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Denied by Tommy Two Times MFHLnet
Here I am, high above the Mississippi, and only now do I realize how much I miss my cubicle back home in Dallas. Hope the MFHL is doing well. It is rumored that on the rugged cliffs and barren cold of the Eastern European summers that hockey players endure the toughest training regimens in the sport. Dominic Hasek, the impossible goaltender for the Buffalo Sabers stands perfectly straight in a field, his hands reaching high for the sky above him. A trainer is kneeling directly underneath Hasek. The trainer is holding a soccer ball no more than a single foot above the ground. Without notice the trainer releases the ball from his grasp and the ball dives towards its short drop to the ground. Like a hawk sweeping a lake for fish, Hasek's hands, then arms, shoulders, and back move in blinding speed. In about the time it takes to blink, Hasek is cradling the saved soccer ball, maybe and inch above the ground, maybe two. That's the kind of speed you need to block a 4-inch puck traveling at 100 miles-per-hour. Amazing. How rare? Think of all of the millions and millions of people to play hockey around the world. Now name the goalies that you consider to be upper-echelon, the kind of goalie that can make the good team a great team and take a perennial loser into the playoffs....4? 5, maybe? Its so rare... Never has anyone had more rare season than St. Louis Blues goaltender Mike Dunham. Dunham spent his rookie year backing a group of player so horrid, so awful, that not a single player even broke the top 100 in scoring. The St. Louis Blues were in year one of a rebuilding process and the process was going to be painful, no one had this team going into the post season. This reporter has said in past reports that the team's history "was borderline on the ridiculous". The Blues ARE ridiculous. GM Gary Peterson was a controversial hire back in late 1996, since the Blues were his first team...ever. "I was (and maybe still am) an active owner's dream come true", laughs Peterson some two-years later. "I knew very little about prospects, ratings, numbers only a solid grasp of the players in the current NHL. I was ripe for the plucking." Plucked is what Peterson did to the Blues. Macinnis, Pronger, Hull, Courtnall, all left for little in return. Peterson's first ever trade of Al Macinnis and Grant Fuhr for Victor Kozlov and Ray Whitney sent early shock waves around the league that the Blues were going to have a very hard existence. The Blues finished Season 1 by watching the playoffs from home. Even worse, Peterson sold the remaining talent from the team for draft picks and prospects. The team made a self-inflicted overhaul and with nothing but rookies, the Blues looked forward to another miserable Season 2. Then, days after the draft, Peterson made the greatest decision in his team's short history. He needed goaltenders, and he sent all of his future away, all three picks for rookie goaltenders Byron Dafoe and some kid named Mike Dunham. "I was very scared when I heard I got traded to St.Louis.", now laughs Dunham. "I was a real contender in Detroit and I had some veterans I could learn from. My parents were really upset, they thought I would burn out." Dunham did have all the ingredients of a burnout. He was a rookie, it was expected that he would play close to 70-games, was going to face an average of 45 shots, and on-top of everything else, he had a rookie goaltender in Byron Dafoe to compete with. Then the games came in and reports around the league started to read the same headlines. "Blues lose 5-4, Dunham Saves 55", "Blues Win 1-0, Dunham has 44 Shot Shut-Out". The press had already caught on to this show this SuperStar was putting on Missouri, and his best performances were yet to come. "I never in my life thought that these St.Louis Blues were going to make the playoffs", smiled Peterson in an airplane high above the ground. "There is not doubt in my mind, in anyone's mind, that Mike took us here. The boy deserves a Purple Heart for he did." Dunham didn't get a Purple Heart. In fact, he didn't get anything. The Blues got nailed in 4 games to the Chicago Blackhawk. Peterson tried to let his team play in the same training facility as the Ottawa Senators, but Yves Allaire did not allow it. After the season, Dunham got a phone call from his parents who were delighted with what they had just read. Their son was going to fly to Toronto to attend the MFHL Awards Ceremony and that he was nominated for not one award, but three. "I couldn't believe it!" stated Dunham, "I thought the only people who noticed me were in St. Louis. I never knew that the league was watching me." The MFHL was watching, and decided to do a shutout of its own on Dunham. He lost all three awards including the Vezina as top goaltender, Calder as top rookie, and the Hart as the season's MVP. Dunham takes the snuffing in good faith. "I was nominated with guys like Hasek, Berard, and Lindros. It was incredible just being there." Going into Season 3, the Blues decided to give their sensational goaltender a hand on defense. The club landed Eric Weinrich, Luke Richardson. Larry Murphy, and most importantly, Chris Pronger, to bolster the punchless Blue blue line. "Glad to be a Blue?" laughs Pronger, "When I left this team was going on a hell of a rollercoaster. Its good to be back on for the ride." Offensively, the Blues tried to rekindle some old firepower with the addition of Chris Gratton, Mike Sillinger, and left wing sniper Martin Straka. The new look Blues have actually been producing some new look results, they are winning more than they are losing and actually held first place in the Central division for a couple of days. "Greatest three days of my life." hooted Peterson, "If only I can enjoy every day like that." While the Blues are winning, the team self admits that they are a long way from drinking from Lord Stanley's Silver Trumpet. Over the past 2.5 years, more players have moved through St. Louis than herds of cattle through Fort Worth, Texas. But finally, the right players are sticking around, especially some Dunham kid, who happens to be as rare as Lord Stanley himself...
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