period goal came after Boston had grabbed a 3-0 lead, and before even two more Boston
tallies in a 5-1 setback.
So, the series would come down to a game 7 on Wednesday night, June
12. Neither David nor Marleen would see
game 7 as I was up Monday at 3 a.m. to take them past Enterprise Center and
back to the Greyhound station. A lot
more emotion mixed in with goodbye hugs.
Back to the regular Monday work routine, grocery shopping and catching
up on things. I went home from work Tuesday for grass cutting. While I was
doing yard waste, a couple walked by, saying that the yard waste could
wait. There’s a free concert down in the
park! So, I put a pizza in the oven,
showered, changed & sat by that couple, Ginny and Ted, and we even had a
few group dances!
Dateline: Wednesday, June 12, 2019: I was among a large cast of characters
wearing Blues clothes to work. I also
hoisted several memorabilia items to work from the yearbook following our very
first season to rally towels, posters, commemorative bottles and pucks!
It was extremely tough to focus on anything but tonight’s game 7! I
pigged out at work and after work, showered, changed into my Blues clothes and
headed to Johnny’s West. I was one of the
first ones there, waiting for some 20 others for reserved seating in the
big-screen TV room! My girlfriend Pam
came straight from work and met me there.
By the time Pam arrived for her saved seat, the building was overflowing
in numbers and anticipation!
I probably knew just over half the people in our group. There was one old friend I had not seen in
nearly a year. A couple people asked if
I wanted to sit by her. But she was with
a few other ladies who were more the bandwagon types when it came to hockey.
So, I opted to stay on my side of the table with fellow decades-long Blues fan
Bobby and an entirely new acquaintance, long-time passionate Blues freak
Gary.
After all, I had been following hockey religiously since 1963 with the
St. Louis Braves, a Central Hockey League affiliate of our now hated rival, the
Chicago Black Hawks! I can still recall
the names of nearly a dozen players from that era who played at the old Kiel
Auditorium, but I will save you the agony.
The Blues certainly did not get off to the fast start that their
first-year coach Craig Berube had hoped.
The Blues were outshot, 12-4 in the opening period with a 9-2 edge in
scoring chances. But as he had done throughout
the regular season and playoffs, rookie goaltender Jordan Binnington was phenomenal
in a game following a loss. Also, the Blues record was an incredible 12-4-4 on
the road from January 23 to the end of the regular season!
In addition, Binnington was the
prime reason the Blues clawed their way up the ladder from having the fewest
points in the entire 31-team National Hockey League on the morning of January
3!
Meanwhile, the Blues proved to be real opportunists at the other end of the
rink in period one of game 7. Eventual
Conn Smythe Trophy winner (playoff Most Valuable Player) Blues newcomer Ryan O’Reilly
gave the Blues the lead with just 3:13 left in the period. Fellow veteran Alex Pietrangelo stunned the
crowd by making it 2-0 with just 8 seconds remaining!
That second goal was the start of my off and on happy crying
frenzy! After a scoreless second period,
it was still 2-0 midway through the second period. When young Brayden Schenn
gave the Blues a 3-0 lead at 11:25 of the final period, I cried my eyes out!
What looked like a total impossibility in early January, was about to
come to fruition! Rookie Zach Sanford’s
goal at 15:22 made losing a near impossibility!
The surreal reality, if that is even a possible combination of words,
was that the Blues led 4-0 with just 4:38 left in game 7 of the Stanley Cup
Finals! After posting an incredible 24-6-4 since January 23 to the end of the regular
season, the Blues were about to complete a 10-3 road playoff run against the
likes of Winnipeg, Dallas, San Jose and Boston.
Tears of joy increased as I
continued to think back to just over 49 years ago when I went to one of those
Stanley Cup Finals games against Boston.
Perched way up in a corner of the Standing Room Only section at the old Arena
with my sisters Debby and Sherry, I still recall veteran Jimmy Roberts give the
Blues a 1-0 lead. That was our only lead
in the entire four-game series. It was
also our only goal in that game as we lost, 6-1 to the mighty Bruins with the
likes of perennial All-Stars Phil Esposito, Bobby Orr, Johnny Bucyk, Ken Hodge
and others!
It also brought to mind my own dad.
He had followed hockey way back to the St. Louis Flyers of the American
Hockey League in the 1940s and ‘50s. I was the last family member to see him
alive on April 21, 2009, with a late visit to his hospice room. Ironically, we were watching the final game
of the Blues being swept in round one by the Vancouver Canucks.
A few years before that, he told me, “It looks like the Blues won’t win
the Cup in my lifetime. It’s up to you.”
Boston broke Binnington’s shutout in the game’s final three minutes in
this incredibly clean game, but the dream had actually become a reality! Watching the highlights after captain
Pietrangelo and other Blues players took turns skating with, holding up the
Stanley Cup, kissing it, etc., I kept pointing to the screen when four words
were being shown.
In fact, while still crying my eyes out, I showed and mentioned that
reality to every person in our group and as many waitresses and fellow
customers I could: “Blues Win Stanley
Cup!”
What an incredible reality to the
end of a most unusual dream! So, this is what being on Cloud 9 feels like! It’s
now 2 ½ months later, and I still feel the adrenalin high! That will probably last for the rest of my
earthly days!
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