This Blog Has Moved.

For those out there who may have missed it, the Game Time blog has moved to a nice, new home at www.stlouisgametime.com. Be sure to visit us there for way more content.

Thanks!
Sean

Thank You NBC!

For an excellent Sunday afternoon nap. I hadn't planned on it, but your genius decision to run yet another Red Wings game made it so easy to slip into an afternoon coma.

I know there are a ton of bandwagon Wingnut pseudofans out there, many of whom will tune in to watch Steve Yzerman (woo! The best 4eva!) and Sergei Fedorov (he's so cute!) play, but thanks for considering that the other hockey fans out there in the world might not want to watch them.

Run them if you want in Chicago or Kansas City or something, but couldn't someone from St. Louis pipe in with "we hate Detroit. Can we get the Anaheim game?"

Assholes.

Hell, even that precocious and weak-bladdered lil' Calvin knows better.

I Love GT Readers.

I thought the funniest part of the Blues/Hawks here-and-here was going to be when we sold a copy of the paper (headline: Hawks Suck Again) on Tuesday to a guy in a red Hawks jersey. Right after paying for the paper, he read the headline and said, "aw, what the shit?!"

And then on Thursday, one of our regular readers (and the author of a certain linked blog) decided to take a picture with a whole family of Hawk fans. They sure look happy, don't they?

Notice that our lone Blues fan is holding up his fabulous copy of GT. Seems like a St. Louis guy making nice with some Chicago-fan-Jordan-loving-Chelios-chili-eating-Bears-hopeful-Sears-Tower-worshiping-giant-silver-bean-art-loving-Ditka-sucking-Wirtz-hating-Old-Style-drinking-green-river-bragging-maybe-this-year-is-next-year-Cub-fan-haven't-been-to-a-game-since-Amonte-left-pseudo-Blackhawks-fans, right?


Nice St. Louis kid. Not afraid to be cool with some Indian Head lovers? Look closer. That GT is saying what our Blues fan has been yelling all night:



Aw yeah. "Blackhawks Still Suck".

And look at 'em.

"Yay! We DO suck!""

Sorry drunk Chi-Town fans. You just got shutout and you just got taken to school. Next time you might want to investigate more before that digital camera gives you the flashy-flash.

As we might say with the aid of Horn Guy:

Pom Pom Pom!
Black Hawks Suck!
Pom Pom Pom!
Black Hawks Suck!

And so on and so forth.

Check out our hero here.
Comment here.

New Uniforms - One Big Problem

The NHL has been kicking around the idea of a new form-fitting jersey for teams to start wearing on the ice. The idea was origiated by the supplier of said uniforms, Reebok. Along the way, they also came up with some prototypes - the first of which will be viewed during the All-Star game as the game's best players (and Rory Fitzpatrick) will be decked out in streamlined, formfitting unis.

I'm not a huge fan of "that's the way we've always done it" in life, work or hockey, but in this instance, I'm not a fan of tinkering with the classic uniforms. Inspired by the harder-to-grasp uniforms of NCAA and NFL football, these new togs should cut down on the grabbing and pulling, but to me, there is little that compares with the beauty of a pro hockey player flying downice and cutting back and forth, jersey fluttering in the wind.

Maybe seeing the real deal will change my mind, and at the very least it'll get me to tune into the uber-boring All Star game, but I doubt I'll be converted.

Here is the Reebokized Blues jersey:

Which isn't terrible. But I'd argue that short of the 1998 era brassy trumpets jersey (one of which I own) it's hard to dick up that classic Bluenote and the colors of blue and gold the team uses.

But I have a practical reason that the owners should reject these new "form-fitting" jerseys. Look around the rink next time you're in the CheckettsDome. How many of the people that are wearing jerseys do YOU want to see wearing something "form fitting"?

One? Two?

Seriously, unless the teams want to see a serious dent in their merchandizing revenues, they'll veto the new skin-tight togs. How many fewer jerseys do you sell if your fan base loves nachos and philly steak sandwiches and beers and beers and beers?

I'm guessing lots.

How many guys like this do you think will be buying "form fitting" gear?

And if this Oiler fan (nice respect for the flag, by the way) does, I'm saying we ban him from the rink:


However, I'm willing to make an exception to my stance on "No Tolerance" if a few more fans hit the Bowflex and start looking like hockey fan Elisha Cuthbert:

Comments?

I Thought this Team Was Killing ME

But look what it's doing to JD!

This is John Davidson during the pre-season press conference introducing Jay McKee as the latest Blues free agent signing (1 July 2006).



This is John Davidson [background, for the morons out there] introducing Andy Murray as the new head coach for the Blues (10 December 2006).



What's he going to look like by the time we get to June and he's making the first overall selection again? If he looks like this, I'm calling the authorities.



[inspired by GT regular Dookie]

Now Is When I Feel Bad.

I rant and tear and scream. I diatribe. I solilique. I bitch. I whine. I gnash teeth. I demean. I belittle. I pound the shit out of Blues players, staff and hangers-on (Towel Boy, I'm looking in your general direction).

But then, when I get what I want, I start to feel bad for being so mean.

Case 1: Eric Weinrich. My favorite whipping boy of last season, "The Visor" caught a ration of shit from me every issue we published. I hated his breakdowns. I hated his fishing the puck out of the net. I hated the way Alexander Ovechkin juked him into some sort of pretzel-legged, thumb-sucking, pseudo-retarded lump of skin in hockey skates. And I hated that Visor. Oof. That Visor made me notice just how bad he was.

So I ranted and raved and bashed and broke him down.

Then, when he got traded, I felt bad about it. Yes, I was glad he was finally gone. Yes, I was sorry that I lost a ton of comedy fodder. But I felt bad that I'd treated him in print like a shitty defenseman that had no past and no skills and no intelligence and nothing to offer the team at all. You know, I treated him like Alexander Khavanov.

But Weinrich, in reality, had a long and solid NHL career. He was a classy person and a good teacher of the game. He stood up for his teammates and was smart enough to craft a "Letter To The Editor" to a major newspaper (not GT) shortly after he joined the Blues back in 2003.

So, I'm kind of a dick. But I'm OK with that. I'm a fan first.

When it comes to Case 2, I feel a little bad about it too. Mike Kitchen was the wrong guy in the wrong place at the wrong time.

-He doesn't relate to youngsters well.

-He'd lost the veterans. (it was a very pooorly-kept secret that many of them did not like him.)

-He some how had no idea that it was HIS job to get the team ready to play a big game on Brett Hull Night, instead blaming the palyers publicly for not being ready to go.

-He was too spineless to go on a trash-can throwing rant reminiscent of the Drill Instructor in Full Metal Jacket.

[The St. Louis Blues Hockey Club. A six-month college for the phony tough and the crazy brave.]



(I'd love to see this go down with Murray as the DI, Weight as Joker and Cajanek as Pvt Pyle)

He was, in short, not equipped to be a head coach at this time, for this team. In fact, I doubt he'll ever be offered a head coaching job again. I'm sure he'll be an assistant in the N soon enough, but I'm sure you'll see him behind a bench 10 years from now and think, "holy shit, Mike Kitchen is still an assistant in the NHL!"

But still, sometimes I think I was too mean to him.

And then I think about the three words that I keep hearing attributed to the new guy, Andy Murray: preparation, commitment, accountabilty.

And I get all giddy.

One Last Thing...
I have had the conversation recently with a couple people that I would love to be in the crowd when a youngster started in net that I could, someday, say, "Y'know, I was in the crowd the night that [future Hall of Fame netminder] started his first game."

I was starting to think that tonight was the night when Marek Schwarz was standing on his head tonight. I'm going to pretend that about 2:05 of the third period did not happen and that I did see our own no-question starting netminder for the next two decades, Marty Brodeur knockoff, calm, cool and collected starter made his first NHL appearance tonight.

The guy was a first round steal, and seemed to be pretty good tonight (excluding the 2:05, excluding the 2:05). So, put me officially "on" the bandwagon.

Maybe Legace can be the next guy I run out of town and then feel semi-bad about it. Plus, he's probably just a Red Wing mole anyay.

Comments?

Something Has Got To Give

Everyone I talked to tonight at the latest crashing plane of a game at the CheckettsDome was fed up. Hardcore fans, casual fans, drunk fans, stupid fans. We've all had enough. Something has to give.

I vote for Kitchen first.

For those of you who picked up the paper, you know my reasons, but hell, I would have fired him the day after the No.16 went to the ceiling and the Blues went to the basement.

But I wouldn't be done there. It's time to scare the shit out of someone around here and I think that firing the coach might make some of the players happy. I don't want any of them happy. I want them scared. Doug Weight - guess who's getting traded again? But this time, your slick-skating ass isn't going to a Cup contender. Nah, you get to spend the rest of '07 up in Calgary, who is still a longshot.

Yes, I'm sure he's a nice guy. Yes, I'm sure that's a total dick move. Yes, I'd do it in a second. Because everyone else needs to be put on notice. Everyone is tradable. Start skating or there's gonna be a problem. Start playing defense or there's going to be a problem. Start doing something or there's going to be a goddamn problem.

If I was the president of this sinking ship I'd be doing more than waking up early and going in to work. Nah, after the post-Brett firing of Kitchen, I'd follow with a move that is reminiscent of the coach in Bull Durham crossed with the DI from Full Metal Jacket: I would have burst into the locker room after the Jackets got done running the team off the ice tonight and I would have called out every pussyheaded bitch in that room and told them that virtually none of them deserve to wear the Bluenote. I'd have collected their jerseys off of their backs right then and there and let them know in no uncertain terms that I would let them have them back when they deserved it.

And if they hadn't been traded and were still around to play the Hawks on Tuesday, I'd give them jerseys back that didn't have their names on them. NHL fines be damned.

Prove to me you want to be a Blue. If you don't, I'll find a new home for you.

Every single one of you.

I'm Going To Get Better As The Blues Get Worserer.

I just posted a November 18th post that had been sitting in 'edit' mode since, well, Nov.18th.

Nice blogging, eh?

But I'll be better. Sometimes my problem is that I know if I start a post with the attitude of "just a little one to keep the fresh thoughts from clogging my brain", I end up trying to polish it up like three hours later.

No more.

If you want the edited and re-read and semi-polished version of what crap is currently making me mad or making me laugh, pick up the GT on game days. I've usually read and re-read that to the point that I can't find any joy in it anymore. This blog is going to start being more regular, as I feed it the soy-laced colon-burn that is this current team.

Sorry for the silence - expect more as we go.