TJ Oshie… that’s one kind-looking guy, but you’ll like him more and more as the story develops…
(Edit: WordPress tells me this is my 200th post on the Blog of Funny Names. Not too shabby!)
We interrupt our regularly scheduled Funny Names in the News segment for the most adorable news story… ever?
Once upon a time there was a St. Louis Blues team, with a lot of gritty, tough, workmanlike stars. They had the hard-hitting, trusty captain Dave Backes, and the dreamy Swedish star Patrik Berglund (don’t tell Arto I said such nice things about a Swede), and well-regarded-Olympian-yet-somehow-still-not-an-All-Star assistant captain T.J. Oshie.
We’ll ignore that “T.J.” stands for Timothy Leif, and instead focus on the awesomeness of the right winger, who was a first round draft pick of the Blues back in 2005. T.J. became a fan favorite and a major contributor to the team, to the point where he was selected for the U.S. National Hockey team, and became a shootout specialist for the squad, which ended up getting 4th place, losing to a team from some country named Finland in the bronze medal game. Finland… never heard of them. Maybe Arto can help fill me in.
Well, eventually all great things must come to an end, and Timothy Leif “T.J.” Oshie was traded on July 2nd to the Washington Capitals for former Stanley Cup champion Troy Brouwer, the hilariously-spelled prospect Pheonix Copley, and a third-round draft pick in 2016. Seriously – three talented folks were necessary for the Blues to give up their assistant captain T.J. Oshie.
It hit all Blues fans pretty hard – even me, despite the fact that I was only a Blues fan because Arto told me that I should like the team due to Backes and Oshie. But nobody was hit harder than St. Louis Blues super-fan Libby Lu – a 5-year-old who lived and breathed all things Blues and Oshie. In one of the most adorable videos of… ever… her mother caught Libby’s reaction to the TJ Oshie trade. Prepare yourself for some overwhelming adorableness!
Libby Lu has her priorities straight – she’s a Blues fan first, and a TJ Oshie fan second – and bleeds true Blue. This is the type of fan all teams want to find.
The reaction made Libby an instant celebrity and – while wearing an adorable set of American flags in her hair – she got a guest spot on SportsCenter, which is something so many of us aspire to. The host asked her some probing questions, and the highlights are listed here:
1:20 Why is TJ Oshie your favorite player (“Because he gets in hockey fights!”)
4:02 TJ Oshie shows up
4:30 she asks T.J. Oshie her most burning question… “Do you have a swimming pool?”
4:50 “Do you have a diving board on it?”
Libby Lu! That’s one happy kiddo! And who can blame her!
Ultimately, all is well that ends well. Libby Lu, who was heartbroken when TJ Oshie was traded, got the chance to talk to her favorite player, and he compensated her with some pretty amazing goodies… Libby got a #77 Jersey of Oshie’s as soon as he chose his number on his new team.
The bottom line is that, although Libby Lu had to experience some tough times, it seems like everybody wins! Libby Lu got to talk to her sporting hero (I’m still waiting for Gary Payton to give me a phone call), and got some amazing swag to go with it. Oshie gets a chance to help out a new team, with some very grateful fans, and the Blues get some new life and quality prospects. But most importantly, we all get to appreciate the greatness of Libby Lu – one of the greatest sports fans ever!
The Blog of Funny Names 
Gotta warm up that blurb generator . . . Let’s see here . . . Sports metaphors!
. . . Dave dons his catcher mask, takes a swing of the javelin and whacks that hockey puck right through the goalpost for a hole in one . . .
. . . Dave slips on those boxing gloves and glides across the ice for a record breaking first down . . .
Uh . . . OK. Now let’s try the blog milestone algorithm . . .
. . . Dave’s big 200 doesn’t disappoint, serving up the best of cutting edge sports reporting with a generous dollop of adorable toddler tears . . . fabulous family friendly fun!
Haha! So glad to see the blurb generator make a return! It’s as swell and fantastic as ever!
Libby Lu had the blues, and now she’s swagfully giddy. Evidently, she is also hard of hearing, or as we used to write in our notes at the health care office, HOH–which is also a palindrome. Perhaps she can get some phonics lessons to help with her conversational skills. Hooked on Pheonix worked for me!
Bless Copley’s heart. That’s like his mom thought she was having a girl named Fiona, and then was like, “Let’s just make it Fion-ix. Is that masculine enough?”
Now this post STILL doesn’t explain where the J in T.J. comes from. I don’t know anything about the Blues, but I do know that Kevin Shattenkirk is a pretty cool name.
One thing wikipedia told me about Oshie Wan-Kenobi’s last name is that in the Ojibwe language, Oshie is “Keeway Gaaboo,” which means “Coming Home.” It translates as “s/he returns home.” I recall that Shania (as in Twain, a Canadienne) is an Ojibwa name meaning “I’m on my way.” So apparently people up there in the north are either coming home or on their way. At least they’re not standing still. Then wikipedia went all Deep Thoughts and suggested that Oshie’s name evoked the poetic image of water that, by traveling downhill inevitably will find its way home to a larger body of water, such as the Great Lakes or the sea. Who knew a last name could be so Finding Nemo?
That’s the best linguistic tangent paragraph I’ve ever come across. Can I get a whole book in this style? What’s the Swahili for Shattenkirk?
Do you know that I just looked up Swahili? Hand to God, I was reading another blog that said Ying Yang was Cantonese for always hungry, and I looked it up in Swahil, and it was daima njaa. Weird coici-dink?
As usual with Kerby, it also works out well in verse, too:
It takes a great writer to have something that transfers well to verse, and it takes another great writer to recognize that. Well done, Diddy!
Gold! Pure gold!!! What a marvelous comment!
Just re-read that comment and it’s so good! It seems like TJ Oshie brings out the best in everyone!!
Congratulations on post 200. Talk about an adorable reaction from Libby Lu. Sounds like she could be in the Dr. Seuss’s hockey version of Libby Lu and Oshie too. “I have a pool, a pool of ice. I skate around, it’s very nice.” Then again maybe not. 😉
I know!!! It’s seriously my favorite news story in recent memory! I would totally read “Libby Lu and Oshie too”… I’m becoming a big time Oshie fan after this story! Libby Lu better watch out… there’s another big TJ fan on her tail!
go L2!!