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Coping with your own team's shortcomings by complaining about other teams' successes is a pet peeve of mine. Much like thinking that every ref in the NHL hates the Blues, it accomplishes nothing - except it makes the team's fans look petty and small. Normally I don't have a quibble with Jeff Gordon and his column on STLToday.com, but this column from yesterday stuck under my craw. It's title?
At least the Canes have won a Cup
Really? Have we hit the point where we're so insecure about what our franchise does that we're taking jabs at the Carolina Hurricanes? Good lord. Yes, I know that the Canes are significantly under .500 for their history dating back to Hartford. Yes, I realize that the Canes have missed the playoffs four years in a row and will possibly make it five this year. Yes, I know that they're usually middle-of-the-pack.
How in the world does comparing their franchise's history to the Blues' regular season successes make any difference? Pouting "but statistically we're a better regular season team!" doesn't mean a damn thing, and everyone knows it. If the Cup were given out based on most consecutive years in the playoffs, the Blues'd have one. But it's not. It's given out to the team who gets 16 wins in the post-season, and that's not something the Blues've ever been able to accomplish.
Carolina has. Good for them.
They had what it took to succeed one season, and they probably managed to piss off most of Canada by doing so. Former Blue (of course) Rod Brind'Amour snatched the Cup from Gary Bettman mid-sentence. It was probably one of the greatest Cup presentations I've ever seen, unmatched until a Canucks fan almost took Gary's head off with a Gatorade bottle in 2011.
I don't give a shit if the Hurricanes have won a Stanley Cup, and I don't mean that dismissively. I'm happy for them. I mean that in relation to the franchise that I'm a fan of. I also don't give a shit that the Blackhawks have won two in the past four years, or that the Red Wings have goo gobs of banners or that the Canadiens are the Yankees of the NHL and we're the Expos.
I don't care.
What I do care about is our team's performance and inability to step it up in the post-season. What I care about is finally getting them over that hump that separates regular-season success from post-season greatness. Bitching and moaning that other teams have Stanley Cups and the Blues don't is not the way to do it.
So stop.
