St. Louis Blues Taking ‘Classy’ Route, Will Not Celebrate With Team High Fives After Scoring Goals

Members of the St. Louis Blues say they are trying to change the culture of celebration in the NHL.

The post-goal scoring celebratory team high five has been customary throughout the hockey world. Members of the squad that do the scoring typically make a loop toward their bench to celebrate with their teammates, but members of the Blues organization say their team is above all of that, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. St. Louis players will no longer celebrate goals with their teammates on the bench.

“That came from a few gentlemen who used to play here,” winger David Backes said. “They felt like the going through the line thing was a high school, college type of play.”

The change has been most noticeable over the last two games. In wins over Nashville and Winnipeg, the players involved in the goal-scoring have raised their arms and smiled in celebration but, “there has been no skate to the bench for a Conga line of high-fives,” as the Post-Dispatch put it.

“I think this is a unique thing that maybe we can change the trend a little bit — score the goal, congratulate each other and let’s go do it again,” Backes said.

The idea that the post-goal high five is juvenile seems to be widely held within the Blues organization, with players and coach Ken Hitchcock jumping on the bandwagon.

“I think [not going to the bench] shows confidence, shows we’ve been there before. It’s kind of a business-like attitude, center T.J. Oshie said. “When we score a goal, we want to line up and get the next one.”

The Blues are second in the NHL in goals per game with 3.7.