After the trade deadline is when Blues coach Jim Montgomery saw Thomas step forward in a larger leadership role.<\/p>\n
\u201cEither taking someone under their arm, maybe a younger player who maybe had turned over a puck and talked to him about, \u2018It\u2019s all right, going to go back out there. Make a strong play next time,\u2019\u201d Montgomery said. \u201cHe really evolved as a leader in that last month. I don\u2019t remember exactly what game, but we were at home and our first period was a little lethargic. I said, \u2018Thommer, this is time for you to take over the room.\u2019 The way the team responded to him in the second and third gave me a lot of confidence that he\u2019s our guy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steen himself has known Thomas since Thomas broke into the NHL as a 19-year-old in 2018. They were teammates long before Steen transitioned to the front office.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has a great side of him that he sometimes holds back a little bit,\u201d Steen said. \u201cI think this last year or so, he\u2019s letting that out more a little more open. As teammates when I played with him, I got to see it more behind the scenes. He\u2019s a very caring person, wants to do things the right way, explores, has no problem having uncomfortable or difficult conversations when they\u2019re needed if it\u2019s for the betterment of what we\u2019re trying to do moving forward. I have a ton of respect for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
During Thursday\u2019s news conference, Thomas spoke about the franchise\u2019s connection to the city and former players\u2019 work in weaving the Blues into \u201cthe heartbeat\u201d of St. Louis.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s being a team, it\u2019s picking each other up,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cIt\u2019s focusing on all the people before us, what they\u2019ve done, what they\u2019ve accomplished, and how they\u2019ve created (a community). This team is part of the heartbeat of the city. I think that\u2019s something I want people to recognize. As a leadership group, I think that\u2019s so important. It\u2019s about continuing that on, and setting up the future in the same way that we\u2019ve been so lucky to be set up for.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After the trade deadline is when Blues coach Jim Montgomery saw Thomas step forward in a larger leadership…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":655533,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[377],"tags":[5939,1296,5,6,10080,285,1355,1298,19160,84,1356],"class_list":["post-655532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hockey","tag-captain-ice-hockey","tag-dylan-holloway","tag-hockey","tag-ice-hockey","tag-ice-hockey-in-st-louis","tag-national-hockey-league","tag-national-hockey-league-teams","tag-philip-broberg","tag-robert-thomas-ice-hockey","tag-st-louis-blues","tag-top-tier-ice-hockey-leagues"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/117212463955580617","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=655532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/655533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}