The motto on the top of this website is a nod to many a fan who runs a website like ours who like to take shots at the Blues. The past few years the criticism has been that the young guys either weren't talented enough to win or just couldn't put it together yet. Now that the team is winning, the Blues have been miss-labeled as a trap team. Some call them boring. Please allow me to retort.
I understand why if you're not a fan of the Blues you're going to call watching them boring. They do a tremendous job of taking time and space away from the man with the puck. They keep the puck to the perimeter and the boards on defense and they block a good number of shots. So that cuts down on the number of shots and scoring chances.
At one point in the second period Thursday against Vancouver, the Blues were out shooting the Canucks 20-12. The total after two periods was 26-17 and it finished 33-21. Vancouver has one of the most potent offenses in hockey yet the Blues held them to two goals through regulation and kept their chances to a minimum. If you're a fan of the opposition or even worse a random hockey fan, how fun is that to watch? I get it. But if you're a Blues fan, this season has been magical. I can't wait for games to come on TV. I was there Thursday night and remembered thinking several times that I couldn't how long it had been since Vancouver had a good scoring chance they were so few and far between.
And calling the Blues a trap team is just lazy. Sure Ken Hitchcock jumped on the bandwagon in the 1990s in Dallas. Everybody did. But the Blues don't trap, they smother in the defensive zone. The Canucks, frankly, did a better job of standing the Blues up in the neutral zone forcing more dump-ins than we're used to seeing.
So if you see Puck Daddy on Twitter say the Blues are boring, don't take it personal. Plus, he's probably still bitter about picking the Blues to beat the Canucks a few years ago in the playoffs.
Spin the Starting Goaltender Wheel, and we land on Jaroslav Halak. Whomever the Wild decide to start will be on a cold streak. Nicklas Backstrom is 1-4-0 in his last five games and is winless for 2012. And Dany Heatley is not a nice or likable person.
This is your game day thread. Comment like you enjoy watching the Blues play.