By Brad Lee
Game Time is 30 minutes away. We're short on time for pregame thoughts, so a few quick links and stick around for the game.
Here's the Yahoo! preview.
Here's the NHL.com preview.
It would be nice to see the Blues come out strong and try and put together a full 60 minute game. Also, Manny Legace needs to keep his play at a high level and let's all drink a big glass of 2 percent milk for Jay McKee as he's taken out of his full body cast and placed on the ice.
We'll be back in just a little while.
OK, we're back.
"Pre-game just showed Andy Murray doing a weak impression of Allen Iverson’s “Practice?†quote. Gold, Jerry, gold." -- commenter Gallagher (you may have heard of him before). Jeremy Rutherford at StlToday had that in his Morning Skate blog.
From J.R.:
Does it benefit the Blues and Perron to stretch out those games and keep him going as long as you can on the off-ice training? “That’s what we’ve talked about,†Murray said. “David doesn’t have to play every game right now to develop. He’s getting better in practice and that’s the key thing. Allen Iverson would say, ‘Practice?’ But David is getting better in practice.â€
Murray is talking to Danny Mac before the game about the Blues and Hawks getting better at the same time. Says the keys to the game are getting the puck out of the Blues' end and also puck posession, keeping the puck away from the Hawks' skill players.
And away we go...
 18:46 Blues on the power play already as the Tkachuk, Boyes, Kariya line is clicking. We'll see if the Blues have learned anything in practice the last month or so since the last game. Well it feels like they haven't played in a month.
17:46 Kariya takes out the trash after there was confusion from Tkachuk getting knocked down. It was if the Hawks didn't know what to do letting Boyes shovel it over to Kariya who was all alone in front of Khabibulin. A quick shovel and Kariya has his first goal as a Blue.
15:32 First shot blocked by Jay McKee. No x-rays scheduled. Yet.
14:45 And the No. 1 line looked like they scored as Khabibulin flashed the right skate as Tkachuk, Boyes and Kariya ALL had chances to score. Bulin Wall indeed.
13:29 Holy crap, Bryce Salvador has a goal. Is it January already? 2-0 Blues. Are we sure these aren't the Chicago Wolves?
"I see the Blckhawks have a “WWW†in a black oval with a feather hanging off the back on their jerseys on the right breast. didn’t know Wirtz’s middle name satarted with a W too." -- commenter Dooks. He was William W. Wirtz. Here's a closeup.
11:30 Bernie Federko thinks getting the power play goal and then another one so quickly on the road is something "really special." Remember, he's a Hall of Famer in the players' wing, not the broadcasters.
8:30 Good to see the Jay and the Americans line still together. Willem Dafoe is consistently playing them against the other team's top line. A lot of responsibility for three guys under the age of 25.
7:36 There's a penalty on the Blues. We don't know who it was on or what it was for, but we do know that you've gotta choose Fusz.
5:12 It was on Wagner. They killed it off. After the power play expired the Hawks got an odd man rush and Legace was all over it. For an ex-Red Wing, he's not too bad. We're not sure Gallagher trusts him yet.
It's been awhile since McKee has seen the ice, but he's got a new number. He was 74. McKee now has No. 77. Kind of fitting that fragile McKee is wearing Pierre Turgeon's number.
And now there is mass confusion, Bernie Federko is talking fast and even more incoherently. The puck on a shot from the point ended up on the top of the net. Toews took a wack at the puck, meaning it would be a high stick. The freaking puck rolled off the net and hit Manny in the head, landed on his shoulder, and may have gone in.
Federko just drooled all over his silk tie.
It's not clear if Toews hit the puck. According to Federko, a room in Toronto that sounds like a room from the Pentagon will have the final say and we will have to live with it.
This is taking so long, even David Perron now has to shave.
Ryan Johnson just told Danny Mac he thinks it's no goal. Well it's settled then.
After all that, it's a fucking goal. Get real.
And now there's 1:30 more on the clock. Federko we think is going to have an aneurysm. The fog horn was a little anticlimactic, don'tcha think?
We have no idea how much time is left now. They're showing the replay again. John Kelly is talking Federkoan. Pity. Now we can see there's 4:59 left in the first period. Where's the beer?
4:29 There's a penalty on David Backes for cross checking. It was how they say in Toronto, "fucking weak, man."
2:30 Penalty killed off. The Hawks kind of suck on the power play, only converting 15 percent.
End of the first, Blues 2-1.
Shots: 8-7 Chicago. Two power plays for the Hawks, one for the Blues. After 20 minutes we can clearly see:
1. Replay officials in the NHL take forever.
2. They award goals to players who if they did touch the puck, it was with a high stick.
3. The Hawks suck on the power play and try to be too fancy with the puck.
We'll start a new thread for the second. And we'll try to be funnier, or your money back.