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Puckdaddy's"The Essentials: St. Louis Blues"

Posted: Fri Aug 24, 2012 6:42 am
by Kreegz2
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck- ... more-39960

Puck Daddy has been doing a feature on a different team every few days this summer called "The Essentials". Each one is written by a blogger(s) of that team to inform other fans about the team's most memorable goals, games, players, traditions, etc. I have been reading every one and they have been extremely interesting reads. However, I can't help but feel a bit disappointed at the Blues' article.

He got all of the obvious ones right(Monday Night Miracle, Brett Hull, Dan Kelly) but some entries are severely lacking or just downright wrong.

The Power Play dance? seriously? This "tradition" has only been around for the past five or so years and is pretty juvenile. A better pick would have been the Towel Man (I know a lot of old timers hate him, but I can't remember a time when he wasn't counting goals, he's become a part of the Blues fan culture to me.) , or even better yet the Organ playing "When the Blues go marching in" after every goal, instead of a typical goal song. The Management has experimented with the post goal celebration song a few times, and every time the backlash from the fans has been so negative that it has never lasted long at all, and I feel proud to be one of the only franchises left in sports that still uses predominately organ music at our home arena instead of generic bullshit stadium pop anthems.

The Twist vs. Chase fight was kinda cool to see at the time, but definitely not the most memorable in Blues history. The Joseph vs. Cheveldae fight/brawl and the St. Patrick's day massacre immediately come to mind. Even the brawl in the late 60's in Philadelphia where the Blues ended up going into the stands and fighting the philadelphians and 4 of them ended up in jail for a night should have been considered over the twist/chase fight.

Villain was an alright choice, but I think Laurie is a much more deserving candidate The Blues were playoff contenders every year during the 90's, even despite the judges decision on Stevens, whereas Laurie's ownership group literally dismantled the Blues and left us out on our asses for 7 seasons as a bottom feeder in the league, which we have just now fully recovered from. Obviously Keenan should be another contender for top villain.

There are some other things I disagree with on the list, but those are my main complaints. As a lifelong Blues fan I was looking forward to the Blues feature, but I am disappointed with the result.

Any other opinions on it?

Re: Puckdaddy's"The Essentials: St. Louis Blues"

Posted: Fri Aug 24, 2012 7:13 am
by cprice12
About "The Trade"...
It should be mentioned that Brian Sutter wanted that trade and pushed for it. It wasn't Caron's idea as the article implied.
Sutter wanted Courtnall gone, for whatever reason. And HE, not Caron, was adamant about having a big, tough defenseman going into the playoffs. But instead we got Butcher.

Bad, bad trade...and probably the only thing I really hold against Brian Sutter.

And yeah..."The Fight" shouldn't be Twist vs. Chase.
It could have been Manson vs. Stevens at Chicago Stadium.
It could have been Joseph vs. Cheveldae.
It could have been the series of fights between Twist and Probert.
It could have been the Blues going into the stands and fighting Philly's fans.
I'm sure there were some Plager fights that could be included...but those were before my time.
The Twist vs. Chase fight was memorable and all and it's a good story, but it wasn't THE highlight fight from the franchise. Not even close.

What about the Wednesday night Wonder?
What about Courtnall running Storr and the Blues then scoring 37 goals on the 5 minute PP to come back and win game 3 vs. the Kings?

The PP dance? Gag me.
This team has a ton of tradition & history, and the PP dance is what is talked about? Is that a joke? That's more embarrassing and stupid than anything.

It was a good read. And articles like this are supposed to strike up discussion about things left out or that should be considered.
Except for the PP dance. Good Lord. :facepalm:

Re: Puckdaddy's"The Essentials: St. Louis Blues"

Posted: Fri Aug 24, 2012 8:53 am
by dmiles2186
I don't agree with the selection of the power play dance either. You could pick towel guy, or the vuvezela three honks followed by LETS...GO....BLUES (which I could be wrong, but the Blues have been doing forever and only recently I've heard other teams do something similar), or what have you. But his argument for the PP dance is a decent one: it was organic, it wasn't something the team forced on the fans. It started humbly and then grew to what it is today. I'm not saying I agree, but at least it's a decent argument.

Problem is, the other things mentioned started the same way.

Was a good read either way.

Re: Puckdaddy's"The Essentials: St. Louis Blues"

Posted: Fri Aug 24, 2012 10:34 am
by kodos
I think the St Louis Gameday people have some sort of vendetta against the towel man, because he should obviously be our arena tradition.

And "Here Come's Cheveldea!" should have been the fight.

Re: Puckdaddy's"The Essentials: St. Louis Blues"

Posted: Sat Aug 25, 2012 5:47 pm
by glen a richter
Here Comes Chevaldae! was the ultimate fight, not necessarily for its quality but because of the circumstances. There have been better fights, but that one wins every time. FWIW that was also just about the time I was starting to get into hockey, so CuJo pounding the piss out of Tim Chevaldae was a great welcoming into the St. Louis Blues family.