On Monday night, the Blues won Game 4 of the Stanley Cup finals at home, tying the series 2-2 with the Boston Bruins. Hands down, the star on the ice last night was Ryan O’Reilly, a hard-skating force to be reckoned with who scored a wraparound goal 43 seconds into the game, and again later, on a rebound.
Off the ice, there was a lot of action, too. St. Louis native Jon Hamm, who said before the game that O’Reilly had a “crazy look in his eyes” and was going to play to win (called it), was back in black (seriously, send this guy an Arch Apparel “Play Gloria” tee) with his own wild look when the Blues scored that final goal.
Are you a CITY SC fan?
Subscribe to the CITY Scene newsletter to get a fan’s guide to the pro soccer scene in St. Louis.
Of course, Nelly showed up and took some photos. Here’s the rapper with the folks at Daily Disco in one of their custom jackets. Was the “Hot in Herre” rapper the good luck charm the Blues needed to bring the fire?
And then there was this WWE–esque moment. Blues Hall of Famer Brett Hull got the crowd fired up pre-game. Certainly, certainly, Hull was the man to inspire the team to victory.
Or was it… Boris the chinchilla, the pet of one Blues fan Ben Friedman, who goes by the nickname Young Pageviews on Twitter. According to his Twitter bio, Friedman is a Sirius XM host and runs the Barstool Outdoors Instagram feed. (Barstool Sports founder David Portnoy was in town for Game 4 of the Cup, eating Imo’s pizza and Ted Drewes frozen custard earlier that day.)
Friedman typically posts videos of himself dancing with Boris—an influencer in his own right with almost 7,000 followers on Instagram—after a Blues win on Twitter. It’s kind of become a thing, with fans all over chanting for “the rat” to dance, as shown here:
But Friedman took it a step further on Monday night, scoring the animal safe passage into the Enterprise Center so the two could dance at the game. At one point, Boris is passed over to Hull, who rather, uh, tenderly kisses the animal. Watch below:
Later, Crosby Hull, Hull’s daughter shown in the video, posted on Instagram that the chinchilla brought the team the win.
And Tuesday afternoon, Boris’ Instagram account posted a photo of Boris, Friedman, and Hamm himself.
No word if chinchillas are hockey fans or enjoy dancing in crowded, rowdy hockey rinks, but Boris, to his credit, doesn’t appear to be bothered by the noise and action. He’s got good reason to go with the flow. If the Blues win the Cup, his human has a treat for him. “If the Blues win the Cup I’m getting Boris as many Chinchilla girlfriends as he wants and will be selling Magic Chinchilla babies until the cows come home,” Friedman tweeted Monday night after the win.
Chinchilla babies? That’s got us like:
The Blues play Game 5 in Boston starting at 7 p.m. Thursday.
