Photo courtesy of Brittney Stein

Blues at Oilers, airing at 9pm CST on FSMW.

Let’s make this a brief one.

Three of our guys are out with bumps to the noggin. Brad Lee elaborated spectacularly about this today. Summary? Head injuries absolutely blow. Full stop.

The Oilers aren’t so much sucking lately. Remember last season how our boys were pretty well done-zo? Remember THE TRADE? Remember how then there was that whole monstrous tear where Chris Stewart earned his nickname and Berglund earned a contract and Backes earned a captaincy and Pietrangelo should have earned a qualification for Calder? Remember all that? Yeah, that’s pretty much the Oilers.

They’ve already taken a game from the Blues this year, but I think our boys should just go ahead and keep this wickedly awesome streak going. What say you?

LET’S GO BLUES!!!

It might not be pretty, and mostly it wasn’t, but still, even a 1-0 win against the Oilers is worth something.. There’s another shutout on Halak’s record. There’s another point for Pietrangelo, putting him at an 8-game streak.

There’s another game where I spent most of it holding my breath.

Dudes, it’s only January. April is going to be rough.

Let’s be real, though. Being capable of out-shooting the opponent nearly 3-1 while still failing to score until the last six minutes of the game is not going to keep this team at the top of the division/conference for very long.

That’s a thought I can’t ignore, but after going 12-0-2 in the last 14 home games, our Blues are certainly making me try to forget.

In a nutshell, I miss Steener. I like Halak. Pietrangelo is on fire.

And our Blues are making people take notice.

Russell returns tonight after missing nine games

Oilers at Blues, airing at 7pm CST on FSMW.

A lot of the Oilers are hurt. There’s part of me that feels bad for the young team, because we’ve been there before. We’ve watched multiple guys from our top lines go down for big and small reasons, and some for just really odd accidents.

PS, Taylor Hall, dear, your face looks awesome. Seriously, that’s going to be a wickedly amazing scar.

The thing is, because I know that feeling so well, I’m finding myself being less sympathetic because it finally seems like the injury bug has decided to leave our Blues alone. Kris Russell returns to the lineup tonight, and with it looking like Steen won’t be too far behind and Andy Mac working his way back, we could see our team at full strength sooner than later.

Given the tightness of the standings, both divisional and conference, that’s absolutely a good thing. I know, obvious statement is obvious.

Regarding the goalie situation, I expect nothing but an exceptional game from Halak tonight. As word came out about Brian Elliott’s two-year contract extension, the only emotion I really felt was relief. I’ve been saying for ages now that Halak plays better when he has competition. This signing guarantees Halak a “backup” who he can rely on. Or, in a different manner of thinking, it gives the Blues two starting goalies at pretty minimal cap-hits each.

Excellent.

I’m also glad to see that the Hitchcockian mentality of “get rewarded for great play” is moving up the ranks into the front offices. Elliott is clearly being rewarded for just how great he’s been playing, and I’m proud of him.

Our Blues have been incredible at home this season, and I see no reason they shouldn’t continue that trend tonight. Come on, boys. Show these young(er) guys how it’s done.

LET’S GO BLUES!!!

Photo courtesy of Brittney Stein.

Let’s get down to business. I think the best way to go about this is a pro/con list for our Blues win over the Oilers.

Two power play goals: Pro.

Polak’s major and game misconduct: Con.

Meeting Ryan Reaves: Pro.

Alex Steen failing concussion baseline tests: Con.

The Oilers hitting the goal posts at least six times: Pro.

The refereeing (seriously, that was a Perron high-sticking? I don’t think so): Con.

Hitchcock’s 550th win: Pro.

Having to play catch-up instead of just controlling the whole game: Con.

The third period: Pro pro pro.

The second period: Everything that ever was a con.

BLUES WIN!!! Biggest pro that ever was. For tonight.

Courtesy of the ever lovely Alexa at Pucks and Pixels

Back in the days under the direction of Andy Murray, three young Blues played on a line together and flourished. They were dubbed the “Kid Line.”

As Patrik Berglund, David Perron, and TJ Oshie have grown up, so have their skills, and their line has separated. These three forwards have a chance tonight to see just how others saw them not too long ago.

The Oilers now boast their own Kid Line, in the form of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Jordan Eberle, and Taylor Hall, with the oldest of these three (Eberle) hitting the ice at a whopping 21 years old.

Though the Oilers’ 13th in the conference/last in their division standings doesn’t quite show it, this line has a stupidly ridiculous amount of potential, playing well enough to garner a reputation of playing like veterans. They’re good. They’re damn good.

Tonight I don’t think they’ll be good enough.

You see, our own Kid Line might have been split up, but they’ve also aged and matured in their games. They’ve spread their talent out along the top two lines, and have brought out the best in their line-mates. They’re playing gritty, getting in and battling for pucks, and I swear, Perron has set up some of the most beautiful assists I’ve seen lately. They’re the kind that just leave you in a sense of awe, needing to be reminded that “yep, that really just happened.”

The future meets the past tonight, both in lines and in standings, as the Oilers are where the Blues finished last year. So much has changed since then.

Halak is in goal tonight again, and I must say, this Halak-Elliott tandem has not gotten old one bit. Having two starters, for all intents and purposes? Not a bad problem to have. The defensive corps just gets better and better with each game they play, and our forwards are playing like they belong in the playoffs.

It should be a quick moving game tonight. And as is pointed out in today’s picture, the Kid Line’s all grown up and ready to play.

LET’S GO BLUES!!

It’s a fascinating thing to watch the #stlblues feed on Twitter during games. Today’s 2-4 loss to the Oilers was no exception.

No matter how many things happen in an entire game, there is never a consensus among Blues fans as to what the cause of the loss was. Today there were those who blamed it on the special teams, and others who put the blue liners as the culprit. Some today hated Jaro, some loved him.

Here’s the way I see it.

There will always be heartbreaking losses and frustrating games if this team cannot get to the point where they are ALL playing all sixty minutes. Today’s game had bright spots. Backes and Pietrangelo both were fired up, our Captain especially. I always love seeing him out there making it entirely evident he WANTS that win. At the beginning of the second, it seemed that he was bringing the rest of the team with him into that realm, and then he scored.

Instead of pumping them up, though, it seemed to deflate them, bringing out one of the sloppiest, most frustrating periods of Blues hockey I have seen all season. I give full and total credit to Jaro for keeping them even just a little bit in the game rather than giving in to what would otherwise have been a blowout.

Today’s performance gave me hope that the goalie this team signed in Halak is still there, that he IS capable of making the big saves when he needs to. He looked more comfortable between the pipes than I’ve seen him in a while, and that’s not just because he hadn’t played in over a week.

This team has the talent. They have the drive. They are perfectly capable of being a competitive team in this division, this conference. I want to see that talent come out and show itself on the ice. I want them to play a full sixty and keep all the haters at bay.

And I want to stop having to list the things I want.

Three more off days and then Vancouver is in town. Lock it up, boys. It’s now or never.

Blues at Oilers, airing 7pm CST on FSMW.

Well, here we go. We’re one game away from finally finishing the month of October and then OUR BOYS CAN COME HOME. I miss going to games.

A few things. No Kent Huskins. Jaro’s in the net. Edmonton is kind of on fire right now.

Ok then.

There is continued commentary about how the top lines need to score, which is true, but I’m not disappointed even slightly in the third and fourth lines’ performances. Alex Steen? Beast.

It’s going to be a fast-paced game, but I know our team can pull off a win to finish out October.

LET’S GO BLUES!!!

So, at the end of tonight’s game, John Kelly said, “Total domination by the Blues in this game.”

That doesn’t happen often, so you know what? I’ll take it.

Let’s not talk about how much the game didn’t matter or anything like that. Because I had fun watching this one. Oshie’s goal was just BEAUTIFUL. CGDS was right in the crease during the power play. Reaves? I guess his mama said knock them out. And holding the Oilers to 12 shots on goal? Yes please.

I just….I’m so happy right now. I don’t even care about anything else. For real.

Airing at 7pm CST on FSMW.

Welcome to the game that doesn’t mean anything! No seriously. Thirteenth in the conference versus last place in the conference.

Well, this is fun.

Especially since OH MY GOD EVERYBODY ON BOTH TEAMS IS HURT, AND NO I WOULDN’T POSSIBLY EXAGGERATE TO THE POINT OF RIDICULOUSNESS FOR EFFECT!!! Seems that way, though. The injury reports for both teams are as long as a Fruit by the Foot.

Which, by the way, are delicious.

Either way, because of those injuries, this game is essentially the Peoria Rivermen versus the Stockton Thunder*.

Two comments on the previous statement. One, remember when John Stockton and Karl Malone played for the Utah Jazz? Man, I loved them. Two, the Oilers are moving their AHL team to Oklahoma City…..and changing the name. Obviously, because how confusing would it be to have the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Oklahoma City Thunder (NBA and AHL, respectively)? Exactly.

So clearly there’s not a lot to say about this game.

Oh, no wait! There’s one more thing. Halak is starting between the pipes tonight. Out of the three games against the Oilers, and the three different goalies who’ve started against them (Halakness Monster, Conk-block, and Bish), Halak is the ONLY ONE TO HAVE LOST.

Nothing like a positive note to go out on, right? Right.

LET’S GO BLUES!!!!

*Edited to add: Apparently I fail at google research. Mental note: don’t write posts on a Thin Mint high. Anywho, the Thunder already moved, as Kat pointed out in the comments. They’re now the OKC Barons. But I’m leaving it as is above because how else would I have my awesome Utah Jazz reference? Exactly.

So, last night. That was a team I barely recognized.

Fire, passion, intensity, and best of all? For the ENTIRE sixty minutes. Hell yes.

First off, I just wanna toss this out there. WHO WAS RIGHT ABOUT THE D-LINES?!?! This girl. People said that it was ridiculous to put the rookies together, that there needed to be a vet on every blue line, that it would be a disaster to switch it all up, but you know what? It worked. There was more defense in this game than I’ve seen recently. And while my Nikitin-Cola line was just a bit altered, with Nikitin being held from the lineup (get well soon, N64!!), I was pretty impressed with the way Strachan stepped up. I’m just glad he was able to actually play a game, rather than spending his time as a healthy scratch, or worse, driving down I-55 every other day.

Now, remember a week ago when there were so many people UP. IN. ARMS. about Army trading away EJ? Well, how do those people feel about the trade now? Chris Stewart. He just…wow. Six goals in five games. The last Blue to do that? Brett Hull. Um, that bodes pretty well, no? Not to mention that it’s just so easy to make up nicknames from him. Seriously. One of the guys I talk to on Twitter started up the hashtag #chrisstewartnicknames, and it is worth the perusing. Trust me. I have very firm opinions on his nickname (as some of you may be aware), but some of these are just literally laugh out loud funny. What makes me laugh more, though, is the way he has NO EMOTION once he gets back to the bench. He’ll celebrate on the ice, but once he sits down, he’s all, “Yeah, that was a goal, and?” You’d think he was just chilling in front of a TV show he’d seen a bajillion times with the way he just spaces off. I love it.

Playing hockey, scoring goals, like ya do.

And let’s talk about the power play really quickly. Because guys? WE HAZ ONE. Silent Jay was a big part of the PP when he was here. Stewart? Bigger. We officially have scored powerplay goals in each of the last EIGHT GAMES. That hasn’t happened since 2005. That’s one of the most encouraging things that I’ve seen this side of the All Star Break.

But what would a recap of last night’s game be without a discussion of The Arch Bishop? Big Ben. Bish4Mayor. BishIsTheIsh. And all the other amazingly awesome things that he was referred to last night, though I’m partial to BishIsTheIsh and the Arch Bishop. He was just lights out. His huge 6’7″ frame makes the goal look SO TINY, and he got some great looks, great stops on those 39 SOGs. This was his first NHL shutout, and though he may not have broken any records, I’m pretty sure he broke into the hearts of Blues Nation. (Can I get a collective aawwwwww on that? I know it was cheesy. I’m happy for him. Give me a break).

Obviously he showed something to Armstrong as Ty Conklin was placed on waivers today. Being that the team won’t know if he clears waivers until Monday, he’s going to continue the trip to Calgary. So is Jaro on his way back in? Well, maybe. I would certainly hope so given that, well, there’s no one behind Bishop. But, since we won’t know til Monday, no use in speculating.

Either way, I don’t know about you guys, but last night’s game was a serious boost in my morale. I’ve had about enough of Blues “fans” wishing this season could be over already. WHY DO YOU WANT THE SEASON TO END?! Don’t you WANT the season to continue past April 9? Don’t you WANT to see the team go on this huge tear, and show the entire league that we’re not a joke? I’ve had this same issue with Cardinals fans, but you know what? Go ahead. Give up. Get out of my Blues (or Cardinals) Nation. I don’t need fans like you.

I’m looking forward to the rest of the season. I like the boost that CGDS and Shatty have given the lineups. I like how Bishop has stepped up. I like Bergie’s play lately. And while yes, there are things that can be improved (some need it by a lot), last night just made me happy.

Haters, don’t bring us down.