Wow, How Right I was

When the Chicago Blackhawks were eliminated from the 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs I immediately tipped my hat to the St. Louis Blues on a hard fought series.

In hockey tradition, congrats to the @StLouisBlues next year @NHLBlackhawks One Goal

— Chicago Style Sports (@ChiStyleSports) April 26, 2016

The next morning I woke up to find this article from Yahoo Sports’ Puckdaddy, Greg Wyshynski detailing how the Blues’ organist had trolled the Blackhawks by playing “Chelsea Dagger” during the handshake. While Greg mentions…

Now, you might call this unsportsmanlike taunting by an opponent that blew a 3-1 series lead and was fortunate to escape the first round against a stellar opponent and fierce rival.

But then you’d be a naysayer. And in the immortal words of Blues coach Ken Hitchcock on Monday night:

“The naysayers can all take a day off. We can celebrate for a day, and then you all can start bashing us again.”

Perhaps I am a naysayer? Perhaps this is a silly thing to be upset about? I don’t know…

I had been clear in the original piece I wrote on the subject – Blues show their true colors – that I wouldn’t point fingers at the players, or Ken Hitchcock, or even Doug Armstrong. I don’t think they have anything to do with this, and all of those guys collectively added to a highly competitive team that will now lace them up against the Dallas Stars in what should be another amazing series. Perhaps the only finger should be pointed at the Scottrade Center organist, Jeremy Boyer?

I don’t know.

What I do know is, it was a shot below the belt, which tarnished one of the classiest moments in hockey. A moment which we saw mutual respect given between two teams that, for all intents and purposes, hate each other. Whether it is the five regular season games played against each other, or the seven gruelling games during the playoffs. The hits, the scrums that went too far, the fighting, late hits that were noticed and those that were not, the antagonistic little things guys like Andrew Shaw can do throughout a series, or the hard checking that David Backes is notorious for.

Regardless of all of that, these guys skated side-by-side, shook each other’s hands, and in some cases hugged each other – congratulating the other on a fantasic series.

https://twitter.com/myregularface/status/724800347634585600

The compliment bouquets continued into the locker rooms, and into the media sessions. Ken Hitchcock mentioning how amazed he was to see what a true championship level team can do with their backs against the wall. Joel Quenneville mentioning how hard the Blues fought when the pressure shifted to them for Game 7.

While what the organist did, didn’t cheapen the handshake, or the respect among the players. It did show unsportsmanlike behavior at a horrible time, and apparently my mentioning this has made Chicago Style Sports, and myself enemy number one in St. Louis.

Since that article posted I have received some extremely heated, and flat out classless responses from numerous social media (for lack of a better term) gangs out of St. Louis. It appears that most of them were inspired by Tony Patrico of The Rizzuto Show on 105.7 The Point in St. Louis.

https://twitter.com/Patrico1057/status/725284483939885056

While Patrico mentions that he was stoked the Blues won (he should be, they literally just beat a NHL juggernaut) the piece was then made available to his some od 13,000 followers, giving it a new life. While I didn’t write it for St. Louis fans, the internet is a strange thing and who knows where things land once it is out there.

That is when the website became littered with Blues’ fans responses. Many of them I have left in moderation and not approved because of language or the pure hate spewed from them.

– I also left the remark from my mom in moderation, love ya, but I can handle it –

Here is the beginning of the Blues attacking on Twitter, you can easily do a Twitter search and find much much more (yeah, I’ve noticed some of you deleting comments already).

Hey @rljmb23 in response to "Blues are classless for playing Chelsea Dagger". Remember these? Now, whose classless?https://t.co/u3Dg0B1HrA

— Chris Frank (@Hoss_a_palooza) April 27, 2016

While sure, only six people “liked” his well thought out tweet, the onslaught had begun. My Twitter mentions were blowing up.

All the while, each and every time my phone buzzed with a new notification, it helped prove my original point.

A Twitter message with a crying baby or a message on the website saying I should just kill myself. Suggesting I didn’t know hockey, or was too sensitive to be a fan of the sport. I also got the messages of this is the pot calling the kettle black.

I will be the first to say it – I have been verbally beaten up locally because of this – Andrew Shaw is an idiot on the ice. I will even concede that Duncan Keith, while 99% of the time is the player every team would drool over and IS already a future Hall of Famer, goes WAY too far and is dangerous to others at times while playing. A lot of Blackhawks fans are quick to point out that they’ve done these acts in retaliation, but it is still no excuse to put others seasons or careers on the line for your chance at revenge.

Even conceding these points, Blues fans continue to show why – even in victory, they are poor sports.

https://twitter.com/nathanshank25/status/725335126549225472

https://twitter.com/B_R_E_N_M/status/725336119127187458

https://twitter.com/coltonkiser_/status/725335352961978369

@rljmb23 maybe you should change your tampon you cry baby

— EddieGregs (@EddieGregs) April 27, 2016

@rljmb23 pic.twitter.com/tWeWS9iQJA

— Casey Hinch (@casey_hinch) April 27, 2016

Then this tweet seemed to inspire a special kind of hate.

https://twitter.com/ArtLippo/status/725338445028155392

With many jumping on his bandwagon, mostly it was all fans being fans. I get it. I also enjoy some of the ribbing that goes on between fans. Hell, I tell readers to go to team Twitter handles all the time because of the trolling that goes on between teams, opposing fans, and the like. I’ve written stories on how comical the Dallas Stars scoreboard operator has been when trolling fans or teams (perpare for the Blues fans).

I typically enjoy it.

But this piece had seemed to inspire others to leave hateful messages. It was no longer fun trolling, but offensive and incomprehensible…

I’m not gonna lie, I don’t know what to say to that. While some of my friends (God bless them as they certainly helped remove some of the insult by this) pointed out the grammar error (which you can do in 99% of my posts ?) or just tried deflecting the hatred, it still bothered me, even if I deflected it by asking if this is how I knew I’ve made it.

I woke this morning to a new thought on this, and Bill Wilson – remember the #Cool dude from the original post – helped me come to this conculsion.

@hoferz @rljmb23 you're reiterating his exact point. when you win, don't take cheap shots at the losing team (who's won 3 of last 5 Cups).

— Bill Wilson (@ivwilsoniv) April 27, 2016

He may not have been speaking to the hateful comments, but it resonated with me. These comments do prove the point. While the fans and city should be looking towards a great matchup against Dallas. While they should be beginning their candidacy of Vladimir Tarasenko as a potential Conn Smythe guy. While they should be talking about how Hitchcock righted the ship to play a great Game 7 and steal the series. Hell, they could be focusing on this awesome guy…

The man that has captivated the hockey world by discovering how cool the game is…

But they decided to attack a little blog talking Chicago sports.

Good luck St. Louis as you face another championship caliber team, hopefully your fans realize this.