If you'd told me that at the start of the season that at the midpoint the Blues would be in the ninth seed, I'd have been upset. If you told me that the Sharks would be in 12th in the West, I'd have been surprised. If, before you placed a couple bets and then jumped back into your time machine, you also told me that the Sharks were basically injury free and the Blues had played virtually all season without David Perron, Andy McDonald and T.J. Oshie, I'd have been baffled.
But, convoluted setup or not, all of that happened. Except for the time machine part.
And about those injuries... one of them, the concussion to Twitter's own DP_57, was caused by San Jose's Joe Thornton. At the time, some accused Perron of faking injury to draw a penalty (because people throw their heads into shoulders all the time to draw a penalty) and plenty of people couldn't believe that Thornton was given a two game suspension for the hit. Fact of the matter was that Thornton hit Perron in exactly the manner that was lined out in the newly-updated penalty for illegal hits. Sorry, Jumbo, but you picked the wrong time to be tall and to hit a guy from the side. Had he done it last year there probably wouldn't even have been a penalty call. There certainly wouldn't have been a suspension.
Now, some on the St. Louis side of things have been calling for even harsher penalties for concussion-causing illegal hits: They want the offending player to sit out as long as the injured player has tweety birds flying around his head. Can you imagine what that would do to people? Fans of San Jose would be freaking out even more than they are right now. Thornton would be slowly losing his mind on the sidelines rather than leading the team in points.
And the game of hockey would probably be negatively affected across the board as everyone played soccer-style with little hitting and even more diving.
A win tonight would be big for the Blues. They wouldn't move up in the standings as the Blackhawks, who still have a couple games in hand, are three points ahead in the eighth seed, but a regulation loss could see these teams switch places, putting the Blues back in 12th in the conference. Great goaltending and solid defense have carried the Blues when they're playing well. They'll need plenty more of it tonight. Scoring by committee will be needed as well, and I'm pretty sure we shouldn't count on Ryan Reaves to score a goal in his third straight game.
The Sharks have lost six in a row and eight of the last ten and they have only scored more than two goals in a game once this calendar year. It's a late one, so carry over that football buzz, feel free to check out what's happening over at Fear The Fin and let's fill up the comments like it's our job.
Oh, and since I haven't said it yet, yes, Joe Thornton is a douchebag.
Get crackin' yo.