Blues Give Hawks Old-Fashioned Whoopin’

Anyone who went out and bought a Backes jersey this year is feeling very vindicated right about now.

Backes is the new Elvis.

The King is dead. Long live David Backes.

fuck yeah! the slow man skated tonight and viola three points. i’m excited again though i’m still not sure the blues should hold to both ufa defensemen. but in all fairness to ryan johnson—that was an awesome blocked shot tonight. legace is fucking awesome. backes is the shizit. and as far blackhawks to hate i think burrish is the new man to hate the most. great to see their hopes crushed with an empty netter by jay"it’s never to late to show up to the party" mcclement.

oh and gt by way of appology and wanting of great hcokey conversation i’d like to extend out an invitation to a blues game before the regular season’s over. just tell which game and i’ll make it happen.

What a game from start to finish. It seemed like a playoff atmosphere the entire game. By the way, I wasn’t able to attend live, but watched from home on Vs in HD. My question is this, is there any sport better to watch in HD than hockey? I don’t think so. It is phenomenal in HD and watching those crappy Fox Sports broadcasts look awful after seeing that. What was even better was watching the Blackhawks get the beat down in HD. The only thing better is watching the Note beat down DeToilet in HD.

I don’t care what people say, these Blues have NOT given up on this season fo sho!

it must be said….this recent resurgence in the club must have something to do with finally naming a captain

I’ll actually get to see this game later tonight. (That’s about 2 pm for you St Louisians). Yay, hooray.

Dooks said: “this recent resurgence in the club must have something to do with finally naming a captain”

Could be. Or maybe it’s because Backman isn’t playing, or because Stastny is. I think it’s got to be a lot of little things that everyone is doing now.

Not to be negative, but this team has been streaky this year. Thankfully they’re on the good type of streak now. =)

I think that it’s a combination of things:

1) they are more physical in the second line. Backes is hitting everything (he’s a young KT with more physicality and less smooth-the Kariya line could use somebody like him.)

2) Manny is back to his All-Star form-gonna steal some games again.
 
3) Brewer doesn’t make that one WTF giveaway in his own zone that always ends up in the net.

4) EJ is getting more playing time, and his rookie mistakes are down to about 1 mistake every 3 games now.

5) The third line (Stempy, Mayers, McClement) isn’t a bonafide scoring threat, but they have been much more offensively effective in the last few games. Before you climb over me about scoring goals, time in the offensive zone is the next most important offensive stat in the game. It causes fatigue, which leads to mistakes, penalties, scoring chances and momentum.

6) The level of compete on the power play has gone up a notch the last two games. All of a sudden, we’re winning races to the puck on the boards and coming away from scrums with possession.

7) I like Yan Stasny. He’s a very smart player.

And thanks to Sean & Brad for coming over to hang out last night. Cool to meet you and talk hockey in real time. Chris D-I think that if they can get something for Jackman, they should. He reportedly wants $5M, but this year, he’s had a $.05 head. I’ve never seen such a good player make so many bad decisions for an entire season before. In his case, his +/- is warranted. Hopefully, Salvador will be more reasonable. He’s been everything you want in a #3 defenseman: doesn’t win you many games, but he doesn’t lose them, either.

Be gone all weekend, probably gonna miss the west coast swing. And just when it was getting interesting again.

sean: yea that guy does feel good about his jersey

other things.

my6 first second third and response to the game last night: wow. Wow. and WOW.

however: we now do NOT have games in hands enough to catch 8th place. we are officially out of the playoffs currently

murray says stuff like perron was out due to match-ups int eh game, and we havent changed anything yada yada yada

BUT he then mentioned multiple times that this week his mantra HAS been new " 100% in your first 20 seconds" to take the place into the offensive zone. anyone who has not seen a marked difference in the blues attack style (especially on the d-men side) really hasn’t been watching. wether that is a stratagy that will continue, or even continue to work as other (and better teams) faces the blues with knowledge of the play remains to be seen. it is, however, without a doubt, a CHANGE in philosophy.

also, i think it was mentioned here yesterday. there was a buzz. i had it, others had it, the kind of buzz that just spontaneously developes. everyone seemed to have it independent of one antoher and we we got together it just continued to grow

there have been recent times when such high level buzzes being brought into a game by the forces that be produced an absolute turd on the ice.

tonight, for the first time in several years, the buzz actually seemed to produce exceptional, but focused, play on the ice.

my greatest fear (being pessimistic) was that, once again, a major buzz in a game that could help re-introduce a rivalry back into this city, in a game the blues were (for the nhl) in a national spotlight would produce a disaster and all but dash the momentum.

it did not.

this is when we see what ANDY MURRAY has in him. the streakiness of the team, the currently healthy status of most of it, the playoff push, the impeding road travel. It is Andy’s job to keep the level of play high. can he guarentee wins? no. but he should guarentee effort.

good is no longer good enough.

that is blue note code #1

I completely agree that the philosophy of 100% in the first 20 second of every shift is working. In my opinion, the biggest difference that it has made is limiting the shots on goal of the other team. After the Nashville game where we shat the bed, AM really put the challenge out to the forwards to be more aggressive and focus on those first 20 seconds of every shift. Here are the shots on goal for the last 4 games:

2/14 – CO 40 STL 24
2/16 – NSH 44 STL 19
2/17 – CLB 19 STL 28
2/19 – CHI 20 STL 37

Our shots have gone up and the opponents’ have gone down. Now, whether or not they can keep this up remains to be seen. However, I believe it has refocused our forwards and is making a difference in how aggressive they are playing every shift.

That really felt like I was watching a playoff game last night. It was such a great atmosphere, I just wish I was there instead of watching at home. But, it sure was nice getting the game in HD. Thank God I at least had that…

One other thing that I thought was impressive about last nights game was the shots on goal in the third period. Going into the period with a 2-1 lead the Blues out shot the Chicken Hawks 12-4. I realize getting 3 power plays helped that out a bit, but that is encouraging to see them attacking with the lead instead of sitting back and playing defense the whole time.

Hell of a game last night…second consecutive Tuesday game for me, second consecutive Tuesday game win. No doubt, the energy in the STC was amazing. Now I have to get home from work and watch the VHS recording I taped (I hope).

And I did give my ticket to a homeless guy doing some tree-leaning between the ScotTrade and the Union Station parking lot. He actually looked kind of pissed — like my generous gift of one free ScotTrade taco between the hours of 11 am and 2 pm today was a personal affront to him.

More importantly, due to last night’s game I finally achieved my four-year goal of getting my girlfriend interested in hockey. She’s a Chicago girl — don’t worry, not a B-Hawks fan — she, like 98.9 percent of Chicagoans seemingly, is only minimally aware that the city even has a hockey team. In games past I’ve taken her to, the Blues always lost, the STC was empty and she was able to cast the sport aside. I took her to the Kings game last week, we won, she turns around and gets us tickets for last night. The game was great, the building was raucus, and low-and-behold, she texts me at work today with news that she’s picked up tickets for next Tuesday too. Good on you, Blues. My dream is complete. Incidentally, I’ll be the guy sitting in section 316 feeling shame for somehow failing to own a single piece of Blues apparel anymore.

When you’re watching the game, keep an ear out for a hook during the last minutes of the 3rd period, which the Vs. announcers described as “an exploratory caress of the stick.” It got me excited!

Sadly, I think my tape probably ran out around the second intermission (hopefully I got that much). In my rush to get to the game in time, I forgot to pick up an actual tape, so I had to rig up and record over my Fight Club VHS. Since I hit ‘Record’ right before leaving — since the damn VCR’s Time-Recorder doesn’t work anymore — I’ve got roughly 40 minutes of pre-game programming as well. It does not bode well for me getting to watch any of the third period, let alone the alst few minutes. Here’s hoping though.

Duke, you have got to get a DVR. Seriously!

well, the Fight Club tape made it 3 minutes into the third. And, as luck would have it, the announcer made his "exploratory caress of the stick comment near the end of the 2nd period (maybe in the 3rd as well?). There have to be better ways of describing a hook. That’s it. No more non-hockey related blabber from me for awhile…rest in peace Fight Club VHS tape..

Chris D. wrote:

“oh and gt by way of appology and wanting of great hcokey conversation i’d like to extend out an invitation to a blues game before the regular season’s over. just tell which game and i’ll make it happen.”

==

If you’ve got an extra season ticket or something, I’d be glad to join you for a game, Chris. But please don’t go out and buy a ticket just for me.

I think the last game with the Hawks on March 29th, game #78 on the season, would be a good one to see live… don’t you?

B.

sure do and consider it done.