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The 2015-16 season for your St. Louis Blues started at home tonight against Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers. The line combinations for the Blues tonight: Steen-Stastny-Tarasenko, Fabbri-Lehtera-Schwartz, Jaskin-Backes-Brouwer, and Reeves-Brodziak-Ott. Your D-parings tonight were Bouwmeester-Pietrangelo, Shattenkirk-Gunnarson and the rookie pairing of Parayko-Edmundson. Cam Talbot got the start for Edmonton. The pregame festivities were solid. Charles was back for the anthems and nailed them as usual.
First Period:
"Recklessness" We had all heard it. I still don't know what the hell it means, but whatever. The age of recklessness was here and off to a fast start. Fast as in Tarasenko had a great chance 30 seconds into the game:
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Mr. Talbot made a great save there, but you could tell the Blues were in control the first half of the period. Second half however Edmonton would find their sea legs or whatever analogy you want to place there and would come back and finally put some pressure on the Blues and Elliott.
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Near the end of the first would spell our first fuck of the season. But it's not like the Oilers scored. More like the Blues spotted them a goal. Alex Pietrangelo would *try* and clear the puck. The puck however bounced off a player past Elliott and into the net. It was the Bluesiest goal ever:
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At the end of the first: Pietrangelo 1. Edmonton 0. Blues 0.
Second Period:
The Blues would come out and actually play a decent period of hockey for a Blues second period. Now normally this would be the period that they would just forget how to hockey. Not tonight. Yes, I know game 1 of 82. Stupid stuff can still happen. Pietrangelo would go ahead and redeem himself here with an assist to Tarasenko:
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Needless to say Cam does not like our Vladdy very much. If you remember he was in net when Tarasenko scored the highlight reel goal against the Rangers last year. Joel Edmundson would make his presence felt in the second after he and Eric Gryba would drop the gloves. It wasn't much. It would show that Joel wanted to be there for his teammates. I have no problem with that. I do however have a problem with Steve Ott taking the dumbshit penalty he did in the first place. At least he's consistent at SOMETHING.
Third Period:
Connor McDavid is fast. Brian Elliott doesn't seem to care:
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Brian Elliott also does not care if it's your first game in the NHL and you want to score a goal:
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Elliott had a strong game tonight. Looked sharp when he needed to. The deflected goal was something that couldn't be helped and if that hadn't happened he would have shut the Oilers out. I still think that he should get the job despite Hitch not knowing what to do with two number one goaltenders.
Later in the period a rookie would finally score a goal. No, not that rookie . Sorry Oiler fans. Your golden boy would have to wait. However one of the three (!) rookies that were playing for the Blues tonight would tally one of his own. It would also prove to be the game winner. Robby Fabbri would score off a sweet pass from Jori Lehtera. Buried.
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I think he is making a case to stay with the big club. Don't quote me on that just yet though. Quote me on that after game 10 that he plays.
Troy Brouwer. Not T.J. Oshie. Definitely not. Troy turned in a good first showing for his new club tonight. Really liked his game. Reminded me of a guy that the Blues already have. David Backes 2 point oh? Maybe. But I'm not complaining. He would however put the icing on the cake tonight:
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The Blues would take the game 3-1 (Or 4-0 depending on who you asked). It was a solid showing for the age of recklessness' first game. Honestly didn't see any difference but hell, if they want to have a new buzz word than so be it. They won. That's all that matters right?
Your 3 stars tonight:
Third: Brian Elliott (23 saves, shutout everyone but his own team)
Second: Robby Fabbri (One goal on one shot and one postgame naughty word.)
First: Vladimir Tarasenko (One goal on three shots and overall Russian badass)
The Blues take to the road Saturday night against the Wild. Hopefully they remember to show up this time. I mean it is the regular season and all, but we all know what happened last time.