Happy Garth Butcher Day!

You forgot to mention that the Vancouver Canucks ranked him as the #6 All-Time Canuck in 2007. I have to disagree with you about the trade, it was lopsided, but getting Butcher is no small consolation. A pleasure to watch every game, and worthy of your fine tribute.

Outstanding Sir

damn, is he ugly.

Whole tree, not just a stick.

The time the Blues had a guy go down before the All-Star Game, and Garth – who by all accounts was not worthy of an All-Star selection (although I’m sure AM disagrees) – was selected to the team because they needed a fellow Blue to replace the injured guy. Hilarity ensued, but I believe he even got an assist in that game.

Back on the schoolyard, when someone broke their blade on a slapshot that went nowhere (the puck, that is) while the blade went flying through the air, we’d say, “Dude, you Garth Butchered it.” The inspiration: in a game early in his Blues term Butcher, took one hell of a wind-up and his blade went arching from the blueline to the goal line while the puck, well, the puck took more of a traditional non-threatening-Butcher-shot trajectory. Admittedly, this didn’t happen often, but that made the term all the more sweet to use.

As for the trade, I’ll bite and grant it was defensible: Oh, sure, a certain Gordon and crew have spent a good part of two decades pretending that was The Day The Blues Lost the Cup or some such hyperbole — but that’s with the hindsight of seeing that somehow a crappy North Stars team would ride a bipolar (play-wise) Jon Casey to upset both the #1 and #2 teams in the league on the way to the Stanley Cup finals — and worse, scrapping their organ and piping that fucking “Rock n’ Roll Part II” or whatever it is for the entire playoffs, thus permanently ruining the in-arena experience for hockey fans everywhere. Sometimes I think that karma alone relocated that team.

My point is Caron and Sutter understandably thought the Blues needed more toughness on defense in a form that could carry more minutes than Dirk, who couldn’t even beat out Featherstone for minutes. Ronning had been plastered by Norris Division rivals in previous playoffs (I blame Chicago Stadium), so they figured he was a write-off anyway. Hard to defend thinking soft Quinn would replace him and Courtnall, but you gotta give up something…

The Blues were so clearly gearing up to face Chicago in an epic Norris Final, I think they psyched themselves out by drawing the North Stars. Oh, and while I’m at it, the Blues would have won first overall that year over the Blackhawks if the blind goal judge in Boston had seen Rich Sutter’s shot go in.

I’d go on but I am obviously late for therapy.