Hochman: From a Navy Ship to the USI in the Bahamas – Stories of Blues Fans Watching Match 7 | Benjamin Hochman

TIM DOWLING: We miscalculated our trip, thinking that there was only one day off per lap. So we spent the seventh game in the Cayman Islands.

I was at all the winners of the series and at games 3 and 6 of the final. My parents even went to see the history of Boston for the second game. I watched the game in a bar of the Islands with my parents. – who has taught me the season ticket game at the old barn on Oakland Ave. – and also with my three boys playing youth hockey in Kirkwood. We converted everyone in the bar into blues fans – except two Boston fans. I brought my portable speaker to the bar and introduced the island to "Gloria", and I played the foghorn and the goal song after each goal. The best way to spend it is not in STL!

In the morning, the boys and I went to the beach and made a Stanley Cup, a Bluenote and an LGB in the sand. We were all dressed in blues and going crazy. It was awesome.

ZACH TOBIN: A stage 4 cancer of the esophagus was diagnosed in my father's in September. He's always been a fan of blues who started hockey hockey with my brother and me. We played to grow. He had problems with his treatment, which landed him at the ICU at the Siteman Cancer Center. So my brother, my sister and my mother watched him in the intensive care ward at Siteman. Pretty emotional.

ROB BERTMAN: I was on a flight from southwestern Phoenix to St. Louis and the flight took off just before the start of the third period. Everyone immediately went out to use WiFi to watch the game. All the aircraft applauded after the goals – it was unbelievable. And when we landed, the flight attendant announced, "Welcome to St. Louis, home of the Stanley Cup champion, the Blues!"

ALI ROSS: I am a doctoral student at Washington University and I am from St. Louis. I visited a laboratory in the Netherlands for two months for a collaboration as part of my thesis project. My family is here and we have been traveling across Europe for a week and a half.

My dad is a longtime blues fan and has been subscribing for over 15 years. – He is one of those sad and constantly disappointed fans of the Blues who knows he does not have hope of going up before the playoffs … even if there is always a glimmer of hope in his eyes. So you know what happens next – Family plans a huge Euro trip, certain that the Blues will not play in June, and we find ourselves on the other side of the ocean in the biggest games ever played by the Blues.

He went to Games 3 and 4 in St. Louis and we listened to the match 6 at 2 am in a Munich hotel because of a lack of WiFi and a faulty VPN. Fortunately, we understood the VPN and were able to watch match 7 at 2 am in our Airbnb in Amsterdam. While the Blues won their very first Stanley Cup, my father was jumping on the couch like a child on Christmas morning (I have a video but he would kill me if she ever came on the Internet …)

We, the five exhausted and sleep-deprived tourists, are disappointed to miss entertainment in St. Louis, but we still celebrate in Europe. We can not wait to go home to celebrate with friends and family.

ANDREW KELLER: My play day 7 started at 2 am when my wife – we were married on June 7 – and I had to get ready for a flight. We were headed to our honeymoon in the Bahamas. When they won, I cried.

The next day, I raised a giant piece of Rook chess as a celebration. Best week of my life.

ROB LACINY: I lived in St. Louis for the first 40 years of my life, other than when I was in Mizzou. I fell asleep in front of Dan Kelly during a conference call on KMOX. I moved to Singapore with my wife and children almost two years ago. I had to give up my subscription plan. The time difference is 12 hours and this Stanley Cup race has been incredible. But watching games at 8:00 am without his friends was a very strange experience. There is a lot of facial timing and celebration in the morning while my children are in school.

My brother has tickets and when the playoffs started, he just announced: if we participate in the Stanley Cup final, of course I will have to go home. We joked about it because, as a fan of blues and mizzou, you are 100% pre-programmed to wait for that groin kick at some point.

Well, all of us, my wife, my three kids, and I had already booked our flights for over six months. For June 15, I would miss the final (the seventh match was held on June 12). Then, when we won the fifth game, I texted my wife to tell her the score and she asked me if I had already booked my flight. And within 24 hours, I was going home.

We almost missed a connecting flight to San Francisco – the plane was waiting for us and cheered when we sprinted into the plane. Arrived at 5:20 on Sunday. I went to match 6 that night with my brother. Watch Game 7 with my best friends at Seamus McDaniel. Then celebrated as it is until yesterday at 4 am … then reassembled at lunch time. It was a mess.

BOBBY EHRLICH: At 3 am I watched game 7 from the balcony of my apartment in Haifa, Israel, to make sure I did not wake up my roommates to scream after the blues. I am from St. Louis and I teach English for a year. I watched the entire race on my laptop at any time in the morning.

My girlfriend, who is from Chicago, but not a sportswoman, woke up to watch the third period with me, so I was not celebrating the party alone.

I immediately called my father, who was at Enterprise with my sister. He could not really hear because of the noise, but he did not stop shouting, "We won the cup!" He hails from Jersey but became a Blues fan in the late 80s when he moved here for the first time. We then lived in Florida for a few years, but he never gave up on his Blues fandom. When we returned to the Saint-Louis area for his new job, he turned my sister and me into buffs. It was hard not to be with him, but after all the sorrow he saw, I could not be happier than he was finally able to see him coming.

About an hour after the final honking, I was in the bus to go to school. A friend from FaceTimed High School me. He was with all my friends, who had all had an extra Bud Lights at this stage. We were screaming to win all this – and the bus driver shouted me out of it. But I did not care. They finally won everything.

JASON STYGAR: So, I travel A LOT to work as a sound engineer for live events …

I watched the last two games of the conference finals in Australia.

For the Stanley Cup Final

Game 1: Enterprise Center Surveillance Night

Game 2: New York at Wood and Ales – the big Blues bar serving grilled toast.

Game 4: On a long-haul flight to London (thankfully, they had good WiFi)

Game 5: Düsseldorf, Germany at 2am before working the next day

Game 6: Outdoor show party in St. Louis … until my boss surprises me and two colleagues with tickets for the match

Game 7: Evening of business watches with my wife, brother and longtime best friend, with whom it was a dream to celebrate.

KEVIN SCHMIEDER: I live in Wellington, New Zealand, for a year and have watched all the playoffs of the Blues played in New Zealand. When I first mentioned the hockey playoffs to a friend here, he thought I was talking about field hockey. Nobody in the country plays ice hockey, so watching the games has taken a bit.

Geo's restrictions on viewing live online content meant that I had to pay for a VPN at the start of the playoffs. Fortunately, my good friend shared his US cable TV ID and I persuaded nbcsports.com to think that I was just a New Jersey fan watching matches online. I also have 17 hours ahead of St. Louis, so almost every game I watched alone at home at lunch time.

I work at home, so I've visited them all, but while the guys were attending 14:00 games on Sunday, I got up early Monday morning at 6:00 to prepare breakfast for my wife and myself, before the face-off of 7 hours.

For the sixth game of the Stanley Cup final, I finally found a local pub that disabled the broadcast of the final of the French Men's Open and presented the match (broadcast here on ESPN, so no from Doc Emrick to the call). My wife and I were the only two people in the pub watching the game. We returned for the seventh game and, apart from us, only a couple of seniors watched the first two periods during lunch.

During the first intermission, the woman asked where we were coming from. It turns out that she and her husband were fans of the Connecticut Bruins. At the end of the match, my wife went back to work. I watched all the post-match in tears and all alone. A bit disappointing, but I would look at it all alone next year for another!

Thanks to my wife's work, we have been living around the world for seven years. I have never missed St. Louis more than last night.

MEGAN SACK: My husband, who is on active duty in the Navy, is a big Blues fan. I saw her at home in Norfolk, Virginia, with my 13-month-old son. Unfortunately, my husband is at sea and has not been able to watch the game last night on his boat. So I sent him updates throughout the game to inform him of goals, time limit, scorer and other major updates. He was able to receive my emails and was so excited when I was finally able to say "WE HAVE EARNED !!!

CRAIG YOUNG: So my wife Rachel and I had tickets with a group to see Phish at Chaifetz. When we received our tickets at the end of May, we immediately checked the calendar. A seventh game would be Wednesday night, the same night we had tickets. But as someone who knows how great Phish is, it's a beginner, we were in agreement … and that feeling has grown over time, especially when the Blues have taken a lead 3-2 with a chance to close the match on Sunday night.

Alas, the game 7 has become a real thing. We had already hired a babysitter, taken the next day off work and headed for the show.

During the first series of the show, you could hear groups of people buzzing and dazzling. The networks being saturated, it usually took a certain time to confirm a goal or even the score.

The Blues are up 2-0 and the whole arena is cautiously enthusiastic, while enjoying an amazing Phish performance.

Phish played his last jam in the first set, and that slow murmur of "yesssss" starts again. Our pocket of friends begins to check the phones, trying to confirm. My wife and I head to the lobby with beer kiosks, bathrooms and, most importantly, TVs. We witnessed the rehearsal of Schenn's burial beyond Rask and we joined a hundred people already stuck to the trays. It was not long before the whole contest was like a crowded press elevator at the end of the first set. The countless songs "Let's Go Blues" and "We want the cup".

When it was over, the party in the lobby was live. Jubilation. Just complete EUPHORIA. After a million random Phish / Blues fans, we went back to the ground … where Phish of course destroyed the house with a shot of "Gloria".

One of the best nights of my life and I'll remember it forever.

JULIE CAMPBELL: I met my husband in St. Louis around 1990. On our first date, he took me out to Rigazzis Hill – and to my first Blues hockey game in the front row. I had never attended an NHL game and I was delighted. I froze (it's like winter there!), But I spent the best night with him. I went home after the weekend with Bill and told my mother, "I just spent the weekend with the man I was going to marry." married in 1992.

I am a fan of blues since. Four years later, our daughter was born in St Louis. Although many years later we moved to Kansas for work, we never stopped following Blues and Cards. Casey was 3 years old when we moved to Kansas.

Unfortunately, Bill died about six years ago, suddenly and unexpectedly. But last night, watching match 7, you evoked a LOT of emotions! The Blues winning their very first Cup … wishing to be there to share it with me … knowing that he was not only thrilled, but was watching from above.

And all I could think of was this first date at the Blues. How much fun we had. Memories that will last forever. And – that our 22 year old daughter has witnessed the history of sport in St. Louis!

B.J. RAINS: I watched the stream on my phone from the stage podium, while hosting a high school awards dinner in Boise, Idaho. I had silence about the silence, but I despised myself between the prize presentations. I do not think anyone had any idea what I was doing. When the third goal was scored in 3-0 and I realized that they were going to win, it was hard to keep me on stage. I announced to the crowd that it might be necessary to call a doctor if I fainted, since I am aware that my Blues were now at 4-0 and on the point of winning the Stanley Cup.

I then went home and watched the DVR for the last five minutes of the game and the post-match celebration with my 4 year old son, Naismith, and his wife, Karen. Really one night that I will never forget.

KAREN ESCALANTE: I will start by saying that I come from Mexico. I met this guy online 5 or 6 years ago and we became friends. Over the years, he has become very important to me, and me to him. He lives in St Louis. He is a fan of Blues and Cards, so he spoke to me about both, and I started applauding them. I started becoming a fan of blues maybe 2-3 years ago. But the day they really had my heart forever was the day this guy took me to the party.

I was really excited to attend my very first sports game in person. For example, I have never been to football, tennis, basketball, hockey, anything before. I was not a sports fan, I never saw myself screaming in front of the television watching a game or paying for NHL TV to watch it … until the Blues.

In February, I visited him for a month. On February 12, he took me to the game for the first time. They won 8-3 (against the New Jersey Devils). It was a perfect night. The best night of all time. I felt this sporty feeling happiness, I heard the horn when they scored EIGHT TIMES. Which game is my first game of sport and hockey. This is not everything. When we came back, we saw a shooting star. It was destiny. Could not be more perfect.

So where did I watch Match 7? I was at home in Mexico while he was at home in Missouri, but we chatted during the game. We celebrated together. We shared this moment when our team won the Cup for the first time – it waited longer than me, but you could not tell the difference because we were both so excited.