If only the St. Louis Blues could clone Chris Pronger
The local hockey team needs some meanness in their defense
Chris Pronger was MAD DOG mean.
If there was a place in the NHL dictionary for a player who didn’t take an ounce of shit, Pronger’s name would be near the top. Just ask Blues head coach (and former enforcer), Craig Berube.
In speaking to the media before Monday night’s game, where Pronger’s jersey was being hung in the rafters, Berube talked about the unique skill set #44 brought to the ice. In a nutshell, he could do it all—everything a head coach could possibly ask a player to do. When asked about never fighting him, Berube responded by reminding the journalist that the Blues had other guys to fight him instead of their captain.
Pronger’s job was to disrupt the body, mind, and soul of any jersey who had the nerve to stand in front of the St. Louis net. It would be like having a picnic on the railroad tracks just to see how hard you could be hit.
He’s the kind of guy who has a picture of him out there of him ramming a player’s face into the boards-during an exhibition game-and smile wide while doing it. There are certain defensemen who play the position, and there were guys like Prongs who did things a different way. It wasn’t dirty play; just old school hockey.
The man also possessed a big time shot and the ability to hit a winger succinctly with an outlet pass like few others could do. Pronger would lay the puck on the tape of his teammate as the receiving skater was in stride, which gave him the ability to just storm into the zone with his head up and friends nearby.
Chris Pronger Interview via St. Louis Game Time
After all, Pronger had to be this great, especially since he cost the team a fan favorite upon his arrival in town. When Brendan Shanahan went to the Hartford Whalers for Pronger, Blues fans nearly lost their minds. You were trading a 40-50 goal scorer for a young defenseman who probably wouldn’t live up to the hype of his draft slot.
Narrator Note: Pronger lived up to the trade, and then some. All you have to do, stat wise, is point at the season where he won both the Hart and Norris trophies.
Out of all the stats compiled in his 18 year career, the one that sticks out to me isn’t the one you would think. It’s not 1,590 penalty minutes or 698 points. It’s the +183 +/- rating. If there’s one position I tie this often-overused stat to most, it’s defensemen. They are the last bodies standing in front of the goaltender. So, to see a longtime blue liner like Pronger accumulate that impressive of a mark means opposing players didn’t get the job done on the ice as often with #44 out there.
That’s being extremely good and revered in your job, something thousands of players aspire to be but never fully reach.
It makes me wish the man could still play. Somehow, he’d get a new set of knees and a few concussions taken off the ledger. If hockey players didn’t age nearly as fast as football players, Pronger could still contribute a shift or two. He could give this already very good Blues team that true grit layer of meanness that they lack.
If only that were possible. How good is Chris Pronger? The kind of good that has one considering asking the 47-year-old to suit up this week.
The man was MAD DOG mean, as my dad used to reference from a movie. The kind of guy who even made Berube’s night a living hell.