Sign of the demise of a franchise:

Tonights PAID attendance in St. Louis- 5,410.

Ouch.

They need a 3rd jersey.

Winter storm moving through tonight, predicted to leave up to 18 inches of snow in Missouri, so no major surprise that attendance was exceptionally low tonight.

That was the PAID attendance so unless the Blues usually get an extremely large number of walkups (which I doubt) then the storm means nothing.

Yeah, and in Toronto, you could encase the air canada centre in a giant block of ice, and leaf fans would still tunnel their way in to watch Wade Belak play three minutes a game...

Kidding.. but yes, that was the PAID attendance in St. Louis. And that's a disaster.

Oh, my poor Blues.

I hope none of you bet on them tonight against the Hawks. It would have been a fantastic bet, but Sanford re-injured his groin trying to make a save a few minutes into the game. The Hawks made it 1-0 as he was flopping around in the crease in pain. There was some debate as to whether the refs should have killed the play as soon as he went down, but it was literally in the net maybe five seconds after the injury took place.

I don't know what we're going to do. I remember reading on ESPN that some Oilers player said they have more spectators watching Oilers practices than the Blues do on game nights. Erik Johnson better be god damn amazing.

On an up note, they are retiring Brett Hull's #16 tonight and are expecting a sold out crowd. It is pretty sad that it takes something like to get the fans back in the arena. After Bill Laurie dismantled the team the fans quit coming. It never did make sense why they let Chris Pronger get away, while they kept the oft injured and over the hill Keith Tkachuk...especially when their salaries were almost identical. I am a life long Blues fan and it quite frankly is disheartening to see my team go down the tubes.



They do get an awful large amount of walk-up business.

I do think however that the Blues are headed in the right direction. They are developing talent in the minors and the new owners (not Bill Laurie) are making an effort to put a competitive team on the ice. We're not going to be competing for Stanley Cups within the next season or two, but I can honestly see them making an effort within the next five years to at least make a run.

As a long-time local loyal Blues fan I have to argue with the new management putting a competitive team on the ice... tonight was a debacle. Hall of famers and all the alumni in the house, place is almost full, big emotional ceremony, #16 goes up... and the team lays an egg, a big ugly one, vs our most hated rival.
Gods, the pain. I do hope Johnson is the ****, but it's quite annoying there was no franchise forward last year like the 2 years before, Alex, Sid and even Malkin at #2.... It's hard to hope that Johnson who hasn't played a game yet is going to be as good as say Phaneuf, or that #44 we had prowling the blue line the last few years before we gave him away.
Main problem now is we've been unsuccessful in grooming/finding/growing/stealing/signing a decent goalie for the last FIFTEEN YEARS. Hint to Blues management--- find a good goalie anywhere in the world and acquire him. I don't care about the cost...we can't win without a netminder.

It's a tough time to be a Blues fan. It's hard to even enjoy my baseball team winning this year because we are just so hopeless. I guess leafs fans can relate since we're virtually the only two teams to not make the Cup finals in the last 30+ years.... ack, what a horrid wikipedia list to be on:

Last appearance Finals drought Team
1967 38 seasons Toronto Maple Leafs
1970 35 seasons St. Louis Blues

1 and 2 baby.

Foolish me really thought they'd be competitive this year with the mix of vets they signed and average goaltending... maybe an outside shot to sneak into the playoffs in the #7/8 slot. Ha! We really might get another top 3 draft pick again, which is just embarrassing. Pleau, Kitch, they gotta go. Davidson needs to resurrect the spirit of Maximus to lead this team, if Scotty Bowman's truly unavailable.

pain pain pain. I even left the game early tonight, which tells you much, cause I LOVE my blues. Horrid horrid game. Every fundamental, mental aspect, discipline, offensive and defensive assignments, all of it was just terrible. We so need a change now. And this team was GOOD the last ten years before the lockout... sigh.

--frustrated as hell in St. Louis

If your team isn't going to make the playoffs, they may as well finish in the cellar. There is a good chance that the Canucks are going to finish 9th or 10, like last year, meaning they miss the playoffs and can't really acquire a great blue chip prospect.

Now this may be my man crush speaking, but...

Did you see what Sandy did last year before he got hurt? Maybe that was just a little bit of overconfidence on the part of the opposition, but I thought he played awesome. Do you think he's still a viable option as a starter (when he's back in 6-8 weeks) now that he's had a total of four injuries in two seasons?

However, your team isn't owned by someone with extremely strong ties to Salt Lake City. If we don't start winning the attendance will keep dropping. If the attendance drops then Dave Checketts might uproot the team and move it to Utah. His ties to Utah scare the hell out of me because I do not want to lose my life long team to another city.

OK, I'm stealing this thread and making it the Blues fan club. Take THAT, gruven. I hope to become serge junior.

I think the Blues are an awesome hockey club with a ton of potential. A cup in the next three years is totally not out of the question. Just some food for thought.. our record since Andy Murray took over is the 4th best in the NHL.

Goaltending:
Solid. I've watched Legace for most of the season and although he was shaky back when it was a competition between him and Sanford, he has been very solid ever since Andy Murray was hired. I was a huge Sanford fan last year but he's gotten injured two separate times this season and has been completely inconsistent. He wants a shot at being the #1 somewhere so I think the Blues need to let him go and give Schwarz (touted at the best czech goaltending prospect since Hasek) a shot to back up Legace for a few years. I've had enough of inconsistent, injury-prone goaltenders. We have TONS of depth here in the minors, so I have no problem dumping Sandy.

Defense:
Solid. Next year's lineup will probably look something like Brewer, McKee, Jackman, Backman, Salvador, and Erik Johnson, with Roman Polak acting as the 7th. It's not the most offensive-minded group outside of Backman and Johnson, but I have no doubt that our defense will be one of the best in the league. Prospect-wise, we're pretty weak at D, but most of our

Forwards:
Weak. Next year will probably be something like (in no particular order) McClement, Backes, Stempniak, Tkachuk, Weight, Cajanek, Dvorak, Rucinsky, Mayers, Drake, Boyes, Metropolit. Tkachuk has dropped some hints that he's going to come back and there's a real chance that we shipped Guerin because he wanted too much money. We've got TJ Oshie and a few other decent prospects, but no one even close to as good as a kid like Jordan Staal. I was pulling for the Blues to trade down and take Staal, but oh well.

I think we'll pull it together offensively and make it work over the next few years. If we can get Tkachuk back at a decent rate and maybe sign a free agent, we'll definitely make the playoffs the next year, probably go deep the year after, and really challenge for the cup after that. I am shocked at how quickly JD has gotten us back together.

Up 1-0 at the start of the 2nd against the Sens. LGB!

I agree that the Blues are heading in the right direction but a cup in 3 years is a little early.

I think it would take a really great FA acquisition to put us among the top 3 in the league. I'm not talking Tkachuk. I probably am being a bit premature.

1-1, BTW. Sanford is the nut low.

The Blues are in a good spot, but it's going to take a couple of key pieces to really bring them back into contention. They need a PP quarterback (not having a true scoring defenseman just isn't an option anymore), and they need a lot of help at Forward. The good news is that they're well under the cap (which is going up again next season), so they have a lot of room to get that help. The FA market isn't legendary this summer but it isn't bad either, there's talent to be had, just remains to be seen if the Blues can get their hands on any of it. Kimmo Timmonen would be an excellent pickup for them, and it's possible they could still afford a blue-chip forward like Briere, Datsyuk, or even Shanny.

LOL I'm not really sure which way you intend this joke, but I find it pretty funny on several levels...

Sorry dude for that Boyes goal...dumb, dumb, dumb...

1. We do have a PP quarterback but he's not durable these days. I've kinda changed my mind on Backman... he gets pushed around WAY too often for his size. I guess maybe I should let that pipe dream go.

2. People are really pulling to get Shanny back in St. Louis. The fact that we sucked hard-core for 1.5 years really gives free agents license to gauge the hell out of us in contract negotiations. See: Brewer and McKee. I wonder if Checketts will pay the ridiculous price for Briere/Datsyuk/Shanny? BTW, I would MUCH prefer Briere if I had to choose from that group.

We gave up two shorthanded goals tonight. This makes me a sad panda.

I'm pretty well convinced that Danny Briere will be heading elsewhere in the offseason. The only way he stays in Buffalo is if he truly wants to be there, because there's no way they can give him a raise on top of the arbitrators ruling from last year. If he wants to accept another contract @ $5 million per season, he'll remain a Sabre. If he wants more than that, he'll probably jump. That'll be a sad day, but ultimately resigning Chris Drury has to be more of a priority for the Sabres than resigning Briere. Best case would be to obviously get them both locked up long term, but unless that combination comes in under $10 million I don't see it happening.

What the Blues really need is forwards, IMO. A PP quaterback would be nice, but I think they will have to rely on Backman and Johnson developing. Signing someone like Briere would be sick, but they should at least try to sign Shanahan to a 1 year contract and trade him for 17 picks and prospects if they are struggling again.

Whoa.

I realize that it's every sportswriter's job to exaggerate when he's writing for the hometown paper, but I guess I was a bit quick to blame the Blues for the loss?

I like how the reporter doesn't mention that Boyes kicked the puck into the net for one of the goals and doesn't properlly explain that when a referee losses site of the puck that he has to blow the play dead.

Sounds about right.

Gordo is pretty bad. I don't like his writing style and I feel like he is rarely consistent with his opinions. I could give an example of this but it would be long-winded and boring. Have you met Gordo, gruven?

Mick Mcgoo is a clown. That is all I can say on the issue.

No, I've never met him. The THN correspondent in St. Louis is Tom Timmerman. I read the story, tho, and it's really an ill-advised story. Taking shots at refs is an easy and cheap target, when most sports writers worth their weight in printer paper know that things happen on the ice so fast that to expect perfection is unfair. That doesn't excuse Goo's bad call, but, like I said, it's still taking an easy way out for a column to write about it.

I didn't get to watch the game, but had to go by the highlights on TSN.ca, and it didn't like Boyes kicked the puck in to me. It also looked to me like McGeough, as his is usual MO, was way out of position to make the call on the puck being covered up. He was nowhere near the net. Seriously, the NHL needs to can him, no matter what team you root for.

March 24 @ Det: 3-2 W, SO
March 25 @ Cbj: 1-3 L

I love the variance in hockey.

Sanford hurt his groin again. This is like the sixth injury for him in the last two seasons. I wonder if he'll even have the privilege of being a backup somewhere next season. I think Jason Bacashihua is god awful as well.

Just in case anyone was wondering, yes it does make me sick to my stomach to see the Blues icing a severely crippled lineup and still making it to OT against Anaheim.

Stempniak now has 25 goals and 49 points. For those keeping score, the Blues (Jarmo Kekalainen) drafted him 148th overall in 2003. Why isn't his nickname 'the Stempinator' yet?

I kinda like 'Stempede'. I'm gonna start using it and see if it sticks....

Ok, you are totally right. LOL

At a Blues forum I post at, the saying about Mike Sillinger from the previous season was "Sillinger has a posse!", possibly from some movie/Internet association I'm unfamiliar with. After Sillinger was traded at last year's deadline, it turned into "Stempniak has a Leegion" somewhat predictably. One poster took a sign with this slogan to the pregame warmups and held it up to the class. Apparently it lives on in the Blues locker room as well from what I've heard.

Well, they don't pick quite so early this year in the draft, but...

there's still a little bit of good news.

I may have a starter, but my team is probably much worse off with toivonen in net....

Wish I knew why they aren't interested in winning.

Legace started and left the game.

yeah, he got injured I believe. that's what I meant to say. I wasn't very clear on that, huh?

EJ!

Posting this here since I'm tired of spamming the Leafs thread with Blues-related stuff.


I don't really think it has to take more than maybe 2-3 years for most teams to make it back into competitive mode after major tweaks. The Blues lost most of their roster when the Lauries decided to pull out, and at that point in time, we'd invested all of our future in Tkachuk, Weight, etc. That was 05-06. We're back to being on the cusp of contention this season thanks to some good FA signings and shrewd trades. Compared to how long the Leafs have struggled, I don't think it's really that big of a deal to punt a few seasons for the good of the franchise.

I'd say the thrashing the Blues gave to Nashville last night was a pretty good sign for the playoff hopes. For those keeping track: McKee, EJ, and Brewer were all scratched...

When has McKee been in the lineup?

23 games total since the Blues signed him two summers ago. He played a little in the preseason which led to the current broken foot. He earned $173,913.04 per game last year.

What a nice start. Kariya/Tkachuk/Boyes is a pretty amazing line lately.

2-0 St. Louis now.

Perhaps no Stempniaked needed tonight.

Boyes was a solid contributor in Boston. He's a good guy to have in my opinion.

Glad Boston gave up on him. Also, what the hell did they do to Wideman?

Rolling puck on top of the net that may have gone inside. None of this looks conclusive to me. Can't believe manny was even able to knock that out.

Wow, that's really silly. How do they give the goal to Toews when he would have had to touch it with a high stick to accomplish the feat?

Wow... silly goal for sure.

Only argument I can make for it is this: Toews, if he touched it, it was at exactly crossbar level. Does it have to be higher than the crossbar, or crossbar or higher?

I have no idea, and I don't know how the judges could have discerned this with any certainty either. What is conclusive about ANY of those angles?