Poor Len congratulates St. Louis Blues - Stanley Cup Champions!

Poor Len Canayen here. The loooong NHL season is finally over. Last night the St. Louis Blues surprised everyone -- perhaps including themselves -- by defeating the big bad Boston Bruins 4-1 to take the Stanley Cup back to their city. Congratulations to them!

The story of the Blues' rise from last to first, to win their first ever championship, is a truly remarkable one. On New Year's Day they were dead last in the NHL. Instead of talk of a playoff run, the chatter around the club six months ago centred around which players would be available at the trade deadline.

Then they got a new "interim" coach, Craig Berube, who worked some kind of magic with a squad of has-beens, never-weres and rookies. They went 30-10-5 to make the playoffs and disposed of the Winnipeg Jets, Dallas Stars and San Jose Sharks in the first three rounds. The final series went the full seven games, culminating in an outcome which was the opposite of that predicted by most punters, notably "Donless" Cherry and (ahem) yours very truly.

The star player in the Blues' climb from outhouse to penthouse was rookie goalie Jordan Binnington. He was called up on December 9th, and during the regular season gave no indication that he would become the Blues saviour. But he sure shone in the playoffs. I haven't seen anything like it since Ken Dryden came from nowhere in 1971 to help the Montréal Canadiens win Lord Stanley's silverware. Dryden was voted playoff MVP that year. Binnington set a rookie goalie record, with 16 W's in this year's payoffs, and looks a sure bet to take home the Conn Smythe Trophy.

But the big win was the result of an outstanding team effort. The Blues hit hard, forechecked hard and they were unrelentingly diligent in their own end. Whatever shots the skaters didn't block, Binnington saved. They were also overwhelmingly physical, no mean feat against the rough tough Bruins. It was a textbook road game, grabbing a quick(ish) lead and then defending fiercely until the final buzzer. The best team won, and we at WWW salute them. Well done, Blues!