By Sean Gallagher
The Blues should hope so. In an effort that can best be described as "sloppy" or even "uninspired" or even "bore-rific", fans of both the Coyotes and the Blues who were not subjected to the Sloppiest Game On Ice! (TM) tonight should be happy. A few notes from a disgruntled fan to make those of you who stayed home happy about your decision:
Either the ice was really choppy tonight or the Blues' new pre-game ritual is to drop acid. Passes that were the opposite of crisp, shots that were Jamal Mayersesque in their accuracy and zone-clearing attempts that were reminiscent of 2005 made for a painfully long game. Two hours and thirty-five minutes felt like 22 hours and 35 hits from the sleepy stick. Ug.
I'm officially calling for a moratorium on the crowd chanting, "Man-ny, Man-ny!" for Emmanuel Legace after he has saved the team's collective ass yet again. The first time this spontaneously happened, he gave up a goal to Minnesota. Tonight? He gave up two goals less than five minutes apart to blow the game. When he's in the zone, let him be in the zone. Apparently, chanting his name breaks him into pieces, even when it's the appreciative chants of his home fans. Sorry, Mr. Eggshell.
Whoever said that David Perron doesn't have NHL strength yet was dead-on right. He got knocked around tonight on every shift by everyone on the Coyotes. Almost every one of his shifts ended with him completely coated in rink snow. He's going to have to get stronger on the puck to make an impact at this level. There's no denying his skills, but if anyone gets a piece of him, he ends up making snow angels.
I have no idea why the Blues are pushing the Blues Brothers theme - am I the only one here who remembers that Jake and Elwood Blues are from Chicago? Hell, Elwood's fake address is 1060 West Addison, home of the Chicago Cubs. Look, I get it, the St. Louis Blues, playing blues songs, the blue rat looks like a Blues Brother, once Martin Kariya gets here they can dress Paul and him up in sunglasses and dark hats, etc, etc. Whatever. It still doesn't make sense. Chicago is supposed to be our rivals. Did they already toss out the idea of making the mascot an automobile and dressing him up in red and naming him "Eight Mile"?
Oh, and finally, Bradley Boyes is fucking money. Of course, it took him 45 minutes to score tonight, not 45 seconds, so maybe he's slipping. I doubt it though - I love that line of Boyes, Tkachuk and Kariya, even if the natural line name for them is the BTK Killer line.