Tales from the St. Louis Blues Locker Room: A Collection of the Greatest Blues Stories Ever Told

by Bob Plager, Tom Wheatley (With)

Overview

Nobody bleeds Blue like Bob Plager, considered one of the funniest men in hockey. This rollicking book details Plager’s romance with the Bluenotes from day one in 1967 to the present day. He was an original Blues player, a rugged defenseman whose specialty was the hip check. He remains an original personality and a good-humored man whose specialty is now the quick quip. As a master storyteller, Plager packs Tales from the St. Louis Blues Locker Room with insights from every level of the hockey rink. He chronicles the puzzling mind games of a young Scotty Bowman, the quirky coach whose legend began with the original Blues. In those old-school days, Plager learned memorable lessons from veterans like Al Arbour, Doug Harvey, Glenn Hall, Dickie Moore, and Jacques Plante, all future Hall of Famers. The early years also brought the three Plager brothers—Bob, Barclay, and Billy—together in St. Louis. Bob played long enough to help break in two Western Canadian kids, future captain Brian Sutter and future Hall of Famer Bernie Federko. Plager later coached a new generation of stars in St. Louis, players like Brett Hull, Brendan Shanahan, and Curtis Joseph. The tears and the cheers, the fun and the frustration—it is all found in Tales from the St. Louis Blues Locker Room.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781613216286
Publisher:	Sports Publishing LLC
Publication date:	10/01/2013
Series:	Tales from the Team
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	204
File size:	10 MB

About the Author

Bob Plager both played and coached in the Blues organization. He ranks fifth all-time in Blues history with 615 games played. Currently, Plager works in the Blues’ community relations department and also is an analyst on KMOX. He lives in St. Louis, Missouri.

Tom Wheatley, a former sports columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, is a four-time Missouri Sports Writer of the Year. He is the author of St. Louis Sports Folks and the coauthor of The Memoirs of Bing Devine, 70! Mark McGwire, Fathers and Sons, Get With It, Girls! Life is Competition, and Bob Forsch's Tales from the Cardinals Dugout. He lives in St. Louis, Missouri.

A Blues fan since childhood, Laura Astorian has had to follow the team from afar. After moving to Atlanta in 1992, Laura got by on newspaper clippings, a large hockey card collection that, according to her mother, "would never be worth anything" (it is), and her copy of NHL 94. Laura currently is the editor of the SB Nation blog St. Louis Game Time, the internet home of the fan-run paper of the same name that has been sold outside of Blues home games for more than twenty-five years. Laura lives and works in suburban Atlanta.
 

Table of Contents

Introduction viii

An Original Blue 1

Checking In 2

The Canadien Connection 4

Know When to Say Fun 4

Playing Hurt 6

Scotty Takes Charge 7

The Best One 8

Scotty on Duty 9

The Right Touch 11

Red Alert 12

Kennel Time 12

Go Figure 13

You Are What You Eat 16

The Answer Man 16

Key Player 17

Mistaken Identity 18

Merry Christmas 20

Method and Madness 23

Jukebox Blues 24

No Match for Scotty 25

The Real World 26

The Bowman Bottom Line 28

Hazing Days of Winter 29

Unfortunate Fortin 30

Legendary Entrance 32

Master at Work 33

Influence 36

…Good Influence 37

Simple Wisdom 38

Listen and Learn 39

Red's Six Pack 40

Up Close and Impersonal 43

Crime and Semi-punishment 47

Jail On! 49

NHL Justice 50

Making Friends in Pittsburgh 53

Blues Fans 56

A Player's Owner 58

Put 'em Up 61

Might is Right 61

A Knee for a Knee 63

The Record-setter 66

A Medical First 67

What a Guy 67

Another Cut of Cloth 70

Payback 71

Payback II 71

Airplane Antics 72

Waiting Game 75

Shoe Was Fun 78

No Laughing Matter 79

Irish Eyes Unsmiling 81

Train of Thought 82

Purple Snow 86

Paying the Price 89

Off-season Non-training 90

Conditioning Tips 92

Whoa, Nellie! 95

Hunting Snipe 96

Snipe Extinction 100

Doc Gilden 101

Measuring Toughness 103

Gasser 105

Polished Just Enough 107

A Tragic Ride 108

Goal Scorer 110

The Refs 112

Trash-talking Etiquette 113

"Pic" a Seat 114

Sid "ta Turd" 116

Time to Go 117

The Unretiring Type 119

Behind the Bench 121

The First Pro Scout 123

It Plays in Peoria 126

On the Record 127

The Lone Ranger 128

Psychic Bed Check 131

The Gameplan 133

Call-ups 134

A Player's Coach 137

The Shadow of Scotty 138

Still the Pupil 140

Goalie Care 141

Be Yourself 142

Peoria Bottom Line 143

The Plagers of Kirkland Lake 144

Sibling Rivals 146

Riding the Bench 147

Meeting Emile Francis 148

Brother Against Brother 149

Brother Billy 153

Meeting Noel Picard 155

The Plager Way 157

Paying the Price 158

Brothers, not Partners 160

Oh, Brother 161

The Babysitter 163

My First Agent 164

Barc the Coach 165

Barc, Bernie, and Brian 166

Bad News 167

The Worst News 169

Showing Up 171

Lotto Trouble 172

Pinch-coaching 174

Plan B 175

Barc the Spark 176

Miracle Monday 177

A Hard Goodbye 179

Barc and "Harold" 180

One of the Barclay Brothers 182

Coach of the Blues 182

Stepping Down 184

Another Kid's Dream 186

Pupil vs. Teacher 186

Old School, New School 187

Updates to the 2020 Edition 190