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GDT: Blues@Canes FSMW (No DISH) KMOX 6pm

Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 9:03 am
by abc789987
BLUES (4-4-1) at HURRICANES (2-5-3)

Season series: First and only meeting this season. Carolina swept a pair of low-scoring, one-goal games last season. The Hurricanes won 1-0 in St. Louis on Oct. 30, 2008, with Tuomo Ruutu scoring the goal and Cam Ward making 19 saves for his seventh career shutout. They also edged the Blues 2-1 at the RBC Center on Jan. 2, 2009, thanks to power-play goals by Eric Staal and Anton Babchuk. Ward had another shutout going in the third until David Backes scored.

Big Story: It's been a long time between wins for Carolina, which returns from a four-game road trip that brought with it nothing better than single points for a shootout loss on Long Island and an overtime defeat in Minnesota -- the Hurricanes went 0-2-2 and are now 0-4-2 away from home this season. They've lost six in a row overall since a 7-2 drubbing of Southeast Division rival Florida on Oct. 9.

Team Scope:

Blues -- Expectations were high entering the season and only increased after a sweep of Detroit in Stockholm, but St. Louis has muddled through the time since then. The Blues were .500 on a recent two-game homestand, slipping past Minnesota but getting defeated 4-1 by Dallas. The lone bright spot in that game was defenseman Alex Pietrangelo, the No. 4 pick in the 2008 Entry Draft, scoring his first NHL goal.

"It's always good to get your first goal, but it's kind of overshadowed by the loss," Pietrangelo said. "We played hard tonight, we really did. A few mistakes and they took advantage of it. It's a good feeling, but at the same time, it's tough to go through that with a loss."

Hurricanes -- Maybe the home fans can lift Carolina out of its recent doldrums, which have seen the Hurricanes slip to fourth in the Southeast, seven points behind Washington after 10 games. There's a long way to go in the season, but the team has some issues it needs to get straightened out. Winning on the road will have to wait until Saturday's trip to Philadelphia, but the 'Canes can focus on staying out of the box -- they took 10 penalties and gave the Wild seven power plays on Saturday.

"When you have to kill a lot of penalties, it taxes a lot of your players, physically," Ray Whitney told the Charlotte Observer. "The last 10 minutes we may have looked on the tired side."

Who's Hot -- Whitney, who recently played in his 1,000th NHL game, has three goals and six points in his last five games, as he leads the Hurricanes in scoring. For the Blues, goalie Chris Mason is coming off his best start of the season, stopping 20 of 21 shots in beating Minnesota.

Injury Report -- St. Louis forwards DJ King (broken hand) and Alexander Steen (broken wrist) are out long term. Defenseman Barret Jackman hasn't played since Oct. 8 due to an ankle injury. Defenseman Eric Brewer is working his way back from a knee injury.

Carolina forward Erik Cole, out the past several weeks with a broken leg, has been placed on injured reserve. Defenseman Tim Gleason has missed the past two games with an upper-body injury. Ruutu will also miss his second of three games due to a suspension following his hit on Colorado forward Darcy Tucker.

Stat Pack -- Hurricanes captain Rod Brind'Amour began his career with the Blues during the 1989 Stanley Cup Playoffs and played two full seasons in St. Louis, scoring 43 goals and 110 points with a plus-25 rating in 157 games.

Puck Drop -- This game marks the first in a back-to-back situation for St. Louis, which returns home to Scottrade Center for a game Thursday against Phoenix. An early goal or two for Carolina would go a long way toward ending their recent miseries.

-- Brian Hunter, NHL.com

Re: GDT: Blues@Canes FSMW (No DISH) KMOX 6pm

Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 9:21 am
by ilhockeyguy
abc789987 wrote:
BLUES (4-4-1) at HURRICANES (2-5-3)

Injury Report -- St. Louis forwards DJ King (broken hand) and Alexander Steen (broken wrist) are out long term. Defenseman Barret Jackman hasn't played since Oct. 8 due to an ankle injury. Defenseman Eric Brewer is working his way back from a knee injury.

Did I miss something? I thought he had back surgery, which is the reason he's out, not the pansy knee surgery from earlier this year???
Anyway....we lose...AGAIN. I'm not feeling this team until we get over Sydor, Crombeen, and Janssen. They bring little to the table.

Re: GDT: Blues@Canes FSMW (No DISH) KMOX 6pm

Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 10:08 am
by ReelBluesFan887
Blues 4 EJ, AP, Bumps, Walt
Canes 2

Re: GDT: Blues@Canes FSMW (No DISH) KMOX 6pm

Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 11:38 am
by abc789987
From the Morning Skate, the lines for the first 5 mins or so...
Ofense
Andy McDonald-Keith Tkachuk-David Backes

Paul Kariya-Patrik Berglund-Brad Boyes

B.J. Crombeen-Jay McClement-David Perron

Brad Winchester-Yan Stastny-Cam Janssen
dfense
Darryl Sydor-Erik Johnson

Mike Weaver-Roman Polak

Carlo Colaiacovo-Alex Pietrangelo

Chris Mason

Re: GDT: Blues@Canes FSMW (No DISH) KMOX 6pm

Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 11:39 am
by kodos
I'm predicting a loss tonight.

Re: GDT: Blues@Canes FSMW (No DISH) KMOX 6pm

Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 11:50 am
by ohio BLUES
Cam Ward gives up goals by the bushel, and Carolina hasn't been playing all that well so far this year. We could be the spark that gets them going, however.

Re: GDT: Blues@Canes FSMW (No DISH) KMOX 6pm

Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 12:42 pm
by cprice12
abc789987 wrote:From the Morning Skate, the lines for the first 5 mins or so...
Ofense
Andy McDonald-Keith Tkachuk-David Backes

Paul Kariya-Patrik Berglund-Brad Boyes

B.J. Crombeen-Jay McClement-David Perron

Brad Winchester-Yan Stastny-Cam Janssen
dfense
Darryl Sydor-Erik Johnson

Mike Weaver-Roman Polak

Carlo Colaiacovo-Alex Pietrangelo

Chris Mason
Posting the lines anymore is pointless. Murray always completely changes them around after a couple shifts. :roll:

Re: GDT: Blues@Canes FSMW (No DISH) KMOX 6pm

Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 12:54 pm
by DaDitka
cprice12 wrote: Posting the lines anymore is pointless. Murray always completely changes them around after a couple shifts. :roll:

He stated in an interview a week or two ago that he doesn't think of 'lines' he thinks of 'twos' :shock:

I guess he was caught by surprise when he realized that 3 is not divisible by 2 (yet he has not let that deter him).

Re: GDT: Blues@Canes FSMW (No DISH) KMOX 6pm

Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 1:09 pm
by cprice12
DaDitka wrote:
cprice12 wrote: Posting the lines anymore is pointless. Murray always completely changes them around after a couple shifts. :roll:

He stated in an interview a week or two ago that he doesn't think of 'lines' he thinks of 'twos' :shock:

I guess he was caught by surprise when he realized that 3 is not divisible by 2 (yet he has not let that deter him).
Yeah, I heard that too.
I still don't understand it.
With a healthy Oshie, you can put together two pretty good scoring lines. It seems like a no-brainer to actually put together the best scoring lines possible (ahem, counting all three players on each line) when the offense is struggling.

You could have two scoring lines, an energy-type line that can check and score a little and then a checking/hard hitting line.
Just f'ing do it already. Spreading your offensive talent thin over all of your lines doesn't work consistently enough to even seriously consider screwing around with it. And if you are going to spread your offensive talent thin, the only way it will work is if you have a couple dominant offensive players (top 10 type guys, which we don't have)...that can overcome liabilities on their line.
We don't have an Ovechkin, Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Crosby or Malkin-like player. So you need an entire line working together to score...which is why making moves like putting Winchester on the top line with Kariya and Tkachuk, is stupid.

Re: GDT: Blues@Canes FSMW (No DISH) KMOX 6pm

Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 2:21 pm
by glen a richter
An uninspiring epic defeat. The only guy who shows up to play will be Pietrangelo, and he'll be pulling press box duty weeks afterward for being the one supposedly responsible for an incorrect too many men penalty late in the 3rd when they're already down 6-2.

Re: GDT: Blues@Canes FSMW (No DISH) KMOX 6pm

Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 2:29 pm
by DaDitka
Three straight games with Paulie/Bergie/Boyes together.

They haven't actually skated together most of the time, but Andy is 'technically' leaving Paulie and Bergie on the same line which Paul has been begging for since preseason.

Re: GDT: Blues@Canes FSMW (No DISH) KMOX 6pm

Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 4:51 pm
by ohio BLUES
A brief timeout for a look from Cackalackey. This guy must have read my post and kodos' post:
topshelfavry wrote: Looks like the Blue's fans aren't too confident about their teams chances because they've been struggling as well. A few seem to think that because the Canes have been under performing so badly lately, they're due for a huge coming out party, quite possibly against their team tonight. That would be nice.
This guy says our team is a buncha fatsos:
krad wrote: The Blues roster is pretty young. Another big thing that stuck out is that they have 10 players in the 215+lbs class to our one (Wallin 220). Hope that translates into a little more speed for us - if we're willing to use it.
An ORLY moment for your pleasure in this little pep talkish post:
ch108058 wrote:2 points. That's what we need tonight. 2 points. Blues are a decent squad - they made the playoffs last season in the ultra competitive west riding a young roster (and Tkachuk and Kariya). This will not be an easy 2 points, but we really need it. I am looking for the fellas to come out with a little spring in the step and a little fire in their eyes. I am thinking Conboy, Walker, Tommy Non-stopolous, Harrison or Alberts may have themselves an interesting evening. This is the kind of game that a team in our situation needs to really step it up for. Let's hope the boys can put in a strong 60 minutes and look more like the team we all know they can be.
This guy has apparently never listened to John Kelly for very long. They've got one of the better guys in the business in John Forslund, IMO.
fallen_apostle wrote:Yay for center ice! Although why the hell would I want to watch the team these days. We find different ways to lose.

But I stick with them! Blues announcers are pretty good actually...should be tolerable.
And on a different forum, some guy feels the same way about his team as I feel for the Blues:
Raisin'Cane wrote:Another struggling team faces the 'Canes and while I hate to admit it we certainly have been able to find a way to help struggling teams feel better about themselves.
This guy sees us lighting up Ward for a touchdown:
dwind wrote:Not much to say. Has the ship been righted or is it still sunk? I see no indications it's been righted. The canes are too slow and too old and to indecisive. Will they telegraph and still miss every pass and shot? Are they still too deliberate? I thinkt ha answer to all is yes.
Blues 7 - 2
I hope I'm wrong.
Kind of interesting to see what the opposing fans, especially those that you'd think would be unfamiliar with the Blues, have to say about it. I did this out of my own curiosity and free time and may continue it for future games if those things still exist.

Re: GDT: Blues@Canes FSMW (No DISH) KMOX 6pm

Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 4:54 pm
by glen a richter
Folks from the Carolinas know what teh hokie is?

Re: GDT: Blues@Canes FSMW (No DISH) KMOX 6pm

Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 5:21 pm
by section319
cprice12 wrote:
DaDitka wrote:
cprice12 wrote: Posting the lines anymore is pointless. Murray always completely changes them around after a couple shifts. :roll:

He stated in an interview a week or two ago that he doesn't think of 'lines' he thinks of 'twos' :shock:

I guess he was caught by surprise when he realized that 3 is not divisible by 2 (yet he has not let that deter him).
Yeah, I heard that too.
I still don't understand it.
With a healthy Oshie, you can put together two pretty good scoring lines. It seems like a no-brainer to actually put together the best scoring lines possible (ahem, counting all three players on each line) when the offense is struggling.

You could have two scoring lines, an energy-type line that can check and score a little and then a checking/hard hitting line.
Just f'ing do it already. Spreading your offensive talent thin over all of your lines doesn't work consistently enough to even seriously consider screwing around with it. And if you are going to spread your offensive talent thin, the only way it will work is if you have a couple dominant offensive players (top 10 type guys, which we don't have)...that can overcome liabilities on their line.
We don't have an Ovechkin, Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Crosby or Malkin-like player. So you need an entire line working together to score...which is why making moves like putting Winchester on the top line with Kariya and Tkachuk, is stupid.

See my only problem about everyone complaining about this and blaming Murray for our problems is that he has been doing this since he got here, this isn't something new he is implementing this year. So, that means that the players are done with Murray and he has lost the team, or that it is Murray and this is the bad half of our season and we will have another kick ass second half. But, that is why I haven't completely jumped on the bashing Murray bandwagon because he is doing the same shit he always has, everyone just notices it a lot more when we aren't doing so hot.

But, we lose tonight 2-1.

Re: GDT: Blues@Canes FSMW (No DISH) KMOX 6pm

Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 5:30 pm
by WindyCityBluesFan
Perron! 1-0

Re: GDT: Blues@Canes FSMW (No DISH) KMOX 6pm

Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 5:32 pm
by #1ELPBluzFan
Well, so far so good tonight...

Mason looks sharp...

First goal goes to the Blues...

another 48 minutes to go though.

:goblues:

Re: GDT: Blues@Canes FSMW (No DISH) KMOX 6pm

Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 5:39 pm
by WindyCityBluesFan
Yan Statsny! What a shot!

Re: GDT: Blues@Canes FSMW (No DISH) KMOX 6pm

Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 5:41 pm
by WindyCityBluesFan
Damn, missed the 3rd goal. Who scored that one?

Re: GDT: Blues@Canes FSMW (No DISH) KMOX 6pm

Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 5:42 pm
by #1ELPBluzFan
Mc Clement! (16 seconds after Jan...)

Re: GDT: Blues@Canes FSMW (No DISH) KMOX 6pm

Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 5:43 pm
by WindyCityBluesFan
McClement on the 3rd goal.