By gallagher

I don't even want to talk about it. Four in the first? Just like that? Christ, if you're gonna bang the newbie that hard, at least get him drunk first.

But the crazy thing is that if the Blues had been able to crank down a little more, they could have made a game of this. How the hell do they keep scoring goals with this lineup? Brewer's goal was cool, especially since everyone has been talking shite about him lately. It's easy to say that he looks disinterested this year, but let's give the guy a break. First of all, he has to hear the words, "acquired for Chris Pronger" every other day. Secondly, look at the blueline corps he is anchoring. Eric Weinrich should seriously consider taking that visor and just teach shooting lessons down at the range full time. He's maddening out there. The rest of his fellow defensemen are young, inexperienced, young and somewhat inexperienced. They are also young and inexperienced. I'm a proponent of giving the youngsters playing time this year, but don't expect Brewer to be Pronger or to even look like a lesser Pronger with these guys. Let him get his feet. Wait until this season is over and the new owners have given him some help and these youngsters have started to figure things out.

Everyone wants to give Kitchen another chance, but Brewer? Too late for him. He's got to go. That's crazy. His trade value is low, low, low right now. Wait until he gets adjusted. You can convince me, if you have a good argument, that he'll never have a chance here and HAS to be traded to shake the whole Pronger thing. But you can NOT convince me that he should be traded this year.

Here's a line I'd like to see work: Mayers, McClement and Dutchie. Right now they are energy guys, I suppose, but I could see them becoming a fun line. Mayers creates more chances than your wingman buddy who does parlor tricks. He just has no hands. Like he has hands, but just thumbs and no actual fingers on them. How many breakaways does that guy get a year that he blows with his crappy stickhandling? Tons. But, if quick McClement or Dutchie can race into the play with him, that breakaway turns into a 2-on-1. And McClement and Dutchie can finish in situations like that. It hasn't happened yet, and the GT Rookie, Stempniak, had zero shots, one giveaway and a minus-2 tonight. Plus, he has yet to score since the "Give Stempniak A Nickname" Contest. But he can, we've seen it. And McClement has the ability, too. We just haven't seen it.

In the meantime, I'll take some more Cash, someone who can pot Weight's passes and well, maybe a win against the Sharks on Friday. But I'm not holding my breath.