Draft Day!

And apparently Trade Day as well. Bertuzzi (plus) to Florida for Luongo (plus) leads the way.

The Blues are being mentioned in tons of rumors from a return of Pronger (St. Louis girls always want to come back to live in St. Louis, you know) to adding Maxim Afinogenov and Marty Biron from Buffalo.

I'm not interested in trading the #1 pick to get Pronger back (but I'd love to see him back in some other way, which is unlikely) and I'm not a huge fan of Afinogenov and his slick moves that never seem to end with a goal, but the trade rumors are always fun to kick around. Here's a Pronger discussion from the message board that could be interesting if you have an opinion.

I won't be able to update today, but check out Spector's Rumor page - it's got the most reliable rumors around. Plus, when he thinks their bogus, he'll tell you so. As an added bonus, there's no crazy rating system to try to decipher.

Should be an exciting day for Blues fans. Be sure to jump on our message board where I think we'll see some action this afternoon/evening.

Later skaters!

Free Agency

Ah, the Free Agency period. Time for teams to cripple themselves with poor talent analysis and owner-wants-a-splash insanity. Time for teams to get "the guy" at all costs only to be ridiculed for landing a 33-year-old with diminishing skills for four years and $25 million.

Thank god that won't be the Blues this year. The top-flight talent this year will all be commanding around $8 mil/year and the Blues won't have interest in any of them. Not because they don't have the cap room, which they do. The Blues have more cap room to spend than anyone in the league, excluding Buffalo. But Buffalo has a ton of break-out youngsters to qualify and will jump right past the Note. The Blues also need to make a spash in the PR department, just to give the season-ticket sales folks something good to talk about.

But they aren't going to go out and sign Chara. Or Elias. Or Jovanovski. Or Redden. Or even Jason Allison. Those guys don't fit the current mold of the team. They also don't have St. Louis on their radar. Good. The Blues made strides with their youngsters last year and don't need to make a splash with guys like that. They need to add guys who augment what we have and are ready for a steady 3-4 year climb.

If you look at the roster now, there are a lot of spots to add impact players. But I don't mean 'impact' like superstars. I mean 'impact' like upgrade players. Let's look at what we know. The Blues have Tkachuk. We have a solid D. We have a couple good goalies. Weight probably wants to come back (and will be healed from his Grade 3 separated shoulder enough to make camp).

So, here's where we are (as I see the talent). Oh, and when I say 'open' I mean we need a player added or from the minors:

The forward lines (LW/C/RW)
1. Tkachuk/Weight/open
2. open/open/Stempniak
3. Drake/McClement/Mayers
4. open/Orszagh/open

Defense
1. Brewer/Backman
2. Jackman/Wideman
3. Dallman/Salvador/Walker

Goalies
1. open
2. Sanford/Bacashihua

So let me explain, starting at the bottom of the list (goalies) and working up. I read a column by our local rag's hockey writer Jeremy Rutherford that makes me actually seriously consider cancelling my subscription to the local paper. Hell, I'll only miss the 4 caomics I actually read anyway.

Giving Rutherford a pass, I assume he is the Blues beat writer because he is the low man on the totem over at the Past-DickPatch, which probably means that he's a huge baseball guy and can't wait to move up to the Birdwatch rotation. But Cheese and flippin Rice, if you're going to print shit in the paper and online with your name on it, run it by a hockey guy first.

To suggest that the Blues might land JS Giguere ($3.99 million) or Evgeni Nabokov ($3.63 million) to BACK UP Curtis fucking Sanford is some of the dumbest hockey reporting I've ever seen. Look, Curtis played well for a bad (re: BAD) Blues team. He won some games that Patrick Latrine and/or Reinhard Divis would have lost. He was almost always solid, if seldom spectacular. But if either Giguere or Nabokov were to pull on a blue Note any time in the next couple months, then they have the No 1 job to lose.

And here's the other gotdamn thing about this: Sanford and Bacashihua have to go through waivers in order to go to (lovely) Peoria this year. Bacashihua would never make it through waivers (he's no Lalime, after all). So, if Sanford is No 1 and you've traded Cash for Giguere or Nabokov, you better be sure that you are trading for a No 1 guy, because I think Cash is closer to dominant starter than Sanford is. Trading him for a $3 million+ guy to be the BACK UP would be roundly panned by every hockey person in the NHL. Smarten up, Jeremy. Or at least run your shit past a guy who has seen a hockey game before.

So, bottom line is that I think the Blues go with the pair they have, or they trade one of these guys to upgrade, not land a back up. I'd hate to see Cash go, because I think he's the real deal. But if he lands us Nabokov, who I think is just coming into his prime, then I pretend we never had Cash and focus on Nabokov for the next few years followed by our prospect Schwartz following him. Nabokov/Sanford with Schwartz in the wings seems solid in net. Especially for a team that hasn't had a solid no-question netminder since...well, I'd argue since back before I was born. But I'll tackle the "Fuhr and CuJo were never dominant" issue later.

Defense. I am not very interested in adding blueliners to this group. While, as I've said all along, I think Brewer ends up getting moved so he can escape the "traded for Pronger" tag (unless the Blues add Erik Johnson and apply the "next Pronger" tag to him, somehow freeing Brewer to be himself again), he who will not smile might be the only guy who changes on the blueline this year.

The Blues got a great gift in realizing that Wideman and Dallman were NHL-ready last year. Add to that the emergence of Christian Backman and a mid-season "oh, the rules changed" wake-up for Jackman and you have a solid blueline. Scott Jackson and Jeff "why do I keep getting traded" Woywitka need to have a great camp to make the top club, but it is possible. Add Erik Johnson to the mix and suddenly the Blues have a core that may not need an infusion. The only guys I'd consider to be good moves would be Pavel Kubina (29 years-old) and Jay McKee (28-years-old). These two guys are young enough to relate to the youthful blueliners and have had success giving everything they have to win a Cup, as Kubina was a stalwart in his 2004 run, while McKee lost the Cup when Brett Hull scored while he was/wasn't in the crease and gave everything he had in this year's run. Neither may be available as they could stay with their current teams, but if they aren't available, I'm not impressed with the other guys out there. They could be good, but they don't fit with where the Blues are right now.

But, Eric "The Visor" Weinrich is going to be available, too....

As far as forwards go, I think the Blues could really make the biggest impact in this area. Forget Elias (wants a winner) and Arnott (low-scoring underachieving power forwards need not apply) and Jason Allison (re-signing Weight fills our quota on fragile playmaking centers). Forget Marc Savard once someone gets to the $4 million threshold (he is a better Jan Hrdina - he needs a superstar to play with) and Sergei Samsonov (virtually invisible in the playoffs - I just can't deal with all the Pavol Demitra/Sergei Samsonov correlation articles I'll have to write).

Instead, let's be smart. Let's look at guys who are on the verge of breaking loose. Former Blue Marty Reasoner has fianlly figured out how to be a great two-way guy, using his speed to fore and backcheck, while adding a point every other game. Let's look at big Brad Isbister, who I swear is on the verge of breaking out. Power forwards always take longer to develop and playing with Tkachuk might just make things click with the 29-year-old. If he hadn't battled injuries all year.... Let's look at Brendan Shanahan. Detroit is not bringing him back and if the new regime wants to make a PR splash, this is the guy. We hated him in the horrible Wing, but we can forgive that if he comes back here to play on the second line. Tkachuk on the top line, Shanny on the second line? Sure, it's a lineup that would have been at its best 3-4 years ago, but he's a natural Captain candidate and PR coup.

Granted, I'd like to see the Blues add guys like Straka and Peca and Parrish and Rucchin, but I don't see it for various reasons. None of them have any reason to want to come here - they all want to win now. So, I think the Blues are better off looking at hometown guys that we can pull with heartstrings or offers of more ice. Adding Shanahan, Isbister and Reasoner probably adds too much power and not enough speed, but i expect at least one youngster to make the team based on hard work and quicks.

So, what does my 'dream' add do to our team? Let's look.

The forward lines (LW/C/RW)
1. Tkachuk/Weight/Stempniak
2. Shanhan/Reasoner/Isbister
3. Drake/McClement/Mayers
4. rookie/Orszagh/rookie

Defense
1. Brewer/Backman
2. Jackman/Wideman
3. Dallman/Salvador/Walker

Goalies
1. Sanford/Acquired through trade
2. Bacashihua/Sanford (if No 1 acquired throgh trade for Bacashihua)

Fantasy league crap, I know. Not a Stanley Cup squad, I know. Playoff team? Maybe. But that team is fun and exciting. And better than last year. And that's all we really want this year anyway.

Hopefully the Blues can add some guys more exciting than that. But I think adding a few guys like Nabokov and Isbister (potential still above them) and former Blues who can put asses in seats (Shanahan and Reasoner) are the way forward.

Anyone who talks to you about Elias and Lidstrom is just full of crap. And anyone who says Nabokov or Giguere could be brought in as the back up is just plain crazy.

Or just a baseball fan in hockey fan clothing.

What A Great Final.

Those who said that the new NHl was ruining hockey were wrong. The Finals this year were good and exciting and a lot of fun, even for those of us with no real emotional investment in the outcome. The games in the 2004 Fianls were exciting and went to Game 7 as well, but the difference was the quality of play. A friend of mine caught some replays of those playoffs that OLN was running and he said that the game was unbelievable to watch. The defensemen were pulling guys down by their jerseys. Forwards were getting tackled. A two-goal lead was iron clad.

And this buddy of mine, who was a staunch supporter of the old NHL, changed his mind over just those two hours. The new NHL is better and the new NHL is the future.

I predicted a Game 5 win for the Canes. By the time we got to Game 7, I was just so thankful that I got to see two more games of exciting hockey before I was forced to realize that it's summer and I should get outside more.

The WhalerCanes are the Champions and Doug Weight, Cory Stillman (again), Rod Brind'amour and Brett Yamaguchi-Hedican are former Blues and new Stanley Cup winners. Good for them. But I just can't wait to see the guys in the Note back on the ice. In the new NHL, you can manage a team from near the bottom in 2003 to a Stanley Cup Champion in 2006.

Hopefully, one day we, as Blues fans can be the ones freaking out and counting down the final minutes. Going wild as one of our guys hits an empty-netter to seal the inevitable. Chanting, "We Got The Cup".

In our Game 7 thread, guys described it a lot of different ways, but none of us really have any idea how we could get through that.

I personally can't wait to find out how I cope with it. I imagine it includes a sick day or two.

Blues In The News
Now that we have a Champion, it's time to focus on our time - down at the bottom of the shark tank. The Blues will announce new ownership in the next two days. Shortly thereafter, John Davidson comes to town as the new President. Right around the same time, the Note get a new GM. Maybe Kitchen keeps his job. I hope he doesn't, but it's nothing personal. I just think he's more equipped to coach known-commodities (vets) than youngsters. And this team, while soon to be active on the free agent market, is going to be built around the youngsters. So I think he's the wrong choice.

Anyway, come Saturday, the Blues will pick "the next Chris Pronger" when they select Erik Johnson 1st overall. They then have picks at 30 and 31 to try to draft some scoring forwards. Saturday is Jarmo Kekalainininenamkek (the head scout's) job audition. If he makes a splash and lands some good kids, he's probably here for a while. The GT Boards have a couple good threads on the new management and the potential draft picks. Definitely worth a read.

The following Saturday opens free agency and the Blues HAVE to be active. If the salary cap is $44 million, then the floor will be around the $32-35 million range. The Blues have around $8.5 committed. So, even after signing guys on the team to their qualifiers (does anyone really deserve more than a qualifier after last year?), they'll still have to spend around $18-20 million on some players.

You can forget guys like Chara, who will go to the NYRangers, Sakic, who just re-signed in Colorado (not a good fit anyway) and Sykora, who has publicly stated that he'll leave the Devils only if he can go somewhere to win immediately.

Instead, look at the second tier guys. I'll work on my list and run it in the next few days, but go ahead and throw out Jovanovski, too. One, he doesn't really fit with the Blues new, young and mobile defense (Backman, Jackman, Wideman and Erik Johnson looks pretty impressive to me. Throw in Scott Jackson and possibly Jeff Woywitka and I'm pretty happy with the way the blueline is shaping up.) mainly because I think he'd rather be a top guy with no responsibility than a top guy who has to teach all the young guys how to do shit, and two, I'm pretty sure he's in a Cup-now mode if he leaves Vancouver, too.

Some Beers, Some Cheers
The Game Time crew is assembling at the GT HQ this weekend to watch the draft, drink beers and eat tacos. Should be fun and I guarantee a few Top 11 lists come out of it. Anything good gets posted here. Hopefully we'll have photos.

Congrats...
...to Dougie Weight, Cory Stillman, Rod Brind'amour and Bret HediYamiguchican. Better luck next year (probably a few years, actually) to Chris Pronger.

Best of luck to the new Blues ownership, especially with the upcoming draft and the free agency period.

Finals Almost Over

So, Dougie Weight is about ready to hold the Cup for the first time. And Cory Stillman is about to hold it for the second time in a row. And Rod Brind'Amour and Bret Hedican... ah whatever.

I'm happy enough for those guys, but all the same, just not that excited. The wifeditor really summed it up in two statements:

1. Didn't the Blues' season end like two months ago?
2. I wish that the two teams in the Finals would have plane crashes. Not enough to kill anyone, but enough that they couldn't finish the series and no one would win.

Taking the second one first, I swear it's not as harsh as it seems. Alhough, the wifeditor does have a bit of a mean streak. The motive behind it is her feeling, like most Blues fans, that the NHL is meaningless once the Blues are out. She couldn't care less who wins the Cup this year and what former Blues are hoisting it. In fact, if not married to the poorest publisher in sports, she wouldn't have any idea who was in the Finals.

As for the first one, yeah, it was virtually two months ago that the Blues finished their season with a whimper. There is good news coming, as the Note timeline (listed below) is coming to a head. I hope the Blues (read: Checketts) are ready to make a flurry of announcements of the next couple weeks. And I hope they are the right ones. The message board has a great thread on the potential for ex-Rangers flooding the system, you should check it out here
I won't re-hash all that, just check it out and pitch your 2 cents.

But Back To My First Point

As we watched the Game 4 Oilers-Canes matchup, the wifeditor noted that the Oilers were really flying in the first period. I gave her the prediction that if the Oilers win Game 4, the series goes to seven games. If they lose, the Canes win in five at home on Wednesday.

I still stand by that, even if Son of GT wants me to swear allegiance to the Oilers because of his two hockey rules for rooting on non-Blues teams:

1. We always pick the Oilers if they aren't playing the Blues.
2. Boys always stick together, so we have to take the same team.

So, I think I'm doing a pretty good job with him.

Also, I think I deserve some serious credit for not writing that in goddamn "Family Circus Speak" that apparently Bil Keane (and his son) still thinks makes a stupid comic funny. I swear to god it's my second goal in life to bring that horrible 'cartoon' to its knees. If I had unleashed that "lil kids say the silliest things" on you it would have started with "but we're 'sposed to...".

And like half of you would have immediately un-bookmarked us immediately.

Anyway, enjoy Game 5 and get ready for the Blues to make some noise in the news in the near future.

Death to Family Circus,
G

What Smells Like Burning Flesh?

Oh yeah, the Oilers. I wish that Roloson hadn't gotten hurt because this series would be way better with him in there. As it stands, this thing is pretty much tipping in on itself. The Oilers played like they were already beaten tonight. I expect a split in Edmonton followed by the Canes finishing it up at home.

Good Blues News On The Way

For those who weren't paying attention, here come the summer milestones for the Note:

June 21: The NHL Board of Governors and owners all get together to ratify the Blues sale to the Checketts group. Cue John Davidson and mass firings over at the Sav.

June 24: The NHL Entry Draft. The Blues will pick first overall, 30th overall (assuming the Canes wrap up the Cup, their 1st round pick falls to 30 - the Blues own that pick) and 31st overall (1st pick in 2nd round).

July 1: Free Agency opens. The Blues will probably have to spend at least $20 million + this summer just to get to the salary floor, which is projected to be in the $32 to $34 million range.

So expect the Boys in Blue to be in the news plenty in the next three weeks, much of it positive. For once.

Finals Underway.

As I watched game one tonight, I was wondering how I was going to make my case for my Stanley Cup favorite. The Canes were down and were being dominated by the Oilers. And I was trying to figure out how to justify my Canes call, even though they were down 3-0 and could easily have been down 5-0.

Then Rod Brind'Amour scored a tap-in. And really, the game could have gone either way, even with that. Was it meaningless, or was it a turn?

A turn, obviously. And that's why I like the Canes in this series. They aren't intimidated by a 3-0 deficit. They don't shrink from the physical play. They have a young goalie who is too focused on not choking to let in back-breaker goals. How sick was young Cam Ward tonight? the common thought is that young goalies can't be trusted in big games, because vets can let bad goals go and re-focus. I don't know if I've ever seen a goalie more focused than Ward was in the third period.

So, obviously, I'm a canes fan for the next two weeks.

But I'm not far from being an Oilers fan, either. Those guys play the game really hard and they are clearly learned in the sacrifice required of Cup winners. Thier coaching staff has obviously instilled in them a desire and an understanding. Although, I think that Bergeron may have taken that a step too far when he crushed Andrew Ladd into his own goalie with five minutes left. If he doesn't go out of his way to make a stupid hit, Roloson isn't hit and probably finishes the game.

Speaking of which, what a shitty way to lose ANY game, let alone a playoff game, let alone a Stanley Cup Final game. The replacement goalie, who hasn't played in literally months, has to come in with 5 minutes left in a tie game. Handling the puck behind the net, he panics and bumps the puck off his defenseman's stick...onto the blade of Rod Brind'Amour. It looked like a street hockey goal from when you were 11 years old. And it was the game winner.

But more important to the Oilers, they lost a back-breaker game that they were up 3-0 in, lost their starting goalie and lost on a goofy, bad karma kinda goal. Not a good trifecta at all. It'll be interesting to see what Roloson's injury is and what happens to these guys. I actually hope that Roloson can play, because if he can't, the Edmonton boys are done like dinner. And that is a shitty way to lose a shot at the Cup. If he's fine, we still have a great series ahead of us. If he's out, this thing is probably over already.

The Canes Make Me Think About Our Draft

Carolina drafted Eric Staal just three summers ago. That draft was known for not having a true, clear-cut No.1 draft pick. The Pens took goalie Fleury. The Canes grabbed Staal. Florida took Horton. Columbus picked up Zherdev. All four have been solid, but Staal was the first to break out, just this year. The Canes were terrible in 2002 to get the second overall pick. And now they are three wins from a Cup.

Today, the Blues hold the first overall pick in a draft that has no true, clear-cut No. 1 pick. And another Staal is available. A Staal that I've heard at least one scout describe as further along than Eric was in his draft year.

So, I'm in the 'Draft Jordan Staal' camp at this point. And for more than one reason. First, we need a forward. We need scoring and we need flash. We need a marketing tool. We need a kid who can play next year in the Note. Staal is all of these things. Defenseman Erik Johnson, the projected No. 1, is a great player. But he's probably three years from wearing a Note. At least. And even then, if we've learned anything from the Chris Pronger days, fans attach themselves to goalscorers more than they do to defensemen. Even if they are really good. I'm willing to bet that there are way more Keith Tkachuk jerseys on fans backs than Pronger jerseys (counting only the years that both were on the team). Fans like goals and skaters.

And here's another reason. At some point, the Staal boys (including middle brother Marc, a Rangers pick) will want to play together. Eric is the first one to be available. Wouldn't it be nice to make a pitch to put him in St. Louis on a line with fan fav Jordan? Sure this is pie in the sky, fantasy hockey league speculation, but don't you think that 25 year old UFA Eric Staal would at least come to St. Louis to hear what the team had to offer? Sure he would.

Some GT News.

The GT gear is finally on the way. Just in time for the draft, I guess. I expect to have the shirts and stickers available very soon. I also expect them to be pretty bad ass. I've been a total pain in the ass to our merch provider, and I'm wearing on their nerves, but I guess they're used to dealing with crazy people.

As soon as they are available, I'll link it up.

In other GT news, the staff will be congregating at GT HQ (opulent, I say!) on June 24th for a lil' get together. We'll be watching the draft in Vancouver and drinking a few whatevers.

The combination of new gear on the way and a Draft GT GT (Game Time Get Together) makes me want to have another contest. So, whoever can properly predict:
1. The Blues first pick of the day
and
2. One funny prediction from the GTGT (Gallagher getting drunk does NOT count - it's like predicting that the sun will go down).

Gets a GT T-shirt.

So, if you can drop a line to gallagher@stlouisgametime.com that says:

1. Erik Johnson
2. Chris Gift spills his beer.

and that happens, you win.

1. Jordan Staal.
2. Chris Moresi gets caught going through Gallagher's medicine cabinet.

and that happens, you win.

Closest to the pin gets the nod, based on a vote by the attendees. So get your answers in now, chldren.