Once the intermission for the 4 Nations Face-Off wrapped, St. Louis came back as among the NHL's hottest outfits. By the Feb. 22 restart of league play, the Blues sat 12 points behind a Western Conference wild card berth. Since then they've reeled off a record of 16-2-2 that included 10 victories in a row, and presently enjoy a seven-point edge over the last wild card position available.
Plenty of explanations might account for the turnaround — tighter defending, a sharper power play, stronger goaltending. Yet there may be one more, and it leans toward the supernatural.
It was the Feb. 22 date versus Winnipeg's Jets when a replica Jobu bobblehead — pulled from Major League, the 1989 comedy smash — surfaced within the team's dressing room. Viewers who know the picture will remember Cuban slugger Pedro Cerrano, a voodoo devotee, placing the idol inside his stall and offering it cigars, rum, and incense, all to master the curveball and lift his Cleveland Indians from their funk.
Within the film, Cerrano defended having the figure nearby by claiming the lumber had to be awakened. He ultimately learned to believe in his own ability, announcing he'd manage on his own and dismissing the idol entirely.
Since the idol quietly turned up in St. Louis, it seems the team's offense has indeed roared to life. Over that window, the club banked 34 standings points while leading the entire league with 76 tallies.
According to Matthew DeFranks, who covers the team for the Post-Dispatch in St. Louis, players quizzed about Jobu's beginnings tend to reply only that he turned up one day. Tracing those roots holds little appeal for them, seeing as the figure has become their good-luck token.
Speaking to the reporter, Brayden Schenn, a center, said he loves the idol, describing it as a fine presence the dressing room is glad to host. Teammate and fellow pivot Dylan Holloway added that the bobblehead pretty much just lounges in place, a favorable omen the entire roster is fond of.
Credit for the 5-2 St. Louis triumph over Washington on Feb. 27 reportedly belongs partly to Jobu. Making what was its first trip away from home, the bobblehead traveled to the Capitals' downtown arena amid a four-victory streak running across the Feb. 23-to-March-1 stretch.
Entering that night, blueliner Philip Broberg owned a career haul of six goals over 127 NHL contests. Before the opening frame closed, he'd matched the evening's count by burying a pair more — maybe courtesy of the idol's influence.
Whatever has lifted his club's play, Bill Armstrong, the St. Louis GM, is enjoying every minute and merely wants the group to stay loose with the playoffs approaching fast.
On Tuesday's installment of The Fight, a podcast, the executive said he felt happy for his players, observing that such moments arrive when guys are confident about both themselves and their linemates. The thing he most enjoys, he said, is the environment the team has fostered — a setting that lets them have fun while doing slightly offbeat things.
It wouldn't be the franchise's first late charge fueled by a quirky ritual ahead of the playoffs. During the 2019 season, the team emerged from the midseason All-Star pause with a league-topping 50 points and rolled out a brand-new goal song — namely Laura Branigan's "Gloria," released in 1982 — on the way to winning the club's very first Stanley Cup title.
Perhaps for 2025 the idol fills the role that anthem once did.
Cam Fowler, another defenseman, hinted the bobblehead counts among the dressing room's leaders, noting it had figured into the streak and giving a bit of its magic credit for keeping the team's postseason push alive.