For Chaser…
I apologize in advance if this gets long and rambley. Usually when I sit down to write something I know exactly what I want it to say. This time I only really know where I want it to end.
Since not everyone reading this has known me for decades, a little background most of you already know at least to some degree. I am a lifelong St. Louis Blues fan. I have had some sort of a beard since I was 17. This is where those two things meet.
June 12, 2019 was, and forever will be, the greatest sports day of my life. That is the day the Blues finally won the Stanley Cup. There are long stretches of my life where the ability to type that sentence felt impossible. It was also the culmination of a 63 day journey to get there for the team and really about a two year one for me personally. It was glorious, the unattainable brass ring had been grabbed.
2019 is the last time I did a charity beard drive for the Blues playoff run. It is one of the things I am most proud of. I raised $1,685 for Be the Match, made a lot of memories, and had some truly meaningful conversations with people who generally fall into the dick and fart joke level of discussion. For those who may not know, this is what a playoff beard is. For charity, I will shave clean before game 1 of the playoffs and I will not shave again until the Blues win the Stanley Cup or get eliminated from the playoffs. 63 days was just gross, my neck beard had a neck beard. It was hot and uncomfortable, and I would not change it for the world.
Some other nuggets from the 2019 experience:
• The longest a team could be in the playoffs in 2019 was 63 days requiring round one game one to be played on the first night of the playoffs and playing in game seven of the Stanley Cup Finals with that having started on the latest possible date.
• The maximum number of games possible in a playoff run is 28, the Blues played 26, a record, none of it was easy.
• In the first round with the series tied at two, I looked for shits and giggles to see if I could figure out a way to go to game six. I did, because of course I did. Later that night, the Blues were down 2-0 going to the third period in game five, it should have been three. “What was I thinking? Why did I spend all that money?” They scored three times in the third including in the final 20 seconds to win game five.
• I was there for Jaden Schwartz’s natural hat trick in game six. His family’s story is how I learned of Be the Match. It was kismet. It is to this day the only Blues playoff win I have seen in person, and it was to close out the series.
• Before the 2019 playoffs, I had zero gray hair in my beard, the half dollar sized spot on the right of my chin started in the second round.
• Instead of getting my house painted, I went to game three of the finals, the Blues lost 7-2 to fall behind 2-1 in the series, it was totally worth it.
• June 13, 2019 is the only time I have called out of work in at least the last 10 years. I sent a three-word text when my alarm went off, “Taking today off.” I was spent, just a complete combination of exhaustion and exuberance.
In the years since, I have not done another charity beard drive for the playoffs. In 2020, the world sucked, the bubble playoffs seemed fake, and doing anything just felt misplaced. The 2021 season felt like it didn’t count. It was 56 games of fits and starts and the world still largely sucked. Hitting people up for money was not on my list. In 2022, I was looking for a new job and did not want to go chia-face. Plus, if I am being honest, doing nothing is always easier than doing something. The Blues missed the playoffs in 2023 and 2024. This year they are in on the heels of playing ~.800 for the last two and a half months of the season to sneak in on the last day, it has been a joy to watch, and I am motivated to try again.
2019 was the culmination of thousands of miles air and car, dozens of games, god only knows how much time and money. There were so many memories along the way, a lot of heartbreak and a lot of joy…but mostly heartbreak. The 2019 Blues are not the best Blues team I have ever seen, they are the ones who got the job done. It was in a lot of ways life changing for me. The wins are still fun, the losses don’t hurt as bad. If nothing else, I got one.
I want to tell the story of one of those memories and why this mattered and matters so much. It is the story of the non-descript black puck you should be able to see photographed in this if I did it correctly.
It was January of 1998. I did not have midterms the second and third day of tests my senior year of high school, my friend Iain only had one in the early session of day two and none on day three. The Blues were in Pittsburgh the night of day two. There was an eight hour window to pull off the six hour drive, get tickets, and go to the game, it was happening.
We took my 92 Geo Storm compete with discman plugged into the lighter down the PA turnpike to the Igloo, bought student rush tickets and went down to ice level before the game. It turned into one of those nights that I would never forget. Sidenote, I was about six feet tall at this point, no one over 5’8” should ever have driven a Geo Storm, well, no one really should have ever driven a Geo Storm, but that’s another story for another time.
Before pregame warmups we went down to ice level. Joel Quenneville the Blues coach at the time gave us his time and talked to us for several minutes. I have zero recollection of what was said, but it was so cool. He signed my jersey. Just talking to an NHL coach and getting my jersey signed, how could this get any better? We stayed at ice level for pregame warmups. At this point I was too old to be the cute kid and too young to know any better. I was a dipshit kid seizing a moment. As each player left the ice, I had a comment or asked for an autograph. I got one, Craig Conroy, number 22 at the time, signed my number 22 Ian Laperriere jersey. Most of the other players walked past. I want to say a couple nodded, there may have been a high five or two. One of the last players off the ice was Kelly Chase. As he walked off, he flipped me that non-descript puck. I have had that puck for almost 30 years, it is in my will, it matters. I remember almost nothing of the game, I know the Blues lost, I think Grant Fuhr started, and for some reason 5-2 rings a bell, but that night, that night was special.
Kelly Chase was not some great player. He was a fighter, a glue guy. In his post career he has become a tremendous ambassador for the Blues and is a great humanitarian with countless charity endeavors. He really is a legend without having ever been a star. Coincidentally he was voice in the pregame hype video before the aforementioned game six in round one. He is part of the fabric of the team and deeply intertwined in my personal journey with it.
Kelly Chase is currently battling cancer for a second time. Instead of privacy, he has chosen to make his fight public. He recently underwent a bone marrow transplant from his brother joking that it would make him dumber in the process. He has done so with grace and positivity. Some of it is hard to hear, but it really is amazing how he has attacked this head on. He has done radio hits from the hospital. He tells of the pain and awful impacts while focusing on kicking cancer’s ass. He was a warrior on the ice and truly has been one in this fight. He has organized Puck Cancer hockey games to raise crazy amounts of money for the V Foundation and Steinmann Cancer research.
So as a very small way to say thank you for all those dipshit kids who didn’t know any better who this man made a lifelong memory for, this year’s beard-a-thon is in honor and the proceeds will go to the V-Foundation.
Nothing will ever be as great as 2019, but it does not mean other things cannot be awesome. I am donating $100 for the Blues making the playoffs and the sheer entertainment this run has brought me. I will add another $25 per win in the playoffs. I deeply and truly appreciate the time you took reading this and for any consideration.
Update 1
Go Fund Me only allows five pictures, so a couple will be cycling in and out as this goes on.
My company matched $50 on my initial donation which is not present in the Go Fund Me totals.
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