Around New England

Haverhill Principal Rooting for St. Louis Blues – Against the Bruins

May 31, 2019

Shannon Nolan isn’t from St. Louis but she’s a diehard St. Louis Blues fan – even if it means rooting against the Boston Bruins in the Stanley Cup finals.

Nolan, the principal of kindergarten-through-eighth-grade Caleb Dustin Hunking School in the Bradford section of Haverhill, Massachusetts, is originally from Connecticut, and has strong ties to nearby New Hampshire.

But her father, Larry Pleau, now 72, was general manager of the St. Louis Blues from 1997 to 2010, and he works as a scout for the team now.

Even more to the point, though, is what the team’s ownership did for her family when her mother Wendy was stricken with an aggressive form of cancer.

“What the Blues organization did for my family, to help us get through it, was something we will never forget. They were not only there for my mom, including the fans, but they were there for my dad too,” Nolan told the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune.

Her mother is still alive.

Nolan is planning to take over as principal of an elementary school in Amesbury next school year, according to the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune.

The Bruins-Blues Stanley Cup finals series is tied 1-1.

The St. Louis Blues, founded in 1967, have never won the Stanley Cup. The team has only gotten to the finals three times before, and were swept 4-0 each of those times. The Blues won the team’s first-ever finals game Thursday night, May 30, 3-2 in overtime.

Game 3 is scheduled for 8 p.m. eastern time Saturday, June 1 in St. Louis.