ST LOUIS, Mo -I don’t care. I mean, I am here – and I paid more than face-value for the ticket for crying out loud, I’ve never paid this much money for a ticket to a sporting event in my life – so I must care, right?
I ask myself this question as I sit in Section 332 – upper-bowl, corner – at the ScottTrade Center waiting for the St. Louis Blues and Chicago Blackhawks to face-off.
Actually, I do know why I am here. I am here for a guys-night-out. I am here for some rivalry hockey. I am here to find out what ScottTrade is (don’t they make “bathroom tissue”?)
I am sitting between two friends. Chris is wearing a Blues jersey. Bruce was brave enough to don Blackhawk sweater. Me? I’m here representing my hockey roots. I’m wearing an antique (well almost) Rivermen jersey. How old? Well, the old IHL (you remember, the real IHL) patch was sewn over with an ECHL patch. It’s a game-worn classic (and, just for good measure, I’ve got my fight-strap tied down through a belt loop tonight.)
The guys keep asking me who I am rooting for. Who do I want to win? The truth is, I don’t care.
I was raised a Cub fan. Like any good downstate Cubs fan, I hate – absolutely hate – the St. Louis baseball franchise. (I was a teenager before learned Chicago had another major league baseball team – seriously.) I live and die with my Cubbies – and let me tell you, that’s a lot of death and destruction.
The only NFL team I root for is the Bears. I mean, Ditka, Sayers, Butkus, Payton, Singletary, the whole team from ’85 that Ditka called “the Grabowski’s” – now that was blue-collar. The rural small-town I grew up in seemed to identify with the Monsters of the Midway. It was down-and-dirty football and we loved it.
The logic of geographic influence would seem to dictate that I would want to don the Indian-head. An Original Six team with one of the best logos in all of sports, you’d think I’d be screaming my head off for the Blackhawks. But I wasn’t raised in Chicago and I wasn’t raised in a family that knew hockey.
The Rivermen, for the longest time, were the only pro hockey in Illinois south of I-80. Peoria has a long relationship with the St. Louis Blues. Rivermen fans knew about Twist and Chase first, before they went on to fame wearing the Blue Note. From the IHL through the ECHL and into the AHL years, you could see a player on the ice in Peoria on Friday and tune in the TV on Sunday afternoon and see the same guy making plays for the Blues. Simply by association, I should be a Blues fan.
So I’m torn – or, at least, I should be torn. Oddly, I am not. No matter how much lobbying Bruce or Chris do, I still don’t care who wins.
I do have rooting interests. What I am rooting for is a damn good hockey game. I am rooting for Davis Payne, who I think may make an excellent NHL coach. I am rooting for the goalies – there is nothing better than some stellar goalie play. I love hard-checking. This is a rivalry game, after all. I expect to see some guys getting pasted into the glass.
But, as far as who wins, I don’t care. A the end of the night, one team will prevail. It doesn’t matter whih one, I am sure we will hear about it all the way home. But to me, it doesn’t matter who wins – just as long as it isn’t the Red Wings.
Contact the author at shaun.bill@prohockeynews.com
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