Blues have fun with new postgame tradition

The St. Louis Blues are having plenty of fun with their new postgame tradition. And the puns are as bad as one might think. Similar to some teams' Hard Hat winner', the Blues have begun handing out their own award following wins: the Weenie of the game. The prize for the toughest and most deserving player is a large hot-dog weenie hat that the winner must wear in front of his teammates or the media. And everyone is playing along. "He really had some mustard on that one, didn't he?" forward David Perron said of a goal scored by Saturday's winner, David Backes. "I'm going to relish this one," Backes later said. The idea for the award came from forward Matt D'Agostini. The hat was ordered online and the first Weenie of the game' was presented about two weeks ago. Saturday's 4-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres' marked the hat's first public appearance when Backes wore it during postgame interviews. "It's a little bit of an inside job for our locker room, some of the heart and sole guys came up with it," Backes said. "Instead of a hard hat, we get the weenie on our head." The winner from the previous game chooses the next game's winner. The award is given to the toughest player or player that most impacted the win, such as for a game-winning goal. Goalie Jaroslav Halak won the award for posting a shutout in a 1-0 win over the Dallas Stars on Jan. 16. "It's something new for us and it's fun after a game to pass it to someone else," Halak said. Asked why he didn't wear the weenie hat for postgame interviews, Halak laughed. "I mean it's beautiful, but come on," Halak said. "I'm better than that." The Blues enter Monday's game in Detroit in 4th place in the Western Conference but just a point behind the Red Wings for the top spot in both the Conference and Central Division.