Tuesdays With Hildy: What Did The Blues Do To Tick Off The Hockey Gods?

Thank you much to averagejoe for the idea for today's TwH. I'm a bit fried and recently have been having problems coming up with either jack or shit for here or Thrashing the Blues.

I am not one for wailing or gnashing of teeth. Generally, people consider me the cool and collected one of my friends, or at the very least the one who has the emotional depth of a puddle. My response to adverse situations is usually either a snide comment or ducking my head back into a book or under the covers until it goes away, and that isn't any different when it comes to hockey.

I've been doing it so often these past five or so years that you could say that I might have become a better professional turtler than even Jordin Tootoo. I am my own personal Denmark - I have no expectations of anything, and if something negative happens it usually doesn't phase me. If something positive happens? Pleasant surprise.

That's how I viewed St. Louis' start to this season - a wonderful surprise. Did I expect it to last forever and for us to end the season with a record that looks like it came from a season of NHL 11? Naaaah. I was happy, though, because I took it to mean that hard work, drafting, and maturation of youth were coming together. Even with the recent losing streak I still take it to mean that. But my God, what the hell has been going on recently?

We're already losing massive games to injury: Carlo Colaiacovo and Brad Winchester (!) might be back, but TJ Oshie, David Perron, Roman Polak, and Barret Jackman are still gone. Not only do we either not have a timetable for their return (Perron) or too-long of a timetable (Oshie), we lost them all in about three weeks' time. At first, it was ok, but after a while the injuries have piled up, culminating in TJ Oshie's fractured ankle in some blowout game that already was painful enough.

Oh, and then he's on the All Star ballot for a game that he won't even be able to play in, as though someone just has to rub salt in that wound. It's been harder and harder to maintain momentum, and despite Cola's triumphant return and Brad Boyes scoring some sort of weird "power play" goal or something last night (I heard a goal from Boyes was like finding El Dorado, so what the hell is a PP goal from Boyes like?), the team still seems to be letting recent personnel losses drag them down.

So what say you, Game Timers - are we being punished for our hot start? Does all of this mean nothing and is just a run of unfortunate circumstances? Or could it be something more, and someone up in Montreal is sticking pins in their Jaroslav Halak voodoo doll?