Road Music, 10/20: @ PIT

It seems we're interrupting our regularly scheduled West Coast swing to fly to PIT and face the defending Stanley Cup Champs.... Bring 'em On!!!

If we continue to play like we did against Anaheim, we should be fine. While there is always room for improvement, Saturday's game was a perfect example of "doing all of the little things right". Keep that up, and we have a chance to win each and every game we play, regardless of the opponent or their pedigree.

Today's music is a change of pace, much like we're changing time zones and conferences. Even though every game matters, and points count the same regardless of where you earn them .... games against the Eastern Conference just don't hurt us in the standings, if we lose. I want to win, for sure, but a loss here doesn't mean nearly as much as one against a division, or even a conference, foe. The pressure, really, is off. In its place is something a little different. This game is, for the most part, a measuring stick for the Blues to determine how far we've come as a franchise:

From the 2002 through 2006 drafts, Pittsburgh picked 5th (2002 - Ryan Whitney), 1st  (2003- Marc-Andre Fleury), 2nd (2004- Evgeni Malkin), 1st (2005-some guy named Sidney Crosby),  and 2nd (2006- Jordan Staal). That's a LOT of sucking, resulting in high draft picks and a team developing those picks into bona-fide contributors to a franchise that has gone to the Finals twice, and most recently, won the right to spoon with Lord Stanley.

Isn't this the very same thing we're trying to accomplish, right here in River City? They were able to start that rebuilding sooner than we were, so they've already reached that pinnacle... but there's no reason why we can't look at the Penguins as a harbinger of things to come for the Blues. We've only had 2 top-5-overall draft picks under the current rebuilding program, and we're already showing promise.

Bringing this all back to the music .... The Pens, for all their faults, are a glimpse of our own team's future. And, were the Pens feeling charitable, they'd tell you exactly what it was like ... what a long, strange trip it's been....

Grateful Dead/ Truckin'

LGB,

CCR