Stanley Cup Champion Mode
This story originally appeared in the Oct. 24, 2019 edition of the St. Louis Game Time paper, sold outside of every Blues home game. For more information or to subscribe, email gtbradlee@gmail.com
I’ve always believed Cup-winning teams forever have a Stanley Cup Champion Mode. It’s a keg they can’t tap often, because it’s hard and exhausting and besides, it’s not often necessary in October. But on Monday night, with the season sputtering, the Blues went into Stanley Cup Champion Mode: the swarming forecheck; the smothering of the other team’s forwards in the offensive zone; the utter denial of their speed through the neutral zone — the style that won the Cup.
True, Colorado was playing their third game in four days and yes, they were bound to regress eventually. But that team was undefeated, and the Blues stomped them. The Avs went long stretches at 5-on-5 without a shot, the Blues got and kept the puck in the offensive zone for shifts at a time, and in the third, shut the game down.
We shouldn’t expect it much in the regular season. It might not be there again for another full playoff run. But as Toby Keith said when his buddy needed help in a bar fight, “I ain’t as good as I once was, but I’m as good once as I ever was.”
Five thoughts from the only cowboy in this place.
1. Jordan Binnington better be in good shape. Jake Allen is a mess, and has been since that 5-game domination of Minnesota. There’s no reason for Craig Berube to believe in Allen, and as Front Page Jeff wrote on Monday, probably the only reason Doug Armstrong has faith in him is that Allen is hauling in $5.2 million. (That, or Armstrong doesn’t have the slightest clue how to evaluate goalies. Look at his track record, going back to his time in Dallas: It’s a stream of overrating mediocre netminders and undervaluing good ones.)
Which means Binnington might have to play 55 or 60 games. He’s cracked 50 games in a regular season once, in the OHL in 2012–13. He held up during the 26-game grind of last year’s playoffs, but this 82-game slog, minus the playoff adrenaline, is a different animal.
2. Speaking of goalies, pour one out for Jonathan Quick. Sometimes, goalies wake up and … that’s it, they don’t have it anymore. Last year, Quick put up a save percentage that wouldn’t have been passable in 1989, let alone 2019. He’s at 84.7 start through five games this year, torpedoing a Kings squad that has actually managed to put up solid metrics all over the ice. As with any tragic hero, what made Quick great also led to his downfall: The all-out aggressiveness, gumby-like flexibility, and unheard-of athleticism seem to have broken his body down.
For 20 games during the 2012 playoffs, Jon Quick was the greatest goalie of all time. That led to a long, far-too-expensive contract and overhype about how good he really was. In reality, he was an above-average goalie whose aggressive style made him fun to watch and forced him to make sprawling, incredible saves that overstated his true talent level. But hey, he can’t hear me: He’s got his two Stanley Cup rings plugging his ears.
3. The Kings are in trouble — and are a cautionary tale. On one hand, they couldn’t afford not to re-sign the stars who brought them two championships. On the other, Anze Kopitar, Dustin Brown, Jeff Carter, Drew Doughty, and Quick are all on the wrong side of age 29 and have bloated, unmovable, long-term contracts. Loudly, for the GMs in the back with 29-year-old, right-handed defensemen to sign: DON’T FALL IN LOVE WITH GUYS JUST BECAUSE THEY WON THE CUP.
4. I will never, ever stop looking for analogs to the 2019 playoffs. In Monday’s first period, Alex Pietrangelo came down the right wing and ripped a slapper that looked an awful like the one that hit Tuukka Rask’s blocker, landed on Ryan O’Reilly’s stick, and wound up in the back of the net to win Game 4 against Boston.
And the GWG on Monday came on a delayed penalty. The last time the Blues scored on a delayed penalty? It came after the Urinal Accords between Chief and Boom Boom.
5. The same penalty Ian Cole took on Monday once almost killed the Blues. Game 3, 2016 first round in Chicago. Blues are down one after giving up an early power play goal. Jay Bouwmeester takes a hooking penalty, and the Blues are in big-time danger. But they kill it off! And as Bouwmeester is stepping out of the box, he plays the puck. Right back into the box he went.
The Blues killed that one off, too, and scrapped to a massive win.
If you enjoyed this story — and even if you didn’t — you should check out my book, Ticketless: How Sneaking Into The Super Bowl And Everything Else (Almost) Held My Life Together.
