We all remember Brett Hull night—the first one, not the other two.
The Blues were a bad team and a bad draw but finally packed the house so they could honor the greatest player to wear the Blue Note. It was night of pomp and ceremony. It was one of the few games I watched that season while away at college.
And the Blues shit the bed.
Mike Kitchen was fired and the rebuild was on.
Tonight the Blues are honoring four guys who wore No. 7. You could make a good case that this night is just about selling tickets. I'm too young to remember Red Berenson, Joe Mullen and Garry Unger. Some say they were good, I'll trust them. I know my good friend is family friends with Mr. Unger and I've heard he's a standup dude. I got no beef with that. Also, I saw Keith Tkachuk play and well, he was fine.
I think alone, the 7's don't deserve a ceremony. Together, it should be a nice salute to history, and that's fun.
The biggest, and really only, problem I have with tonight is the team wearing the home unis—the Blues. I love hockey and I love the Blues but this team is becoming increasingly difficult to watch. The 2005-06 team was awful, but played hard. This team is talented, but doesn't play hard. Like at all.
The game against the Islanders was a joke. Zero effort from the big guys. You're going to have odd-man rushes in games, but six is just a sign of a team that has no more fucks to give. Management punted on the playoffs after the dismal January. The players seem to have punted on not caring.
Will the Blues show up tonight? Will they play hard for 60 (I'll take 50) minutes? They better.
Columbus is in town and I really don't care. Nashville is boring, but at least they're a good team we can make fun of. The Blue Jackets? Yeah ... Rich nASH and the motley crew ... I don't know what else to say. They're not good, but they're better than the Blues. Barely.
Really the Blue Jackets are a good team to look at for what happens when building goes wrong. Year after year of high picks and the team is still just Rick Nash and some other guys. Going young doesn't always turn out well. Chicago won the Cup. The Blue Jackets? One playoff appearance.
This is a bit long and I know you're not going to read it all, but I had nothing better to do than to write this. So I hope you enjoyed it.
This is your GDT. Comment like you give a shit, even if the players don't.