On 11/30/2008, Keith Tkachuk scored his 511th goal of his career, giving him his 1,000th career point. It came against the Atlanta Thrashers in a road game that was not televised in either market. If you didn't see it in person, you didn't see it at all. No replays, nothing. A major milestone (only the 72nd player ever to accomplish that, and just the 6th American one), and nobody saw it at all.
And now, in a great demonstration of learning from your mistakes, tonight's game in Atlanta against the Thrashers is not televised anywhere. Not FoxSports MW, not VS, not even a web feed of the local ATL broadcast. Nada. Smart, guys.... real smart. In a situation such as this, I recommend you follow Poor College Student's advice and catch
The Enemy: The Atlanta Thrashers pounded the Maple Leafs 6-3 in Toronto just last night, putting them in first place in their division. They have been on fire lately, led by the superb play of Ondrej Pavelec. Dubbed "Pavelectric" by his agent, Ondrej has had a storybook season thus far. In the 10/08 season opener, he faints during the game, hits his head on the ice and gets a concussion. He finally makes it back to start a game on 10/30, here in St Louis. Since then, Ondrej has put together a season record of 11-6-3, with a 1.76 GAA and a .944 save percentage. On the flip side, since the Thrashers played just last night and traveled home from Toronto, the Blues might face the backup, some guy named Chris Mason. While we know already about his skills and tendencies, it would be a mistake to overlook him. The dude had a lot of compete in him, and he did seem to step it up a notch playing against his old team (refer to his 1.96 GAA / .941 career numbers vs Nashville). Either way, nothing's a given, and we're going to have to earn every goal. Additionally, the ATL scoring is led by old acquaintance Dustin Byfuglien. The former BlackHawk forward is now a Thrasher defenseman, and has 11G/22A to lead the team. He leads a team that has plenty of young talent to watch out for, including rookie Alex Burmistrov and of course Evander Kane.
Further Reading:
Blues vs Thrashers coverage
The Puck drops at 6:00 PM St Louis time. Without any TV coverage, the only source of realtime info is KMOX 1120AM. Kerbs and Chase do a great job from the radio booth, and you will not be disappointed (although there will be a dearth of "Holy Jumpin" exclamations). The best link to the radio broadcast is via the Blues website HERE. Click on the KMOX link and you should be golden. The GDT will drop shortly before the puck does. Until then, this is your pregame pre-party. Meet here, sample the egg nog, try not to get too drunk before the game starts, and enjoy a Christmas classic:
The Dan Band - I Wanna Rock You Hard This Christmas (via mathieuparadis1979)
Merry Christmas, and LGB!
-CrossCheckRaise