The St. Louis Blues are down 2-1 to the Minnesota Wild after their Game 3 shutout loss, which is shocking when you consider Steve Ott’s contribution to the Blues’ Cup quest thus far: 22 penalty minutes, zero points and two shots on goal. Oh, and 8:13 in ice time in Game 1.
‘Twas a time when Ott was an effective pest and depth player for the Dallas Stars and the Buffalo Sabres. But in two seasons with the Blues, he’s had three goals and 12 assists in one hundred and one games.
Jim Souhan is a columnist for the Star-Tribune. He’s taken notice of Ott’s, shall we say, underwhelming play in this series. And he went rip city on him after Game 3:
Wild fans will want to treat Steve Ott as a villain. He’s not. Villains are frightening. Ott is more like junk mail — annoying but meaningless, and soon to be stuffed in the proper recycling bin.
If the St. Louis Blues were intelligent, they would be feeding off the talent of Vladimir Tarasenko. Instead, they are feeding off the idiocy of Ott, a supposed enforcer who plays like a child, holding sticks and patting heads instead of just once hitting someone square.
When Ott actually had a chance to help his team with a third-period breakaway, he lost the puck, then fanned on a pass in the crease. He’s not a hockey player; he’s a rodeo clown.
Sometimes Ott mimics a tough guy late in games, when the hockey portion of the evening has ended. Monday, with his team down by three goals in the waning moments, he jumped on the smallest player in the game, Jared Spurgeon.
For Ott’s next act of bravery, he will taunt a sleeping kitten.
HE WOULD DARE TAUNT THIS?!
Ott was given a roughing minor against Jared Spurgeon at 19:02 of the 3-0 loss, and was also given a misconduct. Devan Dubnyk of the Wild said he saw Ott trying to pull apart Spurgeon’s face. “I could see his hand scratching at his face, so I just don’t want Spurgy to get hurt and I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what he was trying to do,” he said, via the Star Tribune.
Perhaps this could be passed off as the media from an opposing city targeting one player unfairly, but that would ignore the fact that the only people who hate Steve Ott more than Minnesotans are … Blues fans.
Witness St. Louis Game Time’s epic “38 Videos of a Bad Hockey Player; Or, The Sordid History of Steve Ott and the St. Louis Blues” takedown:
Barring such a glorious miracle, we need to hope one of Ott's dumb penalties or incompetent plays doesn't cost his team a playoff game or series. It's my deepest fear. Having worked so hard to dispel the notion of "grit," having known from the second Ott arrived in St. Louis that he would create trouble for the franchise I love, if he costs the Blues in the playoffs, it might actually kill me.
Well, luckily the Blues were already going to lose when the “rodeo clown” strapped on the spurs.
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