Jeff McIntosh - AP

The Blues would surely love to pull off another miracle run, but would it really be good for them?

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I want the Blues to win as much as anyone. I want them to go on an amzing run over the last 13 games to make up the seven points and squeak into the playoffs. Especially when I think back to a year ago when the run that the Blues went on inspired hours of phone calls with my hockey buddies. Hours of calls that were basically us finding a million different ways to say, "Can you believe this?" over and over and over.

Because we couldn't believe it. It was an unreal ride as a fan. The team won must-win after must-win and piled up points and leap-frogged team after team. We got behind our players and propped them up. Chris Mason became The Beard To Be Feared. T.J. Oshie became the Mayor of St. Louis (and even got a real vote in the race). David Backes became bigger and badder than Chuck Norris. Patrik Berglund was our TechnoViking. The list goes on and on.

In that respect, it'd be great to go through it again. The team is essentially the same group that did it last year, better even. It'd be fun to be known again as the team that no one wants to play in the first round. The dangerous team. The hungry team.

But no matter how much I say that I want the Blues to do it again, I can't shake the feeling that I think it'd be bad for these guys to pull off the feat a second straight time. The problem I have with it is that I have heard the players say in the media that they really think they can do it again. I've heard from a person close to the players that one of them told him, "Don't worry. We did it last year and we'll do it again this year. We'll turn it on." 

And while I normally love that kind of confidence in hockey players, when I hear that from multiple players in the media and through friends of players I see it as more of a warning signal. These guys think that it's just that easy. They'll flip a switch. They'll have a meeting and decide to get it going. They'll turn it on. It's a dangerous pattern of thinking and it's a terrible precedent to set, especially for a young team.

When the team decided to fire Andy Murray earlier this year they let everyone inside and outside the organization know their emphasis: Youth shall be served on this team. The core players are all between the ages of 23 and 26 right now, with more youngsters likely to force their way onto the roster in the next couple years. Now is the time when the foundation of the franchise is being rebuilt and formed for the next 10 or more years. So far the lessons that are being impressed upon the youngsters is that hard work and teamwork will be rewarded.

The worst lesson they could possibly learn is that the first half of the season doesn't matter. That they're so good that they can simply wait until the last possible second and then 'turn it on' and make a run up the standings into a playoff berth. It's dangerous and stupid and exactly the kind of thing that could seep into the corporate culture of the franchise and guarantee yet another long string of meaningless playoff berths that have no teeth or intensity. Another reason for the franchise to fall far short of its stated goal of parading down Market Street one day. We all saw what that miracle playoff run garnered last season: Not one playoff win. They'd spent everything they had in just getting to the fight and they were too spent to throw a punch once they got there.

These are formative times for this franchise. The lessons learned by the Oshies and Perrons and Johnsons and Polaks and Backes and McClements and Berglunds and Ellers and Pietrangelos and others will become the fabric of what this team is for the next decade. Forgive me if it sounds like I'm rooting against them, but I hope that the lesson learned this year is that you can't take anything for granted. You have to work hard from Game One through Game 82.

Last year's second half run was an amazingly fun time, but it was a fluke. Let's hope it stays that way. 

I think the Blues made me sick. I was feeling fine, the Blues lost and then I threw up on the sidewalk on my walk home from work. Damn Blues.

Blues news

• Colorado beats the Blues, making the road to the playoffs severely obstructed. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch]
• The Blues seriously couldn't beat a goalie who hadn't played since Jan. 8. January 8th. How could a cold goalie be so hot? [The Denver Post]
• The Blues aren't happy with the non-goal that was probably a goal. [Morning Skate]
• David Backes is part of the "A" team. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch]
• Alex Steen is in the Blues history books. [MSNBC]

• Playoff chances: Still not good. [Sports Club Stats]

Hockey news

• Tuesday's games. Blues needed: Blues over Avs, Philly over Nashville, San Jose over Dallas and Edmonton over Minnesota. Results: Avs over Blues, Nashville over Philly, Dallas over San Jose, Minnesota over Edmonton. Good times. [Yahoo! Sports]
• Wednesday's games: Colorado over Calgary and Chicago over Anaheim, not like it matters at this point. [Yahoo! Sports]
• Steve Downie was fined, but not suspended for taking out Sidney Crosby. But the league always favors Sid ... [ESPN]
• Alex Ovechkin apologizes, but let's be honest, he's probably not very sorry. [ESPN]
• Tyler Seguin is the new No. 1 prospect. [TSN]
• The game-winning puck from the gold-medal game has a new home. [CTV]

Other links

• Chris Gift wants to drop some knowledge on you. Take one: St. Patrick's Day. [Wikipedia]
• Take two: Ancient Order of Hibernians. [Wikipedia]
• For the hat trick ... Take three: Saint Patrick. [Wikipedia]
• Our resident Irishmen, Donut King, shares a drink recipe to celebrate today. [Drink Mixer]
• From Donut King: "And finally, a Wikipedia history on the most infamous thing ever to come out of Ireland. Yeah, I went there." [Wikipedia]
• A friend of a friend of J-Mill's started a blog where people submit ugly faces. It's a shame I won't be able to submit anything to this site. [ThrowAnUgly]

Video

Donut King presents Dropkick Murphys for St. Patty's Day.

gametimelinks(at)gmail.com. Now I'm going to bed.

More photos » Jeff Roberson - AP

Eight seconds in and it's all smiles. After that? Well....

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It happens. Sometimes you out-hustle an opponent, you out-shoot an opponent and you out-chance an opponent and you still lose. Sometimes that's because Chris Mason can't stop a beach ball and sometimes it is related to other issues. But usually it's Mason and his inability to see/react to beach balls. Sorry folks, it's just science.

But if I'm known for anything, it's my positivity, right? So let's start positive and see where we end up, shall we?

• Congratulations to Alex Steen (or B.J. Crombeen if the goal ends up getting credited to his legs). The Blues record for fastest goal from the start of the game is eight seconds. It was set by Greg Paslawski on Oct. 29, 1985 in Washington. Tonight Steen/Crombeen's legs tied that record.
• The Blues had 39 shots on goal in the game and completely dominated large chunks of the second and third periods. Everyone seems to think that Peter Budaj played out of his mind, but my seats at the rink aren't good enough to confirm that first-hand. I will say that it seems like most of the bounces seemed to go bad for the Blues when they needed that tying goal. File that, too, under You Don't Alaws Get What You Deserve.
• Patrik Berglund continued to ramp up his late-season performance and all we can hope is that he rolls this on through the summer and into next year. A Berglund that plays as well as this one has lately would have been a big help at the start of the season.
• I blasted T.J. Oshie pretty hard at the start of the year for not playing classic Oshie-style games. He wasn't flying around the ice, hitting and pounding and attacking the puck relentlessly. And then he had an emergency appendectomy, a procedure that he had to be pulled away from a meet-and-greet to go to the hospital to receive, pretty much confirming me as "Biggest Ass In Town" for a brief period of time. Oshie, of course, has been back to form for a long time now and watching him tonight was a reminder of what a great player he can become. He had one of those games where you notice him every second he is on the ice.
• I don't want to leave anyone out who was working hard tonight, but it'd be easier to name a forward who wasn't. Frankly, I can't think of one. David Perron willed his goal into the net, while Andy McDonald, Paul Kariya and Keith Tkachuk all looked as energetic as the kids did. D.J. King didn't have a fight tonight, but he did have a hand in at least two near-goals, including the one waved off by the ref because someone was in the crease referees are idiots. Name a forward and I can think of a compliment for him tonight. I thought the whole group was strong.
• In an effort to remain positive, I will not spend much time on the Blues goaltending and the fact that it let down the rest of the team that was working so hard to score goals. Yes, there were defensive breakdowns that led to odd-man rushes and open guys on the back door, but still, did Mason make even one difficult save tonight? At what point will this team make a move to grab a true number one goalie who can lock down games? So, yeah, I won't talk about that.
• Dear Darcy Tucker, next time you want to start a fight with someone, you might want to remember that Mike Weaver (the Smallest Man In The NHL(TM)) is not the guy you want to try. Not only did ol' Monkey Arms step up to the challenge and daze you with a shot to the button, but he also got the takedown, putting you into the dying cockroach position on the ice. In short, you are now his bitch. Please make the appropriate arrangements with your family.
• Those were two important points and the Blues lost both of them. This is supposed to be positive, so I'll just say this: They aren't mathematically eliminated yet!

The team travels to NY, NY for game against the Rangers on Thursday. What of those two points?

I made a team: "STLgametime", on NHL10, anyone on here can join

My name is D0Gfarts, send a request, its a public team so i think u can just join

If ur having trouble just post your gamertag and i can invite you

here's to hoping the note can win a virtual cup, if any

I made a team: "STLgametime", on NHL10, anyone on here can join

My name is D0Gfarts, send a request, its a public team so i think u can just join

UPDATE FROM BRAD: You can just join. I did. We're trying to figure out when to play.

ALSO. If you play Modern Warfare 2 on the xbos, I started a clan tag: SLGT. In retrospect FDET would have been nice too.

(back to your regularly scheduled filler for 75 words)

I made a team: "STLgametime", on NHL10, anyone on here can join

My name is D0Gfarts, send a request, its a public team so i think u can just join

Tom Gannam - AP

He puts the douche in Duchene. (AP Photo/Tom Gannam)

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Thankfully tonight is the last game of the season against the young and surprising Colorado Avalanche. In case you haven't noticed, they've kicked the ass of the Blues every game this season so far. There was the 4-0 loss at home in early December. Then in early February the Blues lost at Colorado 5-2. Then last week the Avs absolutely throttled the Blues 7-3, also in Denver. I felt the game wasn't even that close in the third meeting. To save you from taking your socks off to count, that's a combined 16-5 score for the Avalanche. Horrible.

I'm going to write about one player and one player only for Colorado: Chris Stewart. You might remember he scored the hat trick last week with the third goal coming on a penalty shot. Don't remember that happening against the Blues before. He has six goals and four assists in the three games. Disgusting. That's 10 of his 55 points on the season thanks to St. Louis. Horrific. Last year during his rookie season, he only netted one goal and no assists in three games against the Blues. Now I rarely if ever put a real bounty on a player's head, but if Cam Janssen doesn't mind risking another suspension...well let's just say Chris should probably keep his head up tonight. Every second on the ice. Even during warmups.

The Blues need a win tonight against a team they have yet to beat this year. Sounds like the Blues have the Avalanche right where they want them. Holy jumpin' indeed.

This is the first home game for the Blues since Feb. 13. A lot of crap has happened since then. After that win against Washington, the Blues were just three points out of the last playoff spot after showing up Alex Ovechkin and his team here at the Drinkscotch Center. And Ovechkin wasn't even seen as an Olympic failure or a suspended cheap shot artist. Let's see, Lee Stempniak was a Leaf and irrelevant. Aaron Palushaj was still a member of the organization while Paul Kariya and Brad Boyes were on the trade block. And we all still had Corey Haim with us. You're probably as emotional about it as I am.

This is your passed on child star game day thread. Comment like you're Todd Bridges.