Where No Blues Team Has Gone Before

David Perron scores the 2nd goal of the Blues 2-1 win in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals,  in Boston.

I kind of grew up with reruns of Star Trek: The Next Generation. They were really my introduction to the Trek franchise, so Captain Picard and crew have a special place in my heart. Each episode, though a replay on cable TV, was new to me as a boy, and I anticipated what new thing the Enterprise would discover, or what new planet they would encounter. It’s one of the main reasons I grew to love science fiction as a genre.

This Blues season feels like science fiction.

I don’t think any fan would have written the season this way. From worst to first. From last in the league to Western Conference champions. It’s a storybook season, without a doubt. Yet here are the Blues, just one win away from their first ever league championship.

Each win in the Finals takes them where no Blues team has gone before. It’s magical. The ultimate destination, is the Promised Land. Where many other teams have gone, but the Blues were thwarted for so many years. Whatever happens in the next game of two, the 2018-19 Blues have made it closer to the Promised Land than any other Blues team before them.

Each series has been gut-wrenchingly epic. Winnipeg gave the Blues a fight. Dallas gave the Blues a heck of a fight. San Jose fought hard and well. The Blues survived the best the West could throw at them. You know, the Dallas series feels to me like the hardest test the Blues have faced in the playoffs. I’m not trying to discount the Sharks or the Bruins – the Dallas series is the only one so far to go 7 games, and Game 7 went to double OT, at that. One chance carom of the puck, and the Blues would have caromed out of the playoffs in heartbreaking fashion.

The Blues have played selflessly, for each other. I think of O’Reilly’s unparalleled work ethic, which surely has rubbed off (“what’s a rub off means?”) on the rest of the team. I think of Steen’s willingness to play on the 4th line, which helped propel the Blues into the playoffs and has enabled the Blues to play 4 lines deep. I think of how happy the Blues are for each other when they score.

How wonderful is it that the city, the fans, and alumni have rallied around the team and spurred them on. There are so many things and people that make this season special. The pre-game speeches. Laila. Gloria. Charles Glenn’s last season. It makes you believe in destiny.

I’m trying to enjoy every day of this wonderful season. Years like this, as we know, come along…….well, never before. Whatever happens in Game 6 and maybe (hopefully not) Game 7, this has been a terrific, memorable, thrilling, inspiring season. From the climb out of the cellar, to the emergence of a stone-cold netminder, to the discovery of what a No. 1 center really looks like, to the development of other core players into truly elite talents, we have seen an incredible chapter in the history book of the St. Louis Blues.

Go get that last win boys.