Randall Ritchey: The High's And Low's Of Blues Hockey From a dominating performance against the Kings on Tuesday, and a strong first period tonight, the Blues give up six in the last 44 minutes to lose 6-4.

Good write up. Blues are for real and the slumping Kings needed this kind of game against a team as good as the blues. I hope for my team this is a slump buster game. Blues heavy play kinda woke up the team that won the cup.

Good write up. Blues are for real and the slumping Kings needed this kind of game against a team as good as the blues. I hope for my team this is a slump buster game. Blues heavy play kinda woke up the team that won the cup.
- dprice818

Blues took a 3-0 lead and FAILED. something needs to change with the BLUES if they ever HOPE to compete in the playoffs


congrats to the Kings for taking it to us.

The Blues are not for real until they continually kick the crud out of the best of the league teams. now we are just pretenders. we can win an odd game here and there but we cannot beat the elite on a continuos basis.(La, Sharks, Chicago, Ducks) in there lies the way to to SCF

Blues took a 3-0 lead and FAILED. something needs to change with the BLUES if they ever HOPE to compete in the playoffs


congrats to the Kings for taking it to us.
- BluesDroogie

sucks doesn't it..... seriously though the blues are a great team and tough to play...all teams crap the bed. I see them going deep this year in the post season.

sucks doesn't it..... seriously though the blues are a great team and tough to play...all teams crap the bed. I see them going deep this year in the post season.
- Nolanders

They probably win the cup with a top goalie.

marty brodeur bringing that devils culture to st. Louis with him. Just keep blowin' them leads

Blues played a couple of crap periods... but there is no reason to get too worked up when your 3rd string goalie lets in 2 super soft goals and you lose by 2. I mean, think about it: Blues played some of their worst hockey for half the game, and still would have gone to OT if they had some average goal tending.

Want a happy thought?

18 years ago today - Mike Keenan fired by the Blues.

Petro has the worst +/- of our whole team. Usually JBO carries him a bit but he wasn't good last night either.

Want a happy thought?

18 years ago today - Mike Keenan fired by the Blues.
- bcallaway

And they're probably done paying guys to play against them.

After such a great start, the 2nd and 3rd periods were atrocious. The Blues just completely fell apart. The Kings were aggressive and forced the Blues players to make some mistakes, but when the Kings got possession, our guys would just back off giving them all the time and space they needed. Not a solid game plan.

Frustrating game to watch and Marty should've been better, but the team certainly wasn't helping him out. On the bright side, still really impressed with Lindbohm's play!

That was brutal. It was made even worse by the late start (FU west coast!). Maybe the boys fell asleep after the first I know I was about to haha. Who would have thought Shattenkirk would be our best Dman this year? Petro needs to take some pointers on off season conditioning from him!

Want a happy thought?

18 years ago today - Mike Keenan fired by the Blues.
- bcallaway

YAY A GOOD DAY IN BLUES HISTORY

Want a happy thought?

18 years ago today - Mike Keenan fired by the Blues.
- bcallaway

Or if you are not on a ledge, read the last three pages of the previous blog. Good for a laugh or two from over reactions.

Blues played a couple of crap periods... but there is no reason to get too worked up when your 3rd string goalie lets in 2 super soft goals and you lose by 2. I mean, think about it: Blues played some of their worst hockey for half the game, and still would have gone to OT if they had some average goal tending.
- Antilles

sucks doesn't it..... seriously though the blues are a great team and tough to play...all teams crap the bed. I see them going deep this year in the post season.
- Nolanders

we would have to beat La, Anaheim, San Jose or the Hawks, all teams the Blues cannot beat in a 7 game series. Hopefully The Islanders can make a wake in the east with Halak hopefully healthy but when it comes time for him to face a western opponent i would not get your hopes up too high. he is a flake

I don't think it is fair to state after Tuesday that it's just one game and means nothing; then come back today and talk about how "moves need to be made" and "the Blues can't win the cup with this group," etc. It wasn't a great game, but there were some good signs. The Kings were desperate and played like it. The Blues absorbed the hits in the first and scored because of the emotional play of the Kings. Then the Blues came out with some over-emotion and took penalties. The PK just isn't good enough when your best penalty killers are hurt and on the bench (Elliot and Allen).

One bright spot in the game that hasn't been mentioned was the play of Jaskin and Stastny. I thought Jaskin was a beast (one goal, a post, puck control, offensive zone time). Those two looked good together and combined with Berglund, were the best line on the ice for the Blues. Not sure Bergie had anything to do with that since he keeps curling at the top of the circles on every rush.

IMHO, we cannot win the cup with our current goalie situation OR our current top pair. We are a very good team but I don't think we can be a great team unless Petro and Elliott and/or Allen elevate their games considerably. Not that I blame Elliott or Allen for anything, but if we are to actually make a deep playoff run they will certainly need to play better than they are.

That being said, we should still end up in the top 4 in the WC this year. There is plenty of time for Petro and J Bo to find their old form. Hopefully one of our goalies (I'm thinking Allen) can get hot at the right time for us.

Even though the locations contradicted the playoff format, these last two games against LA would have made for a hell of an opening in a best of 7 series.

we would have to beat La, Anaheim, San Jose or the Hawks, all teams the Blues cannot beat in a 7 game series. Hopefully The Islanders can make a wake in the east with Halak hopefully healthy but when it comes time for him to face a western opponent i would not get your hopes up too high. he is a flake
- BluesDroogie

wait our true goalies were not in tonight. Brodeur did not play that bad 2 maybe should have been saved but what about the ones he saved that would have otherwise gone in?

not martys fault. defense, something we once prided our team on, has slipped drastically

IMHO, we cannot win the cup with our current goalie situation OR our current top pair. We are a very good team but I don't think we can be a great team unless Petro and Elliott and/or Allen elevate their games considerably. Not that I blame Elliott or Allen for anything, but if we are to actually make a deep playoff run they will certainly need to play better than they are.

That being said, we should still end up in the top 4 in the WC this year. There is plenty of time for Petro and J Bo to find their old form. Hopefully one of our goalies (I'm thinking Allen) can get hot at the right time for us.

Even though the locations contradicted the playoff format, these last two games against LA would have made for a hell of an opening in a best of 7 series.
- Yeah Boyes

how has Elliot not performed well, he is in the top 5 of gaa and save percentage. Allen it is growing pains. Petro is terrible this year as all of our defense besides Shatty, Lindbohm is a big surprise but is young and a rookie and makes mistakes


i see us out in the first round if our defense cannot come together. too many stupid plays along the blue line creating turnovers and keeping it in our zone when it should have been cleared. that created too many prime scoring chances tonight and all year long

I don't think it is fair to state after Tuesday that it's just one game and means nothing; then come back today and talk about how "moves need to be made" and "the Blues can't win the cup with this group," etc. It wasn't a great game, but there were some good signs. The Kings were desperate and played like it. The Blues absorbed the hits in the first and scored because of the emotional play of the Kings. Then the Blues came out with some over-emotion and took penalties. The PK just isn't good enough when your best penalty killers are hurt and on the bench (Elliot and Allen).

One bright spot in the game that hasn't been mentioned was the play of Jaskin and Stastny. I thought Jaskin was a beast (one goal, a post, puck control, offensive zone time). Those two looked good together and combined with Berglund, were the best line on the ice for the Blues. Not sure Bergie had anything to do with that since he keeps curling at the top of the circles on every rush.
- bluenoter

jaskin stastny and berglund played probably the best game of the year for them
they were great in a crappy game they were the high light

how has Elliot not performed well, he is in the top 5 of gaa and save percentage. Allen it is growing pains. Petro is terrible this year as all of our defense besides Shatty, Lindbohm is a big surprise but is young and a rookie and makes mistakes


i see us out in the first round if our defense cannot come together. too many stupid plays along the blue line creating turnovers and keeping it in our zone when it should have been cleared. that created too many prime scoring chances tonight and all year long
- BluesDroogie

Elliott has been good. But with our current roster I think it would be really hard for us to win without an elite goaltender. I agree with Allen suffering some growing pains. I think Allen will be a really good goaltender, I just hope he realizes some more of that potential by playoff time this year.

If we are to make it out of the first round, I think winning the division is key. If we don't win we will probably play NSH or CHI in the WCQF. I think we are 50/50 to advance against NSH and slight underdogs against CHI. Against a wild card team(LA being the current exception), I think we are favorites against anyone.

Yes a disappointing end to what started off a great game, emotions over with. The Blues inability to maintain a lead and bury a game yet still, stinks. not just this game, we have allowed teams to hang around and get back into the game all year long when we should have eliminated them in the first period. The Islanders, Colorado, LA, when does this team realize keep the gas on. i knew tonight when the kings scored their first we were in trouble. you could see their momentum gaining. The blues were flat in the 2nd and 3rd

Or if you are not on a ledge, read the last three pages of the previous blog. Good for a laugh or two from over reactions.
- carcus

That comes from a lack of sleep. I gave up staying up to watch 9:30 starts. I'm too old, need a good night's sleep.

On night like last, it would take me another good hour or two to get to sleep rehashing a bad loss.

I'm a much happier person now. And doing a lot better than most Blues' fans today from what I can read.