Tonight's game between the Blues and the Red Wings could change a franchise. If St. Louis loses, they'll remain at least three points out of the playoffs and it will likely be more with the high amount of games between Western Conference teams scheduled for tonight. They'll probably deal Keith Tkachuk for draft picks or prospects with his contract expiring at the end of the year. They might even cut a couple of other deals. If they win, they could buy for a postseason run which began early last month. The Blues' have the second best record in the NHL over their last 20 games to only the Devils. New Jersey's well into the playoffs at this point as they're likely to win their division and just got back one of the best goalies of all-time in Martin Brodeur. That team is looking to buy more even after picking up Niclas Havelid, a decent defenseman. That team doesn't need anymore to contend for the cup. The Blues, however, need a lot more to contend for the cup.

Continue reading "The Blues with the Trade Deadline looming"

1. On Tuesday night, the Blues didn't waste any time erasing the bad memories from Saturday's game against the Panthers. They got on the board just 59 seconds into the contest on a laser of a wrist shot from David Backes. Later in the first period, David Perron and Brad Winchester would each add another goal, tripling the Blues' total of first period goals from their previous 11 games in just one frame.

The Stars kept coming back, cutting the three-goal deficit to two twice before the Blues finally got it to a 5-2 lead. The third period was scoreless, but the fans already had their free blizzards and the Blues already had their two points since they managed to play smart in the third, not needing to take chances with a three-goal lead.

The Blues are now just three points out of the seven slot in the Western Conference behind the Oilers and they have a game in hand on the Predators who hold the eighth slot, also three points ahead of St. Louis. The club continued to get solid play out of goaltender Chris Mason. The two goals he allowed weren’t great ones, but he still limited the damage and didn’t let anything in until it was already 3-0. The Blues also got more strong play from the “Kid line.” Perron’s finally starting to play with urgency. On what looked to be an innocent play where the Stars were just going to carry the puck out of their zone, Perron dove, whipped his stick around on the ice, and knocked the puck away. T.J. Oshie got control of it outside the Dallas zone, made a great move to get around a Stars defender, and then set up Perron for a shot on a wide open net. Perron put it right in the center of the goal, putting St. Louis up 4-1 midway through the second period. The teams would swap goals one more time, with “Big Walt” (Keith Tkachuk) getting a tally on the power play, tying him for 10th all-time with Joe Sakic for career power play goals.

Continue reading "A little bit of everything, Blues, NCAA, and baseball"

1:11 PM CST: Well, after staying up til 4 am watching videos from the Lonely Island (you know you've done it too), I managed to sleep through the majority of the first halves of the opening games. There are now just seven minutes remaining in my featured game and the 15 seed Cal State Northridge is down by just one to Memphis. They've even led the Tigers by as many as six points. I have Memphis and John Calipari's greasy hair going to the Final Four, but I want this to happen.

1:17 PM CST: The Tigers have started to remember that they're a two seed and CS Northridge's random shots have stopped falling. It's now 70-64 Memphis and they have the ball back. This might just be a first round scare after all. A steal and a layup for Northridge has them back within four and that brings us to a timeout by Northridge. They probably need a breather anyways as Memphis has been running the show for the past four minutes..

Continue reading "NCAA Tourney Running Commentary"

Blues

Last night, I got one of those feelings watching the Blues game. Sometimes I get the sinking sensation in my stomach when I know my team is doomed (I got it two batters before this moment in 2005, so it must have been more about Game 6). Other times, I get a tingle when I know something special is going to happen. I got the latter last night. The Blues were extremely lucky to get out of the first period scoreless. They were outshot 10-4 and completely outplayed. They picked it up after that, but they all needed to give Chris Mason a big thank you for keeping them in it until they could get the offense going in the third.

It was still scoreless going into the third. I was listening to the game on the radio on my way over to Laura's. Announcers Chris Kerber and Kelly Chase were just as fed up with the officiating as John Kelly and Bernie Federko had been on the television broadcast. Kerbs and Chaser mentioned two non-calls on penalties against the Kings from the time it took me to get from 141 to Chesterfield Parkway taking highway 40 (about three minutes actual time). Post-Dispatch columnist Bernie Miklasz typed a Tweet (Twitter status update?) about the poor officiating, so it wasn't just me. The Kings finally gave the refs no choice to call one when the Blues got a fast break and Davis Drewiske crosschecked David Backes. About 30 seconds into the power play, Kerbs mentioned that he told a friend earlier in the day that he thought Patrik Berglund would have a big impact on the result of Tuesday's game. About five seconds later, Berglund got the puck from a shot by David Perron off of the end boards and put it in the open net.

Continue reading "Blues, Cards, and the Sweet 16"