Reaction To Kariya’s Signing

by Brad Lee on Jul 6, 2007 2:25 PM CDT

Fredbird approves of the Kariya signing

By Brad Lee

With the July 4th holiday and hitting the road to see the Cardinals play in CincinnatiÂ (another post for a different blog), we've been a little lax weighing in on the Blues signing Paul Kariya. We're on board (unless otherwise noted in the comments). Kariya is the most gifted puckhandler to play for the Blues since Adam Oates. Except he's faster, we hope. He's going to immediately help the helpless power play and give a jolt to the forward lines, whomever he's playing with (a Kariya-Tkachuk-Boyes line makes us get a little excited). But don't take our word for it. Here's a smattering of reaction to this big splash by the Blues organ-eye-zation.

"Signing Tkachuk and Kariya is no guarantee of a playoff berth, but shelling out more than $10 million in salary for two proven scoring forwards does indicate that the Blues are serious about competing this season." -- TSN's Scott Cullen.

"'I know we're a playoff team,' Kariya said after donning a No. 9 jersey at his introductory news conference. 'Let's go win a Cup.' " -- AP's R.B. Fallstrom.

"Paul Kariya is sounding a bit too optimistic about his future with the St. Louis Blues. During his introductory news conference, the left wing said, 'I know we're a playoff team. Let's go win a Cup.' A playoff team? Win a Cup? Are you insane? Kariya recently signed a three-year, $18-million contract with the Blues, who finished 10th in the Western Conference last season and have been hapless for years. We think Kariya is setting himself up for a hard fall. But if Lions QB Jon Kitna says his team can win 10 games, then we guess it's OK for Kariya and St. Louis to have Stanley Cup dreams." -- Some prick at the Detroit Free Press.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Jeremy Rutherford had some nice lines in his story from the press conference Tuesday.

Missourinet has a 1 minute, 33 second audio clip from the press conference.

So what do you think of the Kariya signing? Are the Blues headed back to the playoffs? Are you headed to the ticket window? Let us know in the comments.

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Comments

I’m real happy we got Kariya. finally we’re an offensive threat and should win games easier. but still Dvorak’s departure left a hole. hopefully signing someone like Mike Johnson (still available at this reply’s posting time) will fill that void and we’ll be a more complete team.

by Dooks on Jul 7, 2007 2:04 AM CDT reply actions

i don’t know if i said it here but. kariya is the best unrelated free agent the blues ever signed that was legal. again, and this is from a two year old memory or so. his competition would be peter zezel the first time we signed him, or geoff courtnall the first time we signed him.

so a step is a step is a step.

i was literally on the dorstep to doing a half. what stopped me was the return of kt, i immediately went looking to find how much it would cost to rent a billboard tht said “instead of a half game ticket plan, when the blues signed kt all i got was this lousey billboards”

billboards are waaaay to expensive…

kariya just made me stop pricing billboards, but not made me start looking at views of the ice from section number xxx..

by Childhood Trauma on Jul 8, 2007 9:58 AM CDT reply actions

The closest thing that we in STL can relate this signing to is when the Cardinals picked up Scott Rolen (give or take a little "prime").

It’s a home-run deal for a team that badly needs on-ice leadership and will be wearing 3 “A’s” on the ice while they keep Dally’s “C” warm for Johnson (fingers crossed).

Looking past the obvious benefit for the Blues in this deal, keep in mind the chasm of lost hopes that’s been left to our friends in Nashville… we’re going to kick the shit out of them in each and every matchup next season, and I’ll feel much better about matching Detroit’s speed between the lines.

Kariya = Cup (if anything ever will)

by Adam on Jul 9, 2007 2:03 AM CDT reply actions