By Brad Lee
Look, I love hockey. I love the Blues. I haven't seen any of the last three games. It's killing me. But the NFL Game Of The Millenium (or whatever they're calling it) is today, starting an hour before the Blues game at 4 p.m. St. Louis time.
We'll try to do our best, but we might be a little distracted. So if you're so inclined, hang out in the comments, we'll try to keep it lively, maybe even talk a little football. And Blues hockey.
Anybody bummed from last night's Shorthanded Goalapalooza? At least when the power play sucked last year it wasn't allowing a shit ton of shorties.
Here's the AP preview from Yahoo!
According to Jeremy Rutherford of the Post-Dispatch, Erik Johnson is in for Steve Wagner and Dan Hinote will dress for the injured David Backes, who went down with a sprained knee Saturday night vs. Chicago. We guess that means asking the "Is David Perron in the lineup" is soooo last week.
Pregame:Â Do you hear an echo in here? Entertaining, low scoring football game in Indianpolis. 7-3 Patriots after a touchdown throw to Randy Moss. The Colts are playing very physical on defense and the Pats still have the lead. And Bill Belicheck is wearing a golf shirt instead of his usual homeless guy-looking sweatshirt with the sleeves cut short.
Oh and the Blues are getting ready to drop the puck. Hopefully I won't be talking to myself. Blues were in Columbus 10 days ago and got shutout 3-0. For some reason the Blue Jackets were wearing white at home that game and today they're wearing blue. Weird.
One HUGE advantage to watching hockey at least during the football commercials, you don't have to watch Peyton Manning try to sell you something in one of his dozens of commercials. I like watching him play, but the guy sells himself out more often than those women standing by the side of the road in Brooklyn, Ill.
19:12 There are two morons in Columbus behind the BJ's goal wearing hockey referee outfits with the orange armbands...drinking beer and yelling at players through the glass. You stay classy, Columbus.
By the way, Tofu is in net since Emmanuel Legace played las night. We call him Tofu because that's about the only way that Bernie Federko hasn't butchered the poor kid's name yet, but there's still time.
18:02 They just flashed the lines and Hinote is on the McClement-Stempniak line. Perron is indeed in the lineup less than 24 hours after netting his first NHL goal. And Columbus is playing to its strength of clogging the ice and slowing the game down. Yippee!
15:30 Patriots 7, Colts 6. "There's Marvin Harrison out with a knee." I hate that. It means nothing. So if a guy misses time becasue of a concussion, is he out with a brain? What about Josh Hancock with the Cardinals? What was he out with after he died in a car accident?
12:38 And we have the first post of the night for the Blues after Bradley Boyes put a snap shot off the crossbar. The Blues had four of those Saturday night. Blues' top line showing some life.
11:17 I'm putting the over/under on the first comment in this thread at halftime of the Pats/Colts game.
10:23 Blue Jackets have their first shot of the game with Novotny having a great chance in front that Tofu handled well. Shots are now 2-1 Blues. Yawwwwwn.
9:43Â Now the Blues are figuring out a new way to screw up on special teams with Jay McKee taing a penalty after Hinote was already in the box.
9:00 Tofu with a great save moving from his left to his right to stone Rick nASH.
7:45 Both penalties killed off. Columbus had five shots on net. Interesting to see if the Blues get a lift.
4:19 I think one of the refs just got a charley horse in his arm, holding it up for more than a minute on a delayed penalty. It was enough time that the Blues had to make a change. Oh, and Manny Malholtra scored his second of the year. Prick. 1-0 BJs.
Columbus has 11 consecutive shots on net with the Blues taking zero. This just feeds my theory that the Blues always have one shitty team that gives them fits. It's always one team that you can't imagine they lose to...and then they go ahead and do it most of the year to that one team. That's Columbus right now. Maybe there's a reason beyond the NFL game that I'm talking to myself. Maybe it's everyone knew this game would be pretty boring with Columbus involved.
And Joseph Addai with the Colts just turned a little running back curl play into a 73 yard touchdown. 13-7 Colts with halftime just around the corner.
1:40 Hey the Blues turned it over entering the Columbus zone. Again.
And that's the end of the first period. The Blues were outshot 12-2 in the first period. There's no flow, no spirit, no cohesiveness. Again. There must be something in the water in Columbus. I know the BJs play this style of hockey, but the Blues are just letting them dictate the flow of play.
And we've gone the whole first period without a single comment. Awesome.