It’s a better story than the Mighty Ducks.
The St. Louis Blues won their first Stanley Cup in franchise history Wednesday night. The story of how they got there is an inspiring one.
January 2 was an off day for the St. Louis Blues. It was also a significant day because it was on that day where they fell into last place in points in the NHL. It had already been a chaotic season. In November, the time fired head coach Mike Yeo. At that point, rising star goalie Jordan Binnington hadn’t even started an NHL game (and he wouldn’t get his first win until January 7).
The Blues had a winning record for the month of January. But as the month ended, they were still far behind in the playoff standings and posted the third worst record in the Western Conference.
In February, the Blues caught fire. From January 23-February 19, St. Louis won 11 straight games. They continued to rise in the standings and made their way into the playoffs, tied for the fourth most points in the Wester Conference.
Once they made it to the playoffs, it wasn’t an easy journey. All four of their playoff series went at least six games. In every round but the first round, the other team had the home ice advantage. But last night, the Blues came out in game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals and dominated Boston.
It’s a great story.
To think on January 2 that St. Louis would win the Stanley Cup. It would have been laughable. The playoffs seemed like a far off dream.
But there are some life lessons we can all learn from the Blues this season. It’s not where you start that matters. It’s how you respond and how you finish. Keep grinding, keep fighting, keep working hard and amazing things can happen.
Just because you start working to improve doesn’t mean that it becomes easy along the way. The Blues had to battle the whole way.
It’s always easy to settle for failure. It’s always easy to make excuses and justifications for why things can’t change or get better, of why YOU can’t change or get better. It’s always easy to think it’s too late, you’re too old, you didn’t have the right foundation, etc.
Don’t make excuses. Just grind.
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Josh Benner has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He has served churches in Minnesota and Illinois. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in St. Louis.
Josh Benner 