St. Louis Game Time

By Brad Lee

What year is this, 1993? The Shanahans, Brendan and Michael (no releation), are back in the news for two very different things.

Michael Shanahan Sr. pled guilty this week to a federal charge related to a stock backdating scheme involving his former business Engineered Support Systems Inc. Shanahan is the former owner of the St. Louis Blues and oversaw one of the most exciting times in franchise history from the emergence of Brett Hull to the signings of Scott Stevens and Brendan Shanahan to the trades for Chris Pronger and Al MacInnis. With Ron Caron as the general manager, there was always meat on the burner.

No matter what happens to Mr. Shanahan (he could still face a federal prison sentence in the case), most Blues fans will still feel indebted to the former owner for being aggressive and honestly chasing after a chance at the Stanley Cup. And most of us will always feel it was wrong how the Kiel Center Partners forced him out of power on the team.

As has been documented on all of the Blues fan message boards, Brendan Shanahan is easily the best player still available in free agency. Even at age 39, he’s pretty much a lock to score more than 20 goals in a season and contribute on the power play. He’s a veteran leader and a former heart throb here in St. Louis with many a puck bunny still sporting his jersey to games even to this day.

He’s been rumored to go to Vancouver, but that may not be true. He was linked to the Devils at the opening of free agency. And of course one local hockey guy says the Blues are interested, but no offer has been made.

According to Jeremy Rutherford of the Post-Dispatch in his online chat last week, don’t get your hopes up.

Matt: With Brendan Shanahan still on the market. Do you think the Blues or Shanahan have any intrest. I think he could fill the void in the locker room, when Weight was traded. He could also fill Jamers old role, but with a bit more scoring.

Jeremy Rutherford: It’s a nice thought, but it will never happen. The Blues inquired about Shanahan a couple of years ago, but there wasn’t a match. He wanted to play in NY or Detroit and settled in NY. You’re right . . . Shanahan could fill some of the leadership responsibilities, and give the Blues some scoring help, but it’s not going to happen.

If leadership responsibilities include stealing the wife of your supposed best friend and then marrying her, he’d be a perfect fit.

By Brad Lee

On July 20, your chance to own a part of hockey history will be over. That’s when the online auction ends for Alan Thicke’s Blues jersey he wore during the “celebrity” hockey game last month.

The news that Thicke was in the game didn’t go unnoticed. The fellas at Joe Sports Fan had two posts about Thicke being a god-damned celebrity hockey player. And our Internet friend Greg Wyshynski of Puck Daddy fame at Yahoo! Sports posted “highlights” of Thicke actually playing in the game. Apparently the Blues are cashing in on this Alan Thickemania!* And besides owning a piece of one of Canada’s crown jewels, you can also buy the jerseys of such celebrities as Kim Alexis, Mark DeCarlo and Ron Duguay!

*Thickepalooza? Thickegate? Thickocity? The Alan Thicke Project?

We’re the last people to be making fun of someone who wants to buy a unique hockey jersey. One guy who writes for us owns a Barret Jackman jersey with a C on the front because it was free and thought he would be the next captain. Oops. And one of us owns a Gretzky Blues clown suit (and NEVER EVER wears it). But there is no reason on this planet to buy a piece of unwashed hockey clothing from Dr. Jason Seaver.

Unless your name is Richard Stabone.

By Brad Lee

With the release of the Blues’ schedule for the coming season, Blues president John Davidson spoke to Jeremy Rutherford of the Post-Dispatch. Whilst eating our morning curds and whey, we read aloud JD’s comments. We had forgotten that the GM Translator 2000 EZ was still plugged in and the thing sprung to life. Here’s what Davidson said about the schedule where the Blues will play fewer division games (six compared to eight) and more games against the Eastern Conference:

The fans wanted to see more variety…that’s what they wanted and I think there’s a lot more balance in that respect.

Hmmm. What’s with the elipses? And is he trying to sound intentionally vague? After pecking on a few keys and feeding the machine an arcane paper strip with a series of weird holes in it, here’s what the Translator spit out, giving us what JD was really saying:

The fans wanted to see more variety. Frankly, they were sick and fucking tired of seeing the damn Blue Jackets what seemed like a dozen times last year. It was horrible. You think we can turn this franchise around and afford actual good players when we’ve got a schedule full of Columbus and Nashville games on Tuesday nights in January and February? Indoor soccer is an easier ticket to sell than those games. We’re not miracle workers here, so it was about damned time that munchkin of a commissioner finally grew some balls and stood up to Lou Lamoriello to change the schedule. You know how many games the Devils rode a bus to last season?

Wow. We had no idea JD felt so strongly. And as the chumps who put together the underground paper sold outside Blues home games, putting together the paper for that fourth Columbus home game every year was like a water boarding session combined with hooking your balls up to a car battery. Not that we’d know what that feels like. Where were we? Oh yeah, JD had a little more to say to Rutherford.

The fans will get a chance to look at the players they only hear about. I like variety, too…you don’t get bored with it.

Oh boy. I hope the GM Translator 2000 EZ is kind this morning. Wonder where this one is headed.

On Nov. 1, our fans will get a chance to see Sidney Crosby again. I’m secure enough in my masculinity to say that not only is he a tremendous, world-class hockey player but he also has one helluva body. I remember his rookie year we were doing a Penguins game at the Garden. Afterward, I waited around in the dressing room while he showered so I could interview him. I like variety too…you don’t get bored with it.

Our advice to hockey front offices everywhere: Be careful what you say. The Translator is listening.

By Brad Lee

The Blues released their schedule for 2008-09. We’re taking a look and breaking it down. Importantly, the Blues open the season at home and not on the West Coast for the first time in three years. Also: There is no Road Trip From Hell (patent pending) in March.

At first glance there are some interesting things about the schedule.

• Eight of the Blues’ first 10 games are at home.
• Almost half (20) of their 41 home games are on a Friday or Saturday. That is amazing.
• The longest road trips are five games apiece: a weird West Coast swing that ends up going to Buffalo and Chicago and five-game trip in the last few days of the season in April that’s thankfully confined to the Midwest and Phoenix.
• The Blues have 11 total games in January with a full seven days off after Jan. 21.
• The Blues have a total of 14 games in February — a month with only 28 days.
• Only one home game in April — After baseball season starts.
• The NHL got away from the push to close the season with only divisional games.

Buy your tickets early for Saturday, Nov. 1 when the Sidney Crosby Experience rolls into town. Other Eastern Conference matchups that could be fun include Montreal on Nov. 16 (unfortunately, a Sunday night game which are always awkward), the Bruins on Dec. 21 (also a Sunday), the Devils on Dec. 30, the Flyers Jan. 31 (probably a really fun Saturday night game) and the New York Rangers on Feb. 16.

On the surface, this looks pretty good for the Blues. March will be more kind. They still play too many home games really early in the season. There aren’t the big gaps on the schedule in October like the last two years. And while we still have to see Columbus and Nashville a little too often, there’s plenty of good matchups. And the number of Friday and Saturday games is outstanding.

What do you think? Tell us in the comments.

By Brad Lee

This year’s Winter Classic* will pit the Blackhawks against the Red Wings at that dump Wrigley Field on New Year’s Day this upcoming season. This sucks.

*What makes this game a classic? They had one last year, the first one, and it was already a classic. This is the second one. It’s classic too? Is it even more classic? Couldn’t the morons in the NHL office come up with a better name? Don’t answer that.

This means the Hawks, the most logical team that would host the Blues in one of these outdoor games, already has one. Because of the iffy winter weather in St. Louis (it’s as liable to rain on Jan. 1 and be about 40 degrees as it is anything else that day), the Blues will never host a game. The team, even when it will be good in the coming seasons, won’t have a natural rival that would be in a position to host one of these and draw a decent TV rating, which is the only other prerequisite other than having a cold outdoor stadium. The only thing hanging out there is rekindling a rivalry with Boston at Fenway Park. That would kick ass. But it’s not very likely.

And what’s really frustrating is that the Hawks are just emerging from years of ineptitude and moronic front office decisions. They’ve got young talent maturing the same time as the Blues. There are bad feelings. It would be great. And instead they set the Hawks up to play the Red Wings. Granted, the Hawks played Detroit as tough as any team during last season, but the defending Cup champions are going to want to put on a show. It could be a blowout.

When this year’s outdoor game happened and it looked like a lot of fun, some of us who run St. Louis Game Time said it would be fun to go to a Winter Classic if it ever involved the Blues or wasn’t ungodly far away. Well here’s the test. Will we attend a game within easy driving distance in Chicago to see a game featuring two teams we hate? And if we do go, how many of us get arrested? Your predictions in the comments, please.

By Brad Lee

Sorry to put up a shirtless Chris Chelios and Kid rock (with their friends actor Jeremy Piven and Wayne Gretzky). But obviously the NHL rinks are dark and Stanley is still relaxing at the beach. And the NHL season, which seems like it will never end after it starts, seems like it will never arrive.

Don’t get us wrong, we love summer. All the baseball and barbecues and family vacations and bug bites. It’s a blast. And as I look at my Blues promotional calendar which has Jamal Mayers on it for July*, the realization happens that we haven’t had Blues hockey since the first week of April.

*For the record, this marks the third month where the featured player was no longer on the team when the month arrived. That’s probably worth its own blog post.

As the free agency period winds down and the Blues are reduced to signing guys to two-way contracts and 5′-9″ defensemen, it’s getting harder to populate this little corner of cyberspace. So we’re going to work on a few things and hopefully get the readership involved a little as we slowly grind our way toward training camp in September. So keep coming back. We’ll write more. Honestly.

In the meantime, check out our friend Puck Daddy at Yahoo! Sports. That dude must type in his sleep. Plus he gives us lots of links and stuff. So overlook the fact that he’s a Devils fan and check him out. You’ll find plenty to read and react to on his blog.

By Sean Gallagher

Here you go, starving for news Blues fans: our friends at The Pipeline Show have pulled yet another interview with one of our team’s top prospects.

Take a listen as young Mr. Peterangelos PetAnglio Pteredoctyl Pantrangelo Pietrangelo talks about the draft, his fellow high draft picks and his desire to wear the Note next year. He also mentions that St. Louis is a great city! We knew the kid was smart.

I wonder how long it’ll take him to learn that we all hate his pick for “hockey role model.”

By Brad Lee

In today’s rough and tumble world of National Hockey League general managing, sometimes you have to read between the lines when it comes to player movement and disputes with other teams. That’s why St. Louis Game Time spent our economic stimulus check on the GM Translator 2000 EZ machine. Now we can figure out what team general managers and presidents mean when they make comments on league news, like when the Blues signed Vancouver Canucks forward Steve Bernier to an offer sheet and the Canucks quickly matched the offer on Tuesday.

In announcing the offer sheet signing ($2.5 million for a one-year contract), Blues team president John Davidson said,

Steve is a good young player who would play a big part in our youth movement.

We plug that short sentence into the GM Translator 2000 EZ machine, and out comes what JD really means.

Fuck you, Vancouver. Did you notice we signed Bernier for the exact same amount you signed Backes? Neither are worth that much next season, but you’ll have to pay Bernier that much to keep him. Did I say fuck you, yet?

We love technology! What an invention. Let’s see what else Davidson said about the signing.

Our coaches and scouting staff are extremely positive about him.

Sounds harmless. Wonder what the GM Translator 2000 EZ is going to spit out. It’s dot matrix so it takes a second to print the readout. It’s a long one.

We could not care less about Bernier. We know you’re going to match the contract. This is a message to all the Kevin Lowe wannabes out there who know we’ll have a fair number of unrestricted free agents in coming seasons. And when we have a guy come up, we’re going to send a copy of our press release to every team in the league to send a message not to fuck with our guys. Vancouver, we even made it a one-year deal so we can do this all over again 12 months from now.

All that from one sentence. That’s a better invention than the iPod. Let’s see what Vancouver had to say about the situation when the Canuckleheads announced they were matching the contract. Here’s what Vancouver general manager Mike Gillis said:

Steve is a highly regarded young offensive player in our League. As we have stated with his right-handed shot he will be a great addition to our top six forward group and an asset to our power play.

A light just started blinking on the translator machine thingamabob. It overheard me reading that quote out loud. I think it just emitted an electronic laugh. Here’s the printout.

You know, we know, everyone who has seen Steve Bernier knows that 90 points in 177 NHL games is not worth $2.5 million next season at age 23. In fact, this contract could totally throw off our salary scale if this guy sucks it up this coming season. But we need offense and couldn’t justify trading a second and a third round pick and only end up with a second round pick to show for it. We may be a dumb organization, but we’re not that stupid.

The translator machine is on fire. Literally. There are flames shooting out of it and smoke and warning bells. Maybe this last quote from Gillis was too much for it to handle.

We have a great deal of respect for the St. Louis Blues, John Davidson, Larry Pleau and their management team. The offer sheet to Bernier is a clear indication of how highly Steve is thought of in our League.

Not often do you see one team’s GM mention another team’s front office by name in a press release. We put the flames out. The GM Translator 2000 EZ was able to spit this out.

We hate the St. Louis Blues, John Davidson, Larry Pleaua and their management team. The offer sheet to Bernier was a low down, no good, snake in the grass move. You have not heard the last of Mike Gillis. I will make you pay!!!!

Well that was enlightening. What have we learned today? Let’s review.

• Almost any young player with offensive upside can be a millionaire with little more than two full NHL seasons that aren’t even all that good.
• Unrestricted free agency is like the Wild West. Anything goes.
• Mike Gillis and John Davidson will not likely send each other Christmas cards this year.

Did you learn anything else from the GM Translator 2000 EZ? Tell us in the comments.

By the remaining contributors of Game Time

In a bittersweet move, as first reported by ESPN, Sean Gallagher has been acquired by the Oakland A’s.

While most are suprised by the move, with a little simple analysis, the deal makes perfect sense for both parties.

Face it, Game Time readers, Sean was the most visible GT staffer, and because of that, Oakland GM Billy Beane coveted him.  At his news conference discussing the trade, Beane said, “I think we’ve taken a step forward for the next three to five years.”

This trade does make Game Time look like sellers with the July 31 trade deadline fast approaching.

However, after a long, drunken staff meeting (we had to drink Gallagher’s beer after we kicked him out of the GT HQ), we realized that with Brad doing the front page again this season, Gift taking on the statistical work that Sean contributed and Jeffio writing the letter from the editor, that GT will be streamlined and as strong as ever.

We hope you understand why we made this decision and will continue to support us this upcoming season.

Game Time would like to thank Sean for all of his hard work and dedication throughout the last three hockey seasons and two baseball seasons and wish him and his new Oakland A’s teammates the best of luck.

11: Wii Fitness. Figures don’t lie, KT’s fitness coach apparently does.

10: Yan Stastny. If you can’t afford the best Stastny, or even the second best Stastny, and don’t want to risk being the first NHL team to play a female Stastny, then Yan is the Stastny for you!

09: Ryan Johnson’s roster spot.  1,150,000 worth of space. Buys a lot of free tacos.

08: The Peoria Rivermen. Why have no AHL team when Checketts has the money to field two of them next season? And with third jersies for both, anything is possible!

07: A&B stock. Not sure how this helps Andy Murray, per se, but when has helping your Belguim overlords while making some money on the side ever been a bad thing?

06: Per numerous fan requests (most recently by LosBri), JD shot a bear mascot in his pajamas, how he got into JD’s pajamas no one knows, but Louie’s suit and tie, and bare naked bear nakedness on the low-side is now coupled with several pants suits, bib overalls, and loin cloths!