Boys and girls, the lesson from tonight's 5-2 win over the Hurricanes in Carolina is that a good start cures a lot of what's wrong with any hockey team.
Now when we say the win was easy, that's not a slam at the Canes or their fans. Seriously, Bubba. It's been kind of a struggle for a couple weeks and the team was coming off a lopsided loss at home to the more physical Stars. So it was more of a case of the Blues doing a lot of things right for a change. With the good start, they played more aggressively and created chances off the forecheck. With Carolina pressing, the Blues saw more odd-man rushes and more time in the offensive zone. Chris Mason played a solid game and they took control of the game early and held it until the bitter end.
Something has lit a fire under David Perron's ass. He scored two goals (one was an empty-netter) and added an assist. Now some in the audience might say, "It's because he's playing wth Silent Jay McClement!" And those people might be right, but it doesn't prove, Joe, that Jay is the best player on the Blues. Did you see that goal Andy McDonald converted on the 2-1 with Keith Tkachuk? Pure. Skill. That was a tough pass to gather, he was in deep and had to maneuver around the goaltender. I almost turned the TV off at that point so I wouldn't be disappointed with the rest of the game knowing I had seen the best moment there would be. Unless Andy McDonald made another beautiful play.
It was nice to see Sasquatchian Yan Stastny come back to the NHL from Peoria and score an opportunistic goal caused by the physical play of Cam Janssen. As the holy jumpin' announcers gushed on the broadcast, Stastny had a good camp but got caught in a numbers situation at forward. He was playing kickass in Peoria and was recently named captain of the AHL team.
Did anyone notice early in the game that Alex Pietrangelo (sounds like Orange Jello) put a big check on Rod Brind'Amour and knocked the elder statesman to the ice. When Rod The Bod (how did fans ever accept calling him that?) made his debut with the Blues, the year was 1989. Pietrangelo was born in January 1990. That's age descrimination, Jello! Be kind to senior citizens and take a wider path next time. You want Rod to break a hip?
So it's a quick turnaround with the Blues in the air flying home even as I type this. They play at Drinkscotch Center on Thursday against the bankrupt team in the desert. And I've got a cover story for the paper for the home game and I have exactly all the words left to write. Every last one of those things. They aren't going to write themselves, so this is your recap. On Thursday we'll have some sort of pre-party, the GDT, a wrapup. Who knows what else.
We should do this more often, but thanks for all you people that contribute to the site, even the people who don't join or get involved in the conversation. You're important too, so please keep coming back. We write shit for this site because we like being involved in the community. We hope that's why you come back too.
Don't let the bed bugs bite.