By Brad Lee
With the July 4th holiday and hitting the road to see the Cardinals play in Cincinnati (another post for a different blog), we've been a little lax weighing in on the Blues signing Paul Kariya. We're on board (unless otherwise noted in the comments). Kariya is the most gifted puckhandler to play for the Blues since Adam Oates. Except he's faster, we hope. He's going to immediately help the helpless power play and give a jolt to the forward lines, whomever he's playing with (a Kariya-Tkachuk-Boyes line makes us get a little excited). But don't take our word for it. Here's a smattering of reaction to this big splash by the Blues organ-eye-zation.
"Signing Tkachuk and Kariya is no guarantee of a playoff berth, but shelling out more than $10 million in salary for two proven scoring forwards does indicate that the Blues are serious about competing this season." -- TSN's Scott Cullen.
"'I know we're a playoff team,' Kariya said after donning a No. 9 jersey at his introductory news conference. 'Let's go win a Cup.' " -- AP's R.B. Fallstrom.
"Paul Kariya is sounding a bit too optimistic about his future with the St. Louis Blues. During his introductory news conference, the left wing said, 'I know we're a playoff team. Let's go win a Cup.' A playoff team? Win a Cup? Are you insane? Kariya recently signed a three-year, $18-million contract with the Blues, who finished 10th in the Western Conference last season and have been hapless for years. We think Kariya is setting himself up for a hard fall. But if Lions QB Jon Kitna says his team can win 10 games, then we guess it's OK for Kariya and St. Louis to have Stanley Cup dreams." -- Some prick at the Detroit Free Press.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Jeremy Rutherford had some nice lines in his story from the press conference Tuesday.
Missourinet has a 1 minute, 33 second audio clip from the press conference.
So what do you think of the Kariya signing? Are the Blues headed back to the playoffs? Are you headed to the ticket window? Let us know in the comments.