In Defense of the Power Play Dance

It supposedly started in section 316, but no one knows for sure. It’s simple, but elegant, lame, but catchy. It’s the Ameren UE power play dance.

The dance isn’t really all that difficult. It is far less complicated than the Missouri Waltz, the Braves’ Chop, or the Bob n Weave for that matter.Sure you look stupid doing it, but when you are crammed in the upper deck with your nacho cheese-stained 1994 Brett Hull Jersey trying to get a picture with Louie, you’re going to look stupid anyway; you might as well do something productive up there.


And for whatever odd reason, the power play dance is productive. The Note posted a 23.5% power play success rate in front of the home fans last year. That was good enough for 5th in the NHL, and 2nd by fractions of a percent to the Red Wings in the Western Conference. Now 23% may not seem that egregious when you think that the 2008-2009 overall leading Red Wings posted just a 25.5% rate. But consider this, nearly one third of the team’s total goals occurred on the power play!


That was last year. Let’s fast forward to the present, where already it’s becoming apparent that the Blues’ success hinges on their power play. It is very early, but already four of the Blues’ twelve goals have come on the power play, and although technically the Note scored three of them as the home team, in the Scottrade Center, the Blues are zero for eight with the man-advantage. Something is wrong here.


You can’t criticize the personnel that Coach Murray is throwing out there. Any coach would salivate at the opportunity to throw Brad Boyes, Keith Tkachuk, Andy McDonald, Paul Kariya, and Eric Johnson out on the man-advantage. You really can’t criticize the coaching either; four goals in the first two games against the Red Wings shows me that whatever plays and systems these guys are learning in practice will work. However the Power Play Unit has been out of sync since they returned to St. Louis, and players and fans are wondering why. Blues center Andy McDonald struggled to explain what exactly went wrong when he said, “I don’t really know the reason for it, I think everyone’s heart’s in the right place, but I think just in terms in execution we weren’t where we needed to be.”


I have yet to alert the proper authorities in the Blues coaching staff, but I think I may have the answer. Although it has still been present the last two games at home, the Ameren UE Power Play dance is clinging to life in the upper deck. On Saturday I counted less than thirty people in the upper deck partaking in the celebration of the man-advantage. Down in the lower bowl it was even worse; less than five people raised their arms and pumped them like fieldgoal posts up and down to the music. It’s not a shock to this columnist why the Blues’ normally potent power play suffered an 0 for 5 blackout against the Kings on Saturday.


Sure some people hate it, and yes, it really is stupid, but Blues fans, it’s ours. It’s like the Bob ‘n Weave, or the over gratuitous curtain calls that Cardinals fans give to home run hitters in the dead of summer. Blues fans, if you love your hockey team, bring back the Ameren UE Power Play Dance.