Jamal Mayers Autograph Card

Am I finally giving the St. Louis Blues the love and respect they (probably feel they) deserve? No, not quite. Then again, neither does Jamal Mayers, a 15-year NHLer who spent 10 seasons (and 12 years total) in the Blues organization but now covers the Chicago Blackhawks, a team he spent 100 games with, including 19 in the regular season (and zero in the playoffs) on the 2012-13 Stanley Cup Championship team.

But with the Blues leading the series 2-1 against the defending champions, they must be feeling pretty good. They're probably aware that this season's Art Ross and likely Hart Trophy winner Patrick Kane will want to redeem himself after the costly penalty that gave the Blues the game-winning goal, and he's one guy you don't want to face when he's even more motivated...

I'm not worried about the Hawks, though, because of this statistic: Since 2009, they are 6-15 in Game 3s, their worst record of any game by far. In Games 4-7, though: 43-14. Which is when the Blues will regret not having someone of Mayers' quality on their bottom-six, someone with 219 points and 1200 penalty minutes in 965 NHL games; instead, they're suiting up a still-injured Steve Ott, who many thought was done for the year.

Here's Mayers in St. Louis' post-lockout white (away) Rbk Edge uniform, on card #S-JM from Upper Deck's 2007-08 Be A Player set (and Be A Player Signatures sub-set):

It features a black-sharpied on-sticker autograph for which he clearly went over the edges, with his jersey number (21) tagged at the end.