When Referees Cost You A Game: Blues Lose At Anaheim.

…and this is coming from someone who holds a USA Hockey Level 3 Referee Certification.

This may fast becoming my new mantra, but is there any way the team could make it a priority to head into one of these seasons with an actual starting netminder as the starter?

They tried to win with the best scorer in the league (Hull) and that didn’t work. They tried to win with the best D in the league (MacInnis and Pronger) and that didn’t work. In my nearly 25 years on this earth, they have yet to try to win with an all-world goalie. CuJo is my childhood idol, but he was never on a very good team. The Blues need a fucking No.1 with a bullet netminder.

I had an utterly fantastic time – met up with Spectr17 and we had a good natter.

What surprised me was the number of Blues fans there – and more importantly the number of Blues fans who took the time out to acknowledge another fan…and thank you to the two guys who came up to us as we were sat down and had a chat. Blues fans – who’d seen my Oshie jersey and came up to ask if I was from St Louis. They were shocked when I told them where I was from!

I got high fives as I walked along, thumbs up …it was brilliant.

The best bit for me…was after I’d taken pics of the warm up, Pam (my Ducks friend) told me to go wait by the tunnel and hold my hand out. Which I did. LOL I got hand tapped by EJ…David Perron,…Chris Mason…Yan Stastny…BJ Crombeen – I got a bigger buzz out of that than from meeting various celebs at conventions!

Full report and pics will follow…

Failing to play most of the 2nd period and the first 10 minutes of the 3rd period. Failing to score a goal (as opposed to being gifted a fluke goal when Jackman [gasp!] actually shot the puck). Having forwards that didn’t score (ALL OF THEM)…

That’s what cost us the game.

Toronto? oh whats the use.

We wanted the team to play the same way at home and on the road. So they took the “blow a lead in the 3rd” approach that’s been so popular at home into Anaheim. Woulda been better to go the other way but at least we’re consistent.

I am a card carrying member of the Kerry “oh I’m reffing a game so I have to give Pronger a penalty at some point” Fraser hate club, but it really got me irritated watching on FSN last night when Kelly and Panger went all “blatant missed call on the knee-on-knee, how can they do this to us” when NEITHER one of them even knew it had happened til they saw the replay. So if the professional TV analyst dude didn’t see it til the replay, maybe we can cut the refs a little slack.

Sorry, cold weather + Blues loss = grumpy

I really enjoyed tonight’s game and meeting some new hockey friends. Good to meet you Doc and your friend Pam. We forgot to get a group pic!!

Seeing JAX pot two had me hoping someone would miracle his azz with a third goal so I could toss my lucky Blues hat. Christ I can’t remember the last Blues game where I got to toss my hat.

Perry’y goal, I was screaming pick when Getzlaf hit JAX. We were on the other end so I couldn’t see the knee on knee real good, just JAX spinning around in the air on the hit. What BS there was no call.

Frenchie was strong with the puck and almost had one on the backhander close on in the 2nd. Bergland looks like a new player, strong skating and some banging tossed it. When that kid gets it all together he’s going to be a bitch to stop. He’s got a reach like a Tijuana pickpocket. Happy Meal and Silent Jay turned in their usual yeoman’s work. There was a nice family visiting from Edmonton sitting in front of me and they were impressed with Teeej. Oshie was his usual kamikaze self.

Lowlights were the low number of shots on goal we had, midway in the 2nd we had 7 freakin shots on goal with only 1 in the 2nd. Thankfully the Teemu returning rumor never materialized or it could have been worse. Watching Brewer back in on Mason to give up the screen goal.

The other issue was the flying cow they have that flies around dropping coupons from the sky. The dayum flying bovine with the undulating legs causes me to flashback to my LSD days in the 70s.

Lots of Blues fans at this game, the most I think I’ve seen. A group of 6 buddies to our right and I saw a whole family of 5 decked out in Blues’ jerseys. I did the high five with them. I guess my sign didn’t get on TV, the cameras were across from us but I never saw then swing into the crowd. Not sure why.

“Chris Mason and Ty Conklin are hardly the kind of goaltenders that teams stay up late worrying about.”

I’ve said that myself quite a few times on recent blogs and everyone thought I was smoking crack since they had all the stats to prove me wrong. Maybe you can sway the masses.

I didn’t get to see the game — was in the car. On the Ducks’ first goal, right after the 5-on-3 and then 5-on-4, Chase really ripped Perron for his coverage and wandering after he came out of the box. Interrupted Kerber with something like: “David Perron, what is he doing?!” and went on to describe the mistakes he made in the 12 seconds since he left the box.

I thought Chase had channeled Andy Murray. Anyone see the same on that play? It’s early with Payne; could have been a mix-up. I just hope Payne can reach the “honestly, I always play my own game anyway” types. The Blues have to be able to make it work with young talents like him.

The pick that Getzlaf put on Jackman should have easily been an interference call.

Of course, with Kerry Fraser manning the whistle, late game penalty calls shouldn’t be expected (at least not in the Blues favor).

As for the knee on knee aspect of it, I don’t see the contact as “intent to injure.” “Intent to move him out of the way in an illegal manner,” definitely. But I don’t believe Getzlaf went for Jackman’s knee explicitly.

With all that said, I believe Getzlaf shouldn’t be suspended by the league, I just believe that January 23rd ought to be marked on the calendar by the Blues as a time to put a bunch of hurt on Getzlaf so as to let him know what we think of blown interference calls.

And in case any of you were wondering, let’s ask Kerry Fraser where he rates his own hair:

Thanks, Kerry

That is all.

I was also there, and it was a clear pick, so much so that I was watching hair boy’s arm to see it go up, and looked back just in time to see Beleskey get the putback…coulda had a pp, but….that goal kind of sealed the deal so I would be bitter too….but it’s 74 degrees here today, so I am not..