This may be the dumbest question asked on Game Time.
After winning the 2019 Stanley Cup, the annual tradition of figuring out which former Blue you wanted to see win hockey’s biggest prize became a little less painful. The running joke of “oh, all they had to do was play for someone else!” ended effectively with T.J. Oshie’s 2017 win with the Capitals. Now, we can just be happy when one of our old guys wins it without the dose of wistfulness.
Blues fans have a new annual tradition anyway: cheering on Pat Maroon in the Final. This year’s the fourth year that Maroon has made the Final, meaning that if the Lightning win their third Cup in a row, not only are they a new dynasty, it would make Maroon himself the biggest hockey dynasty since the early 80s New York Islanders.
All a team needs to win the Stanley Cup is Big Rig, and if the St. Louis native wasn’t already a huge fan favorite in his home town, he did himself a favor by saying exactly what nearly everyone in town things:
Stan Kroenke sucks.
“I hate Stan Kroenke.. I can’t stand that guy because he took the Rams from St. Louis” ~@patmaroon#PMSLive pic.twitter.com/Z4n5MmYWZj
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) June 14, 2022
Looks like someone has a little extra fuel on his fire to take out the Avalanche who are, of course, owned by Kroenke. This isn’t a new stance for Maroon – he made where he falls on the Kroenke contempt spectrum during the Stanley Cup parade back in 2019.
Also on the Bolts and looking for a Cup is former Blues goaltender Brian Elliott. You may remember Elliott from his All-Star appearance back in 2015, or from his active participation in at least two goalie controversies, maybe three depending on how invested one got in the Ryan Miller deal. Moose is sixth all time on the list for most games played by a Blues goaltender with 181, is first in GAA with a 2.01 mark, second in save percentage at .925 and fifth in wins with 105.
On the Avalanche side, there’s Erik Johnson, who once was run over by a golf cart. Seriously, though, his career has rebounded well with the Avalanche and it would be nice to see the Blues’ former first overall pick get his name on the Cup.
This really isn’t going to be close, is it?