If I had to name one thing that was the most important to this team having a successful season I wouldn't name the power play. I wouldn't call out Keith Tkachuk and Paul Kariya, nor would I point in the direction of the rookies. All of those things are important, but one thing tops them all. The three veteran defensemen... Eric Brewer, Barret Jackman, and Jay McKee... must stay healthy. There is simply nobody in the organization that can replace their experience.

So what inevitably happened in game #1? Jackman goes down. And he stayed down, rolling around clearly in a lot of pain. When he was helped off the ice he looked to be lifting his right leg up, so without the luxury of replay from the last row at the Scott I thought the worst. I thought knee injury.

After seeing the replay, I'm not sure I know many guys that would call that their 'mid-section', but officially the Blues are saying that he took a skate to the mid-section. The only other thing KMOX reported on the injury was that there was no cut, but you can be seriously injured in that area without actually being cut. Let's hope that a little ice will do the trick and that he won't have to have any emergency surgery. Even if he is okay, swelling could very well keep him off the ice for a few days.

A few quick thoughts...

- Andy Murray is the one person that impressed me most on opening night. His games with the young players got old last season. If tonight is any indication of things to come, he's going to give these guys every opportunity to succeed.

- I continue to be unimpressed with Steve Wagner. He had a horrible giveaway near his own net that didn't end up costing the team and was on the ice for one of the two goals. After the bad giveaway Tkachuk went up and said something to Wagner.... would have loved to heard how that went.

- On the other hand Polak continues to impress me. He was out of position on the first goal the Blues allowed, but he made a lot of key plays defensively throughout the game. He finished second on the team with 22:13 of ice time behind only Brewer. His defense partner, Jay McKee, played a strong game as well.

- Is there much that needs to be said about the power play? Four goals on six chances. Three of them scored with five forwards on the ice. Also... kudos to Murray for putting Alex Pietrangelo on the second unit. I expected to see Brewer there.

- First place! Perhaps it's a little early in the season to be looking at the standings. I'm just not sure I'll be able to say very often this season that the Blues lead the Central Division.

- Looking forward to tomorrow night's tilt on the island. I have no idea why the schedule makers in the NHL offices thought it would be a good idea to have a road game in New York after a home game, but I guess we should expect those sorts of things. Dougie Weight was sporting #93 as scored the Islanders only goal tonight and it's looking like Rick DiPietro will not be in goal.

- Brad Boyes is good. I originally doubted his ability to score 40 again this season, but over the last three weeks he has convinced me.

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