On Tuesday, Berube wouldn’t say exactly who scrubbed the daily reminder about how horrible the Blues were in the first half of the season, only that the standings chart had a "negative effect" on players he was trying to keep in the fight.

"Honestly, I didn’t think too much about it at the time," defenceman Joel Edmundson said. "I was just sick of seeing us at the bottom."

Centre Ryan O’Reilly recalled: "I remember liking that it was gone. The standings board, there’s so much stuff you can’t control. All that really matters is the next game."

The Blues’ next game will open the Stanley Cup Final against the Boston Bruins.

The former 31st-place team continued its comeback for the ages on Tuesday night, eliminating the San Jose Sharks with a 5-1 victory that ended the Western Conference Final in six games. It may also have ended San Jose icon Joe Thornton’s NHL career.

St. Louis is going to the final for the first time since 1970, which was three years after the franchise was one of the first six teams added to the NHL’s Original Six. The Blues have never won a Stanley Cup.

And if you want to know what that would mean to this franchise and this city, you had only to see original Blues defenceman Bob Plager in tears as he greeted current players coming off the ice.

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