Wild v Blues / Kings v Blues

By gallagher

Sorry I don't have time to put together one of my patented well-prosed posts (cough cough), but I have to start working on Columbus like yesterday.

Speaking of yesterday, I went to the game with Son of GT, who was attending his first game. As guests of #8 and the lovely Mrs 8, we had a blast. My kid was into the whole thing and we got to stay the whole time (he's not yet 5, so there was some question in my mind).

The stars must have been aligned because not only did he get to see his first Blues game, have a blast, see an OT win, but on top of it all, Lee "Dutchie" Stempniak got the OT GW. Son of GT, a quick study, had both hands in the air, yelling at the top of his lungs. What a great game this is.

One last note on that experience. If you attend a lot of Blues games, you get used to the game day atmosphere. The fabric of the game. You forget how amazing that is when it's your first time. And you're three feet tall.

Between last night and tonight, the Blues have put up some great effort. The defense shuttled out old Eric Weinrich and therefore made room for old Steve Poapst to suit up again. Ug. Brad Lee is on to something with his LFP. Steve Poapst, until you hit waivers again, your name is LFP.

After Waiver Wire, the next oldest Blue on the defense is 26 years old. That's what we've been clamoring for all year. Looks like LP finally got our website forwarded to him.

The offense looks great, too. Tkachuk looked a little off tonight, and was, as #8 put it on Friday, 'quiet'. But I have faith that the big fella will be breaking out of it soon enough. McClement has looked positively Dutchie-like with his hardskating and drive to the net. Having him play in St. Louis has done him remarkable good.

I can't say enough good things about Dallas Drake's decision to stay here and gut this out as Captain. As everyone knows, I have no back-office connections with the Blues, so I don't know if Drake specifically asked not to be traded, but I do know just from study of the game that if he HAD specifically asked to be moved, he'd be gone. And no one would have judged him for it. He's getting older and he wants to win a Cup, like all of those guys do. Plenty of teams would have called the Blues about getting him. But he's here still, and I believe it's because he wants to be here.

Some Notes On Sweaters

I love the sweaters, especially the personalized ones. I love the strange ones the best. Whenever action is slow on ice, I scan the crowd for wacky sweaters (and people with the GT in their hands).

Strangest one Friday: Blues white with number 16. Nameplate: Turek.

Strangest one Saturday: Kings black with 36 Fukufuji on it. Fuku is a Kings goaltending prospect from Japan, but the kid is so far from ever wearing a Kings' jersey, you wonder if the scouting staff got the GM to pick him just so they could hear the name called and start laughing. I guess that's why the dude bought the jersey, too. It's funny, I guess, but is it like $200 funny?

Started wondering when I'll see the first Shishkanov jersey. The Wideman and Stempniak versions showed up in the stands pretty quickly.... The first person I see wearing a Shish jersey gets a GT free. If that person finds me to show it off, I'll throw in a free GT t-shirt when they roll off the line here shortly.

Ok, working away on Columbus. See you on Monday.

Oh, I also finally turned on reader comments on the blog here under duress from a couple folks. Fine, you win. Feel free to tell me I'm an idiot, it won't shut me up (just ask the wifeditor).