Big Walt Hits 1,000

….oohhhh bake it bake it.

I tuned into the NHL Network, hoping for a highlight. This is how I translated what I saw:

In a display of “the NHL doesn’t care,” the Blues, a rebuilding team, defeated the Thrashers, a team in a market where hockey already failed once. This game really had no importance except to the St. Louis Game Time web site, and the 300 people in the stands, mostly from St. Louis, and the two Canadian transplants living in Buckhead who couldn’t make it to the game because of traffic diversions to send people to the NASCAR stores for all their holiday needs.

I was there fellas, and it was a great game for the Bluenote.

Two textbook garbage goals from the front of the net (Tkachuk, Backes)…

Classy move by Atlanta to announce the 1,000th point of Tkachuk, and an even classier move by the Atlanta fans to give him a standing ovation. By the way, they still think Tkachuk is the second coming of Jesus.

One magnificent shot-pass from Colonoscopy on to the tape of Bradley Boyes who redirected it into the net. Those are the kinds of passes you need from your defensemen, and exactly why we made the trade.

I was very pleased with our performance all around.

Hell, even Captain Roboto himself had a decent game… He had like 6 shots on goal!

Perron is Mr. Dangler himself. He is one elusive son of a bitch, and they were taking liberties at him all game. He did so-so as the point man on the powerplay, sometimes trying to do too much back there. Often times he’d find himself deep in the zone, leaving only one defenseman back on the point. I guess he’s still learning the ropes. However, he is without question the BEST forward at bringing the puck into the zone, and created many chances throughout the game.

Kovalchuk is ridiculously talented, although it looked like he just didn’t care out there. He can seemingly go wherever he wants to with the puck, and has an absolute laser of a wrist shot. Scary stuff.

The rest of the Thrashers team I hardly even noticed….

Man, they are bad. Like, St. Louis Rams bad.

According to the AJC, Kovy’s been assigned to the 3rd line with Reasoner and Thorburn to see if that gets him scoring – I don’t think it’s that he doesn’t care, it’s just that he hasn’t had a real center since Walt (who is the only former Thrasher they don’t jeer down here – they boo the hell out of Savard, which I think is just really booing the management for letting him walk). Kovy’s getting pissed the hell off – you can tell because he’s starting to take stupid penalties and he’s also starting to fight a bit more.

Perron amazed me… I don’t get to see the Blues in person much, but damn, that kid is FAST. He is an amazing puck handler. I really enjoyed watching the team… I regret not being able to see them more often. Once regular season every other year and once a pre-season just sucks.

The only Thrasher I noticed on the ice last night was Hainsey, and not in the good “OMFG it’s a defenseman who’s doing his job!” kind of way. He even managed a couple stupid penalites. Calling up the Rivermen seemed to work for the Blues. Maybe the Thrashers need to call up more Wolves to go with their coach – they seem to be the only ones who give a flying farg.

GoalieGuy, yeah, that’s basically a correct synopsis. You gotta love going to a Thrashers game. I have the $32 season tickets and haven’t finished a game up there yet – I’ve wound up in the first three rows on the glass about 6 times this year because no one’s ever there. I was 10 feet away from Tkachuk’s goal last night.

Congrats to Big Wallet for #1000… let’s hope you have quite a few more in you yet while wearing the ’Note.

Brad Lee wrote:

It’s surprising that a league like the NHL was actually ahead of the curve when it comes to online content. They were one of the first professional organizations to embrace online video providers such as youtube. They have encouraged their teams to accept bloggers covering their games live from the press box and give them press access to the dressing rooms.

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Apparently, the Blues’ office hasn’t gotten that memo, Brad, because every time I’ve tried to request credentials for Development Camp or Training Camp or even a pre-season game, Mssrs. Caruso, Jankowski and Bonnani can’t even be bothered to reply to said request.

The folks in Peoria, on the other hand, have been very cooperative and accomodating.

B.

Hey Brian,

How many signatures do you think you would you need on a petition to get those credentials? Do you think 1,000 would do it? It might be a good Game Time project to try to get you hooked up.

Otherwise, how much do you think you could pull off looking like Jeff Gordon if he were to mysteriously disappear?

Oh, and Congrats to Walt! Not my favorite player, but I can’t deny that he has earned his tenure in the league and then some.

Nice article Brad. You almost have me forgetting why I hate the old son of a bitch. Then I realized that in a salary cap league after all the money he still stuck us for four million a season. As you know when actions are revealed words become very cheap indeed. He’s sniffing the talent coming in and he knows we will be a Cup contender sooner than later and he wants in on it. Well I will reserve myself until this summer or if he resigns before then. If he signs a one year deal for the minimum or less than $2 million dollars I’ll be sold.

I’m hoping the Blues consider the russian sniper in Atlanta. One has got to think he’s just going through the motions biding his time, trying to end up somewhere good.

i do appreciate what Tkachuk does off the ice. But I know that there were many others before him and even Bernie after we traded him to Detriot in the twilight of his career came back. That’s remarkable. Because Bernie will never be the fourth on the list of players all-time money makers, which is where I believe Tkachuk is at.

He still owes us folks. And when he does something big and brings the intensity to the games like he has I will forgive him.

I wonder is it says anything about Tkachuk in that on most major websites it’s less news than a former no-name NHLer being busted for cocaine. It’s almost as if it never happened. That is kind of fucked up. It’s not like he hit it at a bad clip either.

Nice article. There is finally some in-arena footage of the goal from someone with a camcorder who was at the game. It’s on blues.nhl.com .

This is what happens when a milestone’s reached at a Thrashers game? God help them if they win the Cup… the ceremony’ll have to be freaking bootlegged by someone’s iPhone.

Dan, all I know is that after seeing it on tape today, it looks like Walt recorded his 1000th point from the grassy knoll with an assist from Lee Harvey Oswald.

Chris D., I’m sure if either team had televised the game, we would have seen/heard more about it on major websites.

FWIW, it’s the Frozen Moment of the day on NHL. com

http://www.nhl.com/ice/gallerylanding.htm?id=7059

Good stuff, CG, good to see most Blues fans would give “props” one of the few Americans to get 500g & 1000pts. & thanks to the Atlanta guys who let us know that it was announced at the arena, but the standing “O” was still very classy, atl fans!
  
I’m also one to agree with Chris D. on Big Walt next year, I’d hope it’d be around $1.5m, though, but I agree under $2m is acceptable if he keeps this up. We’re finally getting to see the leadership & smart play most of us thought Tkachuk would bring over when we dealt for him.

I believe the replay that’s circulating is the score board replay, it was on Sports Plus & On The Fly, & I thought I heard one of ’em say that.

Hopefully this is the offseason where we no longer have to overpay to get guys to come to this city & Walt taking a small amount(to him) would be a nice start & sign to other FAs out there.

Still torn over this guy. I can’t decide if he’s an overpaid veteran who the organization keeps around for his ‘intangibles’, or if he’s a legitimate contributor. Either case, I’m not so sure he’d be better than investing in some more young talent that would pay off later.

Gifty, you gotta watch out for those mofo’s on the grassy knoll. That’s where all the danger’s at.

I’m not torn over Walt. I was torn the year that he got traded to Shitlanta. Cuz he was sort of here or there. He was good enough to be noticeable…but not really good enough to be missed. This year though, I’ve been glad to have him. Looking at our points leaders, Walt has been pretty darn solid. Especially, since Kariya decided to go AWOL with some crazy hip flexor injury.
Maybe it’s because Walt has been solid this year. Maybe it’s because I have a soft spot for overweight dudes. Maybe it’s because I have a thing for dudes with gray in their beards. Whatever it is, I like Walt on the team this year. He’s chipped in with some good points, some which were really pretty needed.

So I was on ESPN.com the other day and they were grading the team efforts so far. The Blues received a D because of injuries…. isnt that like failing a test because you’re in a wheelchair??. FUCK DETROIT AND ESPN

It seems to me the Blues should get an “A” grade in the injuries category.

or an A for effort… I really dont get that saying sometimes, because people act like it implies that there is an ‘a’ in the word effort.

ESPN has no business even thinking about grading hockey teams. Until they can devote more than 5 minutes of Sportscenter to hockey other than Crosby and Ovy, they can shut it. How the hell do you fail someone because of injuries – take the fact that some of our strongest players are hurt and then look at the fact that we’re a .500 team. Yeah, last place, but we’re last in the strongest division in the NHL with a record that’d be at least 3rd in a few others. Hell, we’d probably be winning the Southeast.

Yes, we would be winning the Southeast.

eh…the capitals are winning the southeast with 29 points compared to our 22. We’d be a win above the lightening in that division. (bleh, sorry I had to say it)

Sorry… it got jumbled when I typed… I meant we’d probably be winning the SE if we weren’t all hurt. But you have to look at who the Caps have to play as division opponents: Florida, Tampa, Carolina, and Atlanta. That’s a heck of a lot easier than playing Detroit, Chicago, Nashville, and Columbus. The Caps’d probably have 6 fewer points than they do now and we’d probably have 6 more if we flipped divisions. The SE has a way of inflating stats for average teams.