ST. LOUIS -- While walking towards the press box elevator after a 6-4 win against the Buffalo Sabres last Thursday, a night in which the St. Louis Blues honored former coach Ken Hitchcock and former center Pierre Turgeon for their respective inductions into the Hockey Hall of Fame, I turned to Al MacInnis, a Hockey Hall of Famer himself and senior advisor to general manager Doug Armstrong and asked him one question.
"Did you play with Turgeon all five seasons here in St. Louis and what did you think of him," I asked.
MacInnis said he did and his following two words were all that needed to be heard.
"Helluva player," MacInnis said.
Indeed he was.
The 54-year-old was in town to get the proper accolades from the fans he graced with his multi-faceted skill of puck handling, distribution and finishing touch.
Turgeon, who began his career with the Buffalo Sabres after being selected with the first overall pick in 1987, played in 19 seasons and finished better than a point-per-game player with 1,327 points (515 goals, 812 assists) in 1,294 regular-season games and another 97 points in 109 Stanley Cup Playoff games, including his best statistical playoff season with the Blues in 2001 when he had 15 points (five goals, 10 assists) in 15 games.
His 1,327 points puts him in 34th all-time, sitting between greats Mike Gartner (1,335) and Gilbert Perreault (1,326).
"It's four days' worth, so you know it's going to go quick, those four days," Turgeon said of the Hall of Fame ceremonies. "I personally tried to slow it down as much as you can just to embrace every single moment that you have. It was so well-organized. ... It makes you realize just how big this is when you see all the names and the people there. What an incredible experience, those four days for us."
The Blues were Turgeon's fourth stop of his six NHL teams; then-general manager Ron Caron acquired him from the Montreal Canadiens on Oct. 29, 1996 along with defenseman Rory Fitzpatrick and minor-league center Craig Conroy, current GM of the Calgary Flames, for forward Shayne Corson, defenseman Murray Baron and a fifth-round pick in the 1997 NHL Draft.
It ranks as one of the greatest trades in Blues history.
He went on to post 355 points (134 goals, 221 assists) in 327 games and helped the Blues reach the playoffs in each season, playing with the likes of MacInnis, Chris Pronger, Brett Hull, Pavol Demitra and Scott Young, and playing arguably the best hockey of his career that covered the Sabres, New York Islanders, Canadiens, Blues, Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche before retiring in 2007.
"For sure. We had an incredible team and it was fun," Turgeon said. "From Al, Chris Pronger. We had Brett Hull, Scott Young, Pavol Demitra, all these guys.
"Pavol Demitra, the most underrated player I played with. Incredible player. I had a chance to play with him and Scott Young on the same line and I loved every moment of it."
These were guys that could have been good enough to help the Blues raise the Cup much sooner than they did, but it was just another example of how tough it is to win this trophy.
"I never had the chance to win it, but there's only one team that wins out of 32 teams and that's hard," Turgeon said. "That's not easy. Got to be right place, right time, you've got to have the right people and you've got to be healthy."
That's why Turgeon, like Hitchcock, took great joy in finally seeing the 2019 Blues finally shed that ginormous gorilla and win the Cup.
"Craig [Berube] and Doug, seeing them and being on top and to the organization, and the biggest thing, the fans and the city, they deserve it," Turgeon said. "It's a great sports town, but what a hockey town. It's fun to play in front of these guys, but seeing that they won the Stanley Cup in 2019 was incredible to see. I'm very happy for the players, the organization obviously and the fans."
Turgeon, whose best regular season in St. Louis was his last when he put up 82 points (30 goals, 52 assists) in 79 games, scored one of the greatest goals in Blues playoff history on May 4, 1999 when he was able to help the Blues overcome a 3-1 series deficit against the Phoenix Coyotes, scoring the overtime game-winner in Game 7 of a 1-0 win when he tipped a Ricard Persson shot past Nikolai Khabibulin.
"The highlight of one situation we had was playing against Phoenix and losing the playoff (series) 3-1 and coming back to 3-2, 3-3 and winning in overtime; I scored in overtime just being in the right place at the right time," Turgeon said.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWbehehpxMw[/embed]
Turgeon would leave St. Louis, surprisingly, when the teams couldn't come to contract terms and he signed with the Stars for three years, $19.5 million at the time.
"We signed Pierre in Dallas because he killed us when he was in St. Louis," Hitchcock, who coached in Dallas then, said. "That's the reason we signed him. We were tired of it. We said, 'Get this guy on our team because he's killing us playing for St. Louis.' We were talking about that.
"Those times, if you look at the teams Pierre played on in St. Louis, those were dominant, deep teams. We were a deep team, Colorado was a deep team, Detroit was deep. Coming out of the West was just a war zone. Every series, you knew was going to Game 6 or 7. The one year we beat St. Louis, it was in Game 6 in overtime, and St. Louis had dominated the game. That's just how close all these teams were to each other. It made for fascinating hockey, really highly competitive hockey.
"I coached against Pierre in St. Louis, and their team was awesome, and we were good in Dallas. And you had Colorado and you had Detroit, and you recognize how hard it is to win the Cup because there were occasions where I'm sure Pierre thought they were going to win and there were times when I was coaching here that I thought we were going to win. But it's hard to win and you realize how difficult it is to win that championship and to what you've got to go through to get there."
Turgeon was a points-producing machine that did it without getting under anyone's skin. He was always receiving votes for the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy given t0, "that player adjudged to have exhibited the best type of sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct combined with a high standard of playing ability." Turgeon won it in 1992-93 with the Islanders, finished seventh once and eighth twice as a member of the Blues, where he was also voted in on the all-star team twice.
"It is a highlight of my career and one of the places I enjoyed," Turgeon said of St. Louis. "What a group of guys we had here, an incredible organization. I was happy to be able to play for years with the St. Louis Blues."
