Wilderness Walk: Blue Solo Cup

Congratulations to the St. Louis Blues on their first-ever Stanley Cup!

Outside of the first ten minutes where Boston owned nearly all of the shots and most of the momentum, the Blues dominated defensively despite facing 32 shots, backstopped by a stellar performance by rookie goaltender Jordan Binnington. The only goals the Blues would need were scored in the first period by the eventual Conn Smythe-winning Ryan O’Reilly, and team captain Alex Pietrangelo.

Binnington was the star of the game, shutting out the Boston offense for almost 58 minutes until the Bruins scored a late goal with the game completely out of reach. Binnington’s unbelievable sprawling pad save to rob Joakim Nordstrom essentially took whatever wind was left out of the Bruins’ sails, and soon after Brayden Schenn and Zach Sanford scored to put the game out of reach.

So, congratulations, St. Louis Blues. As my devoted Wild fan brother-in-law says, you give hope to every team who dreams of hoisting the cup for the first time.

Let’s just hope our hometown squad doesn’t have to wait 51 years.

St. Louis, this one’s for you. Congratulations.

For coverage of the 2018-19 Stanley Cup Champion St. Louis Blues, please visit St. Louis Gametime, the Blues’ SB Nation blog.

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