It's All About To Start

We're officially going out on November 2nd against the Hawks. This is significant for several reasons. One, the Hawks, as terrible as they have been for the last decade, have always been the Blues' biggest rivals. Due to recent events, most Blues fans and players hate the Wings (and their fans) more now, but if the Hawks and Blues sink to similar levels (as seems to be happening), then this rivalry could get heated again.

Secondly, it's a nice transition from the GNR to GT. A long-standing tradition with the GNR was that the headline always included the phrase "Hawks Suck". With our first issue, the headline will include the phrase "Hawks Suck".

And third, my first Blues game was a Blues-Blackhawks tilt at the Arena. And so now you know why I was immediately hooked. But more on that at a later day.

On November 2nd, you get to meet my writers. And my writers are great. My columnist Robb Schuneman is going to grab your attention with his humor and his hate for every team that isn't the Blues. Chris Zacher and Brian Weidler are going to bring prospect info to you that you simply can not get anywhere else. Trust me, I've tried. Chris Gift is freakin' hilarious. You're going to hope he contributes to every issue. I know I do. Chris Moresi isn't afraid to make you look at this team in a different light.

We're different. We're going to be fun to read. We're going to give you something that no one else can. I can't wait.

Jeffio will be writing for us in our first issue. I can't even explain how much it means to me. having slaved over this thing just to get one issue out, I have gained a ton of respect for Jeffio and his 10 YEAR run with the GNR. Simply impressive.

And on a serious note, Bob Broeg passed away tonight. I never knew Mr. Broeg and I never read his work. But he was a colleague of my wife's grandfather, Bob Burnes, and I know how much the two of them meant to this town. In a sports crazy town like this, Mr. Burnes and Mr. Broeg were icons among the community in a time when the papers (yes, plural) were the only means to get info about the local scene. To me, they clearly were the rock stars of their time here. The passing of Mr. Broeg only reminds me of the outpouring of sympathy I saw firsthand when Mr. Burns died 10 years ago. It reminds me of how important the two were to this town and its fans. It reminds me... it just reminds me.

Um.

What the hell is that thing on Astacio's face? How confident can you be when you send out George/Kuato from "Total Recall" to protect your team in the World Series?

Of course there's going to be a lead change.

Not the most statistical of analyses, but you smell what I'm stepping in.

By the way, Game Time is going to have some great writing. I have two great guys and maybe another one signed up to give you their best every game. You're gonna love these guys.

Seriously, isn't Astacio another millionaire? Can't he get rid of Kuato?

Go.

So let's freakin' go. I got a ton of great help and encouragement from Jeffio the other night. I got a 'Go' from the wifeditor. I got an "I'm in" from a potentially fantastic columnist. We're definitely Go.

I couldn't be more excited. There are some changes coming though. Jeffio is a a stats guy. I'm a words guy. So, the GNR leans towards the stats folks. GT will lean towards the writing. But, honestly, it's like the difference between a moserate conservative and a moderate liberal. And yes, I made Jeff the conservative in that metaphor. I did it just to piss him off.

But anyway, my point is that the mag will still be very similar. Stat stuff that will die will be ref stats and some of the extended leaders stats. And the Blues record when... stuff will be gone. The reason it's gone is that it is way too hard to get that compiled. Jeffio was a stats/numbers guy from the get-go. I'll bet that when he was a deckhand on the Mississippi barges, he was doing math and stats on the cargo, the boatspeed, poundage of herbage smoked, beers drank per port and dollars spent per portcall. My guess is his fellow silt swimmers weren't that excited about his findings.

In the place of those items, you'll see more articles. I have a great prospects guy who has a great plan to introduce you to the top 40 prospects in the Blues' system. Forty. The top forty prospects. 40. Can you believe it? How comprehensive is that? With the team in a building mode, this info couldn't be more important. Plus, with the Note looking square into the face of a high draft pick, the draft preview could be interesting to have.

I also have a couple great contributors who will get everyone ready for the new rules of the NHL, the new players wearing the Note and some comedy for you as well. One of my contributors may even become a columnist, which gives you yetr another person to learn to love.

Anything can happen now, but I like the plan and I like the guys I'm going in with. I like where this is going.

We're definitely Go.

Go-No Go

Back in the military days, I learned that every big operation came down to a Go-No Go checklist. There were several key points that must be Go, or the the operation would not be undertaken. Game Time is at the Go-No Go point. The main Go-No Go? I have already invested a couple thousand dollars in this, but now I'm at the point where I have to invest the equivalent of purchasing a new car to go forward. A nice new car. Meanwhile, my actual car is a piecer, as my cousin would say. It looks nice, but it rattles and shimmies like a grandpa with emphesema.

On the positive side, I am getting great response from some great writers. These people clearly have the same passion for this team that I do. I've seen some of their work, and should see more soon, but I'm optimistic. Everyone involved wants to have a different perspective from the standard media outlet folks, which is great. I love this team and the players, but I hate puff-pieces. Piecers. These folks aren't the puff-piece filler type of folks.

As I told one guy, all I want is your knowledge and your passion. I assume that's all the readers want, too.

By the way, this is officially my 10 year anniversary and my wife is in bed. I'm writing to you. You're not even reading this as it happens, but hopefully you will get to this point as this Game Time community sucks you in. My wife is my executive editor for this project and we wouldn't even be at the Go-No Go without her support. By the way, she is an evil editor. She's even got a grammar handbook that she'll be breaking out on these sports articles. She's the greatest. And I'm not even saying that because she's going to read this. Which I would. But after 10 years I know she won't. Self-indulgent tripe, is what she'd call it. Or just dorky. Depending on her mood.

Here's a funny story. I recently went to Cleveland for the weekend to hang out with some college buddies. Along the way, I lost my drivers license and credit card. That's the second straight time I've lost those items when getting together with these guys. I called the wife/editor to tell her the bad news. Her response? "Seriously? You're an idiot." Click.
But that was about the end of it. And, she was right, so what can you do? Who loses that stuff twice in a row?

Anyway, I was running this all by her tonight, and she's pushing me towards Go. How great is that?

STL Sports in General

So, the Cards are down 2-1 in Houston. The Rams are going to Indy without Martz. The Blues have won just one game.

Is there a worse day in STL in the recent past?

How you answer that question is the reason that I love St Louis sports fans: no win can take us too high, no loss can take us too low.

I grew up in Chicago, and there were only two types of Chicago sports fans. Pessimistic or optimistic. The Optomistic guys were Cubs fans, Walter fans and latter day Bulls fans. The Cubs were always one more pitcher away from making it happen. Sweetness just needed a QB who could make the opposition secondary back up three more steps. And the Bulls? Well, most of us didn't get into the Bulls until after Michael got Scottie. And then we learned to love guys like Cartwright and Paxon and Oakley (who we had hated up until then). But the Bulls after MJ and Scottie were Da Bulls. No one could beat them. Ever. Not even against a mini MJ coached by a mini Ditka. Positivity.

The pessimists were guys like my dad. The Cubs were the Dubs (still don't understand that one). The Bears were bums. The Bulls were great with MJ, but they'll never make the playoffs again. The Sox? Well, the Sox sucked. Besides, no one actually rooted for the Sox anyway, so they fit right in with the pessimist Chicago fan.

In reality, I knew one Sox fan and I felt bad for him all the time. As a teenager, we'd catch the train to Chicago to go to Sox games because you could easily sneak in (and we were suburbs kids - not exactly the most street savvy folks in the world, so you know security was light) and you could easily get the burned-out beer hawkers to sell you giant cups of beer. Try that on the north side and you'd end up walking around the outsidse walls of Wrigley sober.

What does that all have to do with the STL fans? Simple. I love STL fans because we both the pessimistic fan and the optimistic fan. The Cards win game one: World Series Champs shirts are being printed. Lose game two: obligatory "let's trade Edmonds" calls all over talk radio.

Holy crap, this is fantastic: the Chicago pessimist and the Chicago optimist live in the same body in St Louis. This is the only place where someone can spend a wad of cashe on a sweet Majestic "Rolen 27" jersey and then cover the name with tape and print in "Broken 27" in the same season.

Our heroes can get no higher, our goats can stink no fouler.

On Thursday, sitting in right field, I saw a stat on the jumbo that listed the career leaders for home runs in Busch Stadium's history. On top of the list was Ray Lankford. I couldn't help but laugh, because as many times as that guy helped the Cards win games with big ol' bombs, he got traded as a deadwood-Dave. But when he comes back to town as a Padre? Standing O.

I love these fans.

As far as we go with the future of our teams, I am still an optimist. The Cards have not played their last game at Busch - they are coming home at the very least. All we need is a spark. I thought Edmonds' catch on Thursday was it, but I was wrong. But it is still out there somewhere.

The Rams? Well, they're dead on Monday. But Sunday is at home. And Sunday at home is golden for the Rams.

The Blues? Well, it's gonna be a long season. But we have some wins coming our way. Hopefully we can regain our confidence in guys like Weight and Jackman and Cap'n Drake and Tkachuk. Maybe we can learn to love guys like McClement, Backman and Walker.

All I do know for sure is that our wins will be euphoric and our loses will be like days in the gutter.

Damn I love you people. St. Louis sports fans are the greatest roller coaster in the world.

The Downside of Center Ice

So, I got the Center Ice package a couple years ago when I was writing for the GNR. My job was the front page matchup, so I had to know about the other team, right? Well, what better way to know about the other team then to watch them play one or two games before they come to STL?

That actually worked out great. I really felt like I was providing better info to the GNR fans. Great. Now, however, as I try to get ready to launch Game Time, I find myself to be a flipper. I'm still going to write the front page (unless one of you can do better), but I have so many other responsibilities for this thing that I keep the NHL on constantly while I'm working on the mag.

But now, there are so many games, and I can't concentrate on just one. Plus, I know there is a 6-5 game going on somewhere, so if I'm watching a 1-0 Lightning/Pens game, I'm itchy as hell. I know there are more goals in Montreal. I know there are more in Buffalo. Hell, I know there are more in Anaheim.

So I gotta flip.

In the end, I see a Tkachuk-pile of games, but I only see a TJ Oshie-sized slice of each. I just gotta calm down and focus. Or I gotta hire a front page guy who is better than me. Hmm. I'm a tad cocky, so the second option is gonna be hard.

You Gotta Admit...

New NHL fan or not, shootouts are exciting. I just saw one for the first time (Chicago/Colorado) and every fan was up on their feet, as were all the players. I understand the idea that you bust your tail for 60 minutes, only to lose in a skills match, but so what? OT games are decided by fluky goals all the time. Is it worse to lose on a crappy, soft goal in OT, or to lose in a shootout? At least in a shootout the goalies are focused and the shooters are making their best moves. Soft goals won't be an issue.

Besides, the vast majority of people would say that an exciting goal is way more fun than an exciting save, but in a shootout, you get to see both.

In unrelated news, Jeff Jillson was just placed on waivers by the Sabres to make way for energy guy Adam Mair. Jillson, a former 1st round pick of the Sharks, has size, offensive instincts (including a heavy shot) and is young with a decent contract. The downside is that he's having a hard time adjust to the NHL-level defensive play.

By waiver rules, the Blues would be one of the first teams to have the option to claim him FOR NOTHING. On this team, he'd be a great addition. His upside is sky-high, the risk is low (nothing traded) and on this version of the Note, couldn't be more porous than some of our current blueliners.

New ownership or not, the Blues would be nuts to pass on this kid.

Paper Looking Good, NHL Looking Fun

Tons of headway on the paper and getting lots of volunteers, too. That part is great, because they do it knowing that basically no money is being made. People just love this sport. My hawkers, who sell the paper on the corners, make more than anyone basically. And they're not making much, trust me. I'm emboldened and, to quote the Simpsons, embiggened by the strong showing of support. I'm sending my mock to my graphics buddy in a few minutes. He's great, so I'm really excited by his participation.

Our favorite game is looking pretty good, too. Although I hate to see Pavol Demitra leading the Kings with 2 GWG ans Chris Pronger's Oilers sitting at 3-0, I have confidence that the Note will be back. This NHL is way more fun than the version we last saw, and if the rfs can keep it up, the players can learn the way and the fans can keep up the support, we're going to have a great game on our hands.

In spite of those god-awful myNHL commercials.

Expect More of This

Six goals and a loss. Welcome to the new NHL. At least losing a 6-7 game is way more fun than losing a 2-1 game. Also, the surest sign that the NHL is different now: Jamal Mayers with 2 goals tonight.

Along the same lines, I have never written sillier statement than the one I am about to lay down. Patrick Lalime looked pretty good tonight. Giving up 7 goals is a freakin' trainwreck, but if Chris Osgood was still our goalie, that would have been at leat a 10 spot on the board. Hell, Evgeni Nabokov, one of the better goalies in the league (and supported by a better defensive corps), gave up 6 freakin' goals and played pretty well. The new NHL will take some getting used to, but I think we can all agree that goals are more fun than great stifling defense. But back to Lalime. He had some amazing saves that Osgrip would have never has a chance on. Even better news: Osgood is due back in net for Detroit soon.

If we had a better defense, Lalime would be making us proud about now, but the defense allowed far too many rebounds to lay around and failed to clear the crease effectively. Again in the new NHL, clearing the crease is very difficult to do without drawing penalties, but there has to be a better solution than the "let it be" policy of the current blueline crew.

Which brings me to one last topic for tonight. The new NHL, if the rules continue to be enforced, has the potential to be wildly exciting and could bring in tons of new fans. But these rules will force out plenty of dinosaurs who cannot adapt to the changing climate. The vast majority of the dinosaurs that will be dying are the hulking, defensive defensemen who have survived on nastiness and hooking/grabbing/holding. Those guys are now PIM Kings and will fall down and off depth charts soon enough. The list is long, but here are a few that I've seen this week and/or that I know from previous years just can't make the cut.

Chris Chelios - too old, too slow, toograbby. The game has passed him by.
Derian Hatcher - this guy made his name during the years when the trap was king. Goodbye big D.
Jassen Cullimore, Bob Boughner, Jamie Allison, Cory Cross and guys of this ilk have been drawing huge paychecks to ruin the game one shift at a time. They'll all be gone next year. Of the 6 I named, only Hatcher will still be aroung in 06-07, and it'll be much farther down the depth chart than the top pairing.

Well, Some Things Stayed The Same...

Plenty of changes for the NHL and the Blues since the '04 season, but one of the worst things managed to stick around; the Blues still have no idea how to beat the Red Wings. Winless in the last nine meetings, the Blues are clearly snakebitten.

I've got work to do, so here's a quick rundown on things to like and dislike about the Blues' first two games. In no particular order:

Like - Shanahan got his first mouse of the year courtesy of Jamal Mayers.
Like - Matt Walker's nastiness. People are going to hate playing against him if he can keep it up.
Dislike - Lalime gave up 8 goals in his first two games, which was actually over only 4.5 periods.
Like/Dislike - all the penalties. I understand that this is going to take a while, but sheesh it's tough.
Dislike - Detroit's Red Wings. Also, welcome Mike Babcock to the group. I now hate you, too.
Dislike - Tkachuk's groin. Missing camp has some disadvantages, eh?
Like - Mike Sillinger. Is there any doubt that this guy is going to play hard on every shift?
Like - Dougie Weight on the board. We need a giant year from him.

By the way, I'm watching the Kings/Coyotes game as I write this, and I think both of those teams are more talented than the Blues right now. This could be a long year. Let's hope hard work counts for something.

Crunch Time For Game Time

Still lots of work to do. My self-imposed deadlines are starting to roll in and the first of many is the day after tomorrow. After a very unproductive weekend, I'm into a major crush now. I'm also about to start spending money on this venture (and not just a tiny bit, either), so we've gotten down to put up or shut up.

The Blues open the new season with very few expectations, which is a new twist. Usually everyone assumes the playoffs and then expects to win a couple rounds. This year, the playoffs would be a major surprise. The team is basically counting on Patrick Lalime to show a consistency and poise that he may not be ready to show. Especially when one considers the defensive corps in front of him. Even if people are saying that they don't expect Eric Brewer to fill Chris Pronger's skates, they most certainly do expect him to fill those skates. Listen to the quotes, which include hopes like, "he has an offensive upside that he hasn't really shown yet," and prayers like, "he he a pounding defenseman who plays his position well."

Those quotes point to a young man who people expect to play like Pronger. He won't. He's good, but he's not that good. In fact, I think most fans are about to find out just how good Pronger was as a Blue.

Up front is a two man show. Can Weight, Tkachuk and 10 checkers turn out about 40-45 wins and a playoff berth? Hmm.

I expect big years from Lalime, Brewer and Tkachuk. I hope for one from Weight, but I've been saying that since he arrived in St. Louis. Other teams have made the playoffs with just four good players. Can the Blues? Wednesday's and Thursday's games will give us some indication.

Now that the season is underway, I'll be attempting some post-game words. as we get the Game Time launched, this blog will be the place for the website's additional content. There will also be a message board, but this will be where the ranting goes.

Grinding Now

Now I've reached the point of grinding along on the new paper. The easy part, for me, is all the writing. That stuff is in place. Now I have to gut out the stat stuff. That's the Jeffio stuff. He always found it easy to rack and crack the stats in, but writing and editing was the bane of his existence. Which is also a credit to him, because, as a writer, I always thought his stuff was great. I doubt, as a statistician, he'll ever think my stats are great.

But, as he said to me the other day, 90% of the stuff that people want is very easy to pick out. So maybe I'm overthinking it.

The only comfort I have in grinding out this particular part is that grinding is sort of a way of life for me. And it's something I admire in hockey players. To me, calling a guy a grinder is the ultimate compliment. A grinder doesn't have as much skill as other guys. He cannot dangle. He doesn't have the same innate sense for where the puck is going to be. He doesn't instinctively know where his linemates are going or going to be in 3 seconds. But the grinder has something else in his corner; the grinder always works hard and always shows more heart than everyone around him. The grinder is the guy who goes in the corners. The grinder loves standing right in front of the crease. The grinder knows how many shots he's blocked. The grinder pukes a lot.

To me, the ultimate compliment is to call a guy a grinder. So I'll grind out these parts of the paper. It's painful and (apparently) not profitable, but I love hockey and I love the Blues, so I'll see what I can do. I also love football and I love these Rams, so I'm definitely working on that, too.

I hope it ends up being worth it.