So, after the Blues won tonight and I was going through my normal process of calming down/self-medicating via alcohol, I decided to skip around the internet to see what people thought about our team. Tonight's win gave them 95 points, good enough to be best in the Western Conference.
But better than that, the standings told me, the Blues are now four points ahead of Detroit with the same number of games played.
Cool, I thought. But doesn't Vancouver have a game or two in hand? No, I found out. They do not. They are three points back, same number of games played.
Interesting, I thought. The Rangers must have games in hand. I checked, and they do. Two games in hand. But they're four points back. Plus, the Note beat them head-to-head.
So....
That must mean....
The Blues are the best team in hockey. No caveats. No "but when" situations. No nothing.
Surely the mainstream media have noticed, right?
TSN, my go-to hockey site, had Montreal's win as their main story. Montreal is in last place in the Eastern Conference. Their next two sub-main stories were about Toronto losing to Philadelphia (Toronto is in 12th, Philly in 5th) and Buffalo beating Ottawa (Sabres are 10th in the East, Ottawa 7th - although I loved their headline of Tyler The Creator in homage to Tyler Ennis/Tyler The Creator from Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All). Their side stories were about The Avs beating the Oil, the Preds beating the Wings, Sidney Crosby and the Caps beating the Bruins.
And then the Blues beating the Jackets.
Maybe it's because it's a Canadian site, I thought. Maybe that's why the front-running Blues were the eighth-most important story to TSN. So I went to ESPN.com, where I never go for hockey news. The Americans might put an American team at the top of their story list, right?
Sorta.
San Jose and Phoenix are American teams, yes, but are they the best NHL story? Who cares, says ESPN. That game gets top billing. The Blues did even worse with ESPN than they did with TSN, falling out after Crosby, the Capitals, Fantasy Hockey, the GM meetings, Brendan Morrow and the Stars, Bruins backup goalie Tuukka Rask, the sixth-place NJ devils beating the 14th place NY Isles, The Caps (again) and Jonathan Toews.
That means the NHL-leading team is the 11th best story of the night on Saturday.
I bet our buddy Wyshynsky has our back on a Sattidy night, right?
Nope. An afterthought comment that gives less information than a boxscore. Thanks, Daddy.
But you know what? It just don't matter none. Keep our name out of your mouth. Keep your trophy talk on other players and other teams. Keep your praise for the same old same old same old.
We just don't care. Hell, come April, even St. Louis won't be talking about St. Louis hockey.
We don't care. We don't want your praise. Or analysis. Or anything. It's us against everyone anyway. Keep lining up against us because we're ready.
Even better? Keep ignoring us.
Until you can't anymore. Because it's too late.