The Season Finally Ends (and other garbage)

Folks, first off, sorry for the long delay. Not that you care, but I do have an excuse. I used this blog all year to fill the gaps for all my whining and bitching and whatnot. But as the Blues season came to a grinding halt, things over at the opulent GT HQ got even more hectic. The Blues finished the last week with four home games. The Cardinals started their season with six games in seven days.

For those keeping score at home, that's 10 games in a week that we churned out.

So, there's my wah! for you. Since then, we've done a fresh 10-game Cards homestand that is almost over. Hopefully we've gained a few new disciples. From the reactions I've heard, they are out there.

Some Other Garbage

Just for housecleaning purposes, let me explain our new, badass website. We've found that while those of us who work on the paper year-round like baseball and hockey, there are plenty of you out there who like only one or the other. Hell, one of my hockey fanatic friends (and huge GT supporter) told me he actually hopes that the baseball version crashes. Well. How 'bout that?

But the point is that some folks live for the Cards, some live for the Blues. Some do both. Some cannot. The site is split in two for that reason, but you can get from one side to the other if you're one of those types. The message boards are the same - just click on the stlouisgametime.com home link and ta-da!

But this blog is going to remain a mainly Blues-related forum for me. The cardes play every 18 hours, it seems, so I have the opportunity to add my comments whenever I feel over there in print. With the puck news, especially this year, so much will be happening off-season that I have to vent somewhere before I have an aneurism.

So, this won't be linked from the baseball site, but will be on the hockey side. And it'll be updated all summer as the Blues make news.

Speaking Of Those Blues

Well, it's over. And we managed to make it through. The worst season in Blues history. But we had our highs, too. We got to cheer for jason Bacashihua and Dutchie Stempniak and Jay McClement and Dennis Wideman and see Christian Backman grow into a bigger role. There are some positives, like a #1 overall draft pick and a ton of money to spend on a good crop of Free Agents. We have a new owner who is saying all the right things.

We got to see #2 go up to the rafters. Next year we'll see #16 go up too.

I've got a million recommendations rolling around in my head...but so do you. As the new management gets ratifyied and completes the sale, they'll start making moves. I'll add my 2 (or 2,000) cents as we go along.

Sorry, y'all!

So, I'll be better about the posting. In the meantime, check out the message board (linked to the right) and feel free to email me at gallagher@stlouisgametime.com

later skaters.

Maybe I Should Shut Up (And Other Omens).

As those of you who stop by here know, sometimes I talk just a tad bit of shite. Sometimes it makes sense, sometimes it just makes sense to me. But like any moron with a blog, every now and then I hit on something.

But lately, I think I'm doing the Blues more harm than good. The whole editorial article about how the Blues beating Columbus a few weeks ago and waging their way into 26th overall? Yeah, good thought. I stand behind the idea that 26th is better for team morale and our franchise's psyche and all, but that pretty much coincided with Curtis Sanford being flattened and losing the rest of his season to a wonky knee.

Whoops.

And as we all know now, Sanford isn't any savior in goal, but the Blues play a different brand of hockey in front of him then they do in front of Patrick 'where'd it go?" Lalime. The Blues have been in a tailspin since - losing 11 straight and burying themselves at the bottom of the stinky pile.

I also decided that it'd be a good idea to call out the crappy Pittsburgh team and their whiny wunderkind Sid Crosby. The quote was somewhere around, "the Blues have left the Pens behind and they are guaranteed the 30th place."

Those Pens are now just 3 points back. Greeat. So much for team morale in not finishing last.

And yet some other bad omens. Our resident ninja, the elusive Childhood Trauma, commissioned some novelty foam toilets for the last Columbus game. On the lid, they say, "Insert Lalime's Career. Flush Repeatedly."

Hilarious, I say. And so did many of the people we handed them to on last Friday when they bought the paper. It wasn't that night, but the next game on Saturday, Scott "red afros are cool" Hartnell of Nashville fell on Lalime and helped our netminder finally achieve his GT nickname, as he came up La-Lame.

So now those of you who still want the Lalime toilets can have them, but they might just be cursed. Keep in mind - I did get them from a cipher. Maybe they really are cursed or poisoned or have some other special powers.

All I can say is that Larry Pleau better hope that CT doesn't print up some toilets with his name on them too.

GT News

Sorry about the slow updates, but the site is about to change again. For the better. Again.

Also, the GT staff has been cranking away on the new baby - our baseball version. We'll be out for the Cardinals' games with a similar version of what you get at the Blues' games. I came upon the idea when I noticed at a Cards game last year that a scorecard will cost you $2, but it has no rosters/stats/info of any kind. Meanwhile, the program has no scorecard and it's not exactly up-to-date. That'll cost you $5. A pencil? $.50.

Screw that, I says to myself, I says. We'll give you the scorecards, stats, rosters and our own opinions and matchup info for a mere $3.

See you at the madness on Monday.