Tonight's Game Time Paper: St. Louis Blues Vs. Colorado Avalanche

Greetings, friends. The Blues, they are on a hot streak. Which is fun for those of us who publish a totally independent, fan-run paper/program that we sell outside every Blues home game. Did you know it will be 20 years since a fan-run paper debuted?

It used to be that you had to be at the game to get a paper or subscribe for the full season (which is still possible: 35 games at $2 an issue the rest of the season - playoffs are Free!) to get the paper. Not any more. Now you can buy a single copy online RIGHT HERE. We have a secure server. The cost is $3 an issue compared to $4 downtown.

What do you get for $3? You get stats like how referees have called Blues games dating back to 2007. You get jokes. Top 11 lists. Prospect reports, a bingo card, a puzzle and expert analysis. Here's the beginning of tonight's cover story:

Welcome one and all to the Post-Halloween Spectacular here at Scottrade! If all went well for you, fair reader, you remember only specific parts of your night and had to decipher the name of the person you woke up next to who is still in half of their costume as a "Rocky Horror Picture Show" character. I was always partial to Columbia, personally.

I really feel sexy in a sparkly top hat.

While the storylines about a matchup pitting Paul Stastny against his former club will have to wait, there is plenty of other meat on the burner for this matchup against the defending Central Division champions. You folks remember that the Avs won the division last year, right? Sure, they only moved in to take over the top spot in the last few games, but the standings matter most after Game 82.Patrick Roy used some sort of Tom Cruise Witchcraft^TM to take over a team that had just picked first overall and take them all the way to a division title. Sure, Nathan MacKinnon proved to be a talent who was able to jump in and play in the NHL right away, which isn't unheard of but also isn't something you want to bank on.Semyon Varlamov did well enough to earn second-team NHL honors despite the open style of hockey his team played that allowed for numerous chances at both ends of the ice.

A lot of the metrics told a tale that the Avalanche would be due for some regression. As so often happens, such regression came in the form of an unceremonious first round exit at the hands of the Ryan Suter and whoever played the other small fraction of ice time that Suter didn't play for the Minnesota Wild.

If that doesn't convince you to check the paper out, I don't know what will. Plus, electronically, we guarantee we won't give you Ebola. Probably. So buy one RIGHT HERE.

Thanks for reading. If you have questions about the paper or subscribing, hit me up at gtbradlee at gmail.