Hockey in St. Louis

[Helton72]

This will seem weird I know but I just noticed this last night as I was watching the Blues game vs. Chicago. I'm REALLY into hockey right now, I dont know why. Our team isn't very good and they can be annoying to watch, but I just enjoy watching hockey now days. It was a real slow start, but I think as the months have gone by I've realized how much I missed the sport while it was gone. Hockey in the 90's was my favorite sport and I think baseball took over for good. With that said I still enjoy hockey. I like watching ALL games too. I watched the Stars/Wings game last week and it was fun to watch.

Gary Bettman saved the NHL from itself. Say what you want to about the man but he saved this league. Not only did he save it from financial turmoil, he made it exciting with these new rule changes. I love the shootout. Overtime should be extended in my opinion though because teams are seemingly playing it safe and not going full force and just taking their chances in the shootout. Back to the Blues...

Dump Drake, dump Weinrich, dump McAmmond, dump whoever you can. Play Lee Stempniak, Jay McClement, Mike Glumac, Dennis Wideman and OTHERS. I wanna see what these guys can do. If we get an owner in here before next season watch out. Some of these young guys will be coming into their own next year and maybe some FA will follow with all the cap room we'll have.

[residenceevil]

If I'm not mistaken a free agent or two will HAVE to come over to the Blues just so that they meet the minimum salary requirements of the league. Either that or you start dishing out longer term contracts to these younger players with some real money invested in them.

I agree though. Hockey is exciting with the shootouts. I don't know the statistics, but I would have to say that you are probably correct in saying teams are essentially wasting 5 minutes to get to shootouts. That might be something the league didn't think about, or they did think about it and liked the idea of it since everyone would rather see a shootout than an OT win honestly.

I'm excited to watch the young guys too. Lee Stempniak looks like he's pretty good, along with McClement. Wideman put another sick move on the Blackhawks goalie last night in shootouts but slipped and messed himself up! That would have been another great goal though.

I think the future looks good. I still think that we are only getting marginal players in return for some of our stars, but let's see how they turn out. Since we do have a young team it will take some time for them to get used to playing with each other and Mike Kitchen will have to figure out who plays best with who. Let's keep Sanford around too. He's been pretty good.

[Helton72]

Sanford is outstanding, the future of the Blues. He's hitting his prime right now. I think it's interesting that Patrick Lalime has been called up again. I guess he's getting a THIRD chance to do something for the team. As long as it's in a backup role I am okay with seeing him again. NIce veteran presense as well for some of the young guys.

[Zero]

I've always been a big time Blues fan and am happy to see them on the ice after the long lockout. I just wish we could've kept the team together and gotten more wins. Hopefully, we can build a good team with the draft picks and the prospects we've gotten by trading some of our star players. Also, it'd be nice to get a new owner.