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NHL’s St. Louis Blues laud Stan Musial by wearing No. 6 sweaters during warmup

Big League Stew

Unsurprisingly, the admiration the city of St. Louis feels for Hall of Famer Stan Musial has no bounds. A day after Musial was laid to rest, every player on the NHL's St. Louis Blues took the ice wearing No. 6 Stan Musial jerseys for pregame warmups against the Minnesota Wild. And the numerical tribute got a little eerie when Wade Redden — who wears No. 6 for real for the Blues — scored the first goal of the game, which St. Louis won 5-4 in overtime Sunday night to improve to 5-1.

A longtime NHL defenseman, the 35-year-old Redden had spent the past two seasons in the minors with the AHL before signing with the Blues on Jan. 20 — the day after Stan "The Man" died at age 92. And, after having been given Musial's number (surely by coincidence), Redden has scored twice in three games. Behold, the power of No. 6!

From Fox Sports Midwest:

Blues players autographed the jerseys and they were auctioned off during the game to raise money for Cardinals Care, the charity foundation of the Cardinals.

Musial was also honored during a pregame ceremony in which his grandson Brian Schwarze, who helped take care of him on a daily basis in recent years, dropped the ceremonial first puck as the crowd stood and cheered wildly.

"Just hearing the stories and the type of guy he was, it was pretty special," said Blues goalie Brian Elliott. "I think this is a great sports town and they honor the greats that have played here so it was pretty cool to see everybody in that No. 6."

It should be noted that some of the Musial jerseys (including Redden's) were auctioned during the game, but 15 of them will be made available respectively at stlouisblues.com and cardinals.com soon. It's all just a neat gesture on the Blues' part. Their jerseys are among the coolest in hockey (even sports), and are sure to be cherished collectibles with Musial's name and number on the back.

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