I'm not going to complain much about this one - twelfth overall in the league's not a bad spot to see St. Louis sitting, and they actually didn't do a boneheaded analysis this time.  The only doofy comment they made was this about Paul Kariya:

 

The Blues summer ended on a bit of a sour note when Paul Kariya announced that he would not be playing this season as he continues to deal with post-concussion syndrome.  If this is in fact the end of the road for Kariya it is an unfortunate way to end such an illustrious career.

The praise for GM Doug Armstrong and the Blues' off-season moves seems a bit fluffed up with hyperbole, but when you see what the team did in the off-season written out in a paragraph, it doesn't look half bad.

Those of you who laughed are either a) perverts b) British c) a fan of BritComs or d) all of the above.  Seriously, though, Thrashing the Blues has finally set up a Facebook page so everyone can follow the fun in one spot that is NOT my personal Facebook page.  It's compiling posts from GameTime, SBNation Atlanta, Cycle Like the Sedins, Chicks Who Give a Puck, Birdwatchers, and of course, here.

Follow along!

Halak's home opener was spoiled by two quick back to back goals in the third period, and Colorado continued their steamrolling of the Blues. That sounds about right - though the Blues one goal in the 3-1 loss was scored by Patrik Berglund.  This is encouraging, because the forward took a step backwards last season, and many expect this year to be make or break for Iceberg.  Without the pressures of Andy Murray, he should have a better year.

The Blues get another crack at it tonight against the Minnesota Wild(s) with a different line-up.

It's hard writing a re-cap of a game that I wasn't at nor did I listen to on the radio, but it's a hell of a lot easier to write a re-cap of whatever happened at Philips last night.

It's been a long time since I got a chance to see Ron Hainsey literally inside his own goal when a goal was scored.  I didn't miss it.  Didn't miss it a bit.   Really though, the game last night wasn't pleasant.  I didn't take a lot away from the forwards and special teams, because I can't judge a team on the first pre-season tilt.  Too much adjustment's going on.  Ditto with the defense as a whole, though I do believe that Valabik is off to a great start if playing himself out of the 7th defenseman position is his goal.  Kulda and Zubarev had much better games than he did - Kulda finished plus on the night, which is impressive since the score was 5-2.

Love the Dawes-Little-Pettersson line.  Good sense and good ability to read each other, especially between Little and Pettersson, who traded goals and assists.

Still exasperated with Ondrej Pavelec.  I'm sorry, but I *can* judge a goaltender's performance in a pre-season game. Yes, it takes a while for them to get going after so much time off, but three of the goals scored were inexcusable. Coach Craig Ramsay had this to say regarding Pavs: "On one of their goals the goaltender threw it up past our D on the short side and you can’t do that in the National League."

Well, no, but Pavs did that a lot last season. He is a rebound machine - the other team just needs to be in the right place at the right time, and Columbus' team of rookies that we should have beaten latched onto this.  Pavelec is a good goaltender, and he will continue to improve the more that we play him.  The thing is, if what we saw last night is an indication of how he'll play more often than not, the team can't afford to keep him starting - and we all know that once Mason gets going you have to drag him out of the goal.  Pavs' goaltending time depends on how well he plays at the start of the year - because if he gets messy, he's the back-up.

A game recap of last night's disappointment is forthcoming, but as a separate post, here're the players that the Thrashers have cut from camp. Goaltenders are from six to four now, to giving the remaining ones a chance to get more ice time to practice.

Which is great, because Pavelec needs it.

To Wolves:
Ian McKenzie 
Chris Carozzi 
Ed Pasquale
Angelo Esposito
Michael Forney
Danick Paquette 
Jared Ross
Paul Postma 
Mike Siklenka

To Juniors:
Ben Chiarot (Sudbury Wolves, OHL)
Sebastian Owuya (Medicine Hat Tigers, WHL) 
Cody Sol (Saginaw Spirit, OHL)

Released:
Andre Deveaux 
Kyle McLaren

I've complained about these before - Atlanta's review is absolutely awful, and not because I'm a homer.  It just sucks.  The latest one on the Pens is also really poorly written and researched.

I'm kind of not looking forward to the Blues one, because I know it'll be all "blah blah blah youth blah blah prove themselves blah breakout year," but check out the board.

They're at 12th in the NHL, and they haven't listed the Blues yet.  As much crap as I think these things are this year, I can't help but be pretty ok with the fact that they consider us a top 12 team at the very least.

I can't believe that I'm finally writing this - hockey's back.  I will be sitting my happy little butt in my season ticketed seat at Philips tonight. It might be 90 degrees outside, but it's a nice 64 degrees inside and I shall have a frosty $8 beer in one hand and a Wetzel Dog in the other.  It's like Christmas, but with violence.

I'll be trying to post the line-ups of the teams here so people won't have to go hunting around the internet like I had to last night.  Some teams aren't as good about posting line-ups as Ben is at the Blueland Blog.

The Thrashers' line-up's a mix of newbies, familiar faces, and the new young kids - exactly what you'd expect for the first home pre-season game:

 

Kane- Burmistrov- Stewart
Dawes- Little- Pettersson
Paquette- Holzapfel- Aliu
Eager- Rissmiller- Machacek

Hainsey-Sifers
Kulda- Meyer
Valabik- Zubarev

Pavelec
MacIntyre

I like that top line, but I really, really like the second one.  Lots of speed, good playmaking, and grit mixed with scoring from Dawes.  The third line isn't a slouch, and the fourth should be a bit rough to play against too.  I'm very much interested to see how Valabik and recent signing Zubarev do together, not really for Boris but mostly for Zubarev. He'll probably wind up in Chicago, but that added depth and size at defense isn't anything to scoff at.  Kulda's fighting for a roster spot against Valabik, Zubarev, and his line mate Meyer.  If Kulda's cut, expect him to be one of the last to go.

There will be camp tomorrow morning for everyone not on this roster, and expect the first cuts to come probably early tomorrow morning.

The Blue Jackets were nice enough to post their line-up on their site as well. As expected, it's mostly rookies with a few vets thrown in for balance.  They're throwing David LeNeveu out to the wolves at least the first two periods, but as is customary expect to see Mathieu Garon get some playing time about halfway through, much like Drew MacIntyre will for Atlanta.

If you'd like to further check out the competition, don't forget to head over to Light the Lamp.

After the jump, a look at the Avalanche's first visit to St. Louis this year.

Please to head over to SBNation Atlanta for my ongoing thoughts on training camp, updated on days that I make it.  Today was "Whack-a-Kane" Day, which is always fun. no comments

No, not here - James of Cycle Like the Sedins foundership fame has asked me to participate in his blogger roundtable regarding how we feel about our teams' upcoming seasons.  It's not on CLTS, though - oh no!  He's too big and fancy for that - this divisional preview is on NBC's Pro Hockey Talk.  It's always nice to see what other bloggers are thinking regarding not just their team, but as a division as a whole.  Check out what Caroline from Canes Country, Donny of The Litter Box Cats, John of Raw Charge, and Rob of Storming the Crease all have to say about their teams' chances in the most improved division in hockey... or so they* say it is.

*I'm guessing this "they" is related to "them," whoever "them" is.  Are.  "Them" be?  Aw, screw it.

Here's hoping that this isn't how it'll end up when the training wheels come off.

It's that wonderful time of the year - it's finally getting cool(ish) outside, fall is in the air, and NHL training camps begin. Next week marks the start of pre-season hockey, and before you know it, the season's starting. The off-season's been long and not exciting, but it's amazing how quickly it's passed for Blues and Thrashers fans. Now we get to see what the trade acquisitions and free agent signings bring to the make-up of the teams, and we get to see what rookies have to return to the AHL or juniors for one more year of seasoning.

The Blues' camp began this morning at St. Louis Mills shopping center. Full rosters are up on the Blues' website, of course, and it looks like it'll be a bit of a packed house for sure. The roster guys from last year are basically going to be back on the team this season, so very few roster spots (fourth liner and probably two defensive slots including the 7th guy) are up for grabs for the youth to pick and choose from.
The minor league goalies know that they're not cracking the team this year with Jaroslav Halak and Ty Conklin as the tandem. However, look for Jake Allen and Ben Bishop to play well, but they'll be the goalie pairing in Peoria for another season. The healthy scratch position is Matt D'Agostini's to lose, which stands to reason since this is the position that he'll probably play in the NHL for the bulk of his career. The real intrigue lies in the sixth and seventh defensemen positions that lay open.

As it stands, the Blues defense looks like this:

Brewer-Jackman

Polak-EJ

Cola-?? 7th Man - ??

Two slots open, with five guys fighting for it. Yep, I know that there are eleven prospects fighting for them, but out of all eleven, there are only five that will really challenge for those two spots. Alex Pieterangelo is 20, and steamrolled the other prospects at Traverse City. It's more than evident that he has hit his level of development at the junior level and probably at the AHL level, and deserves the opportunity to continue to improve at the NHL level. The 6th pairing will be complete with him, giving the Blues a solid defensive corps with room to mature and grow - or improve their +/- rating, as it applies to them. The seventh guy - the healthy scratch - comes down to Ian Cole, Nikita Nikitin, Nathan Oystrick, and Tyson Strachan. Strachan needs the work in Peoria to smooth out rough edges, as does Cole - and being the 7th man will do their development no good. Nikitin continues to impress, but Oystrick has the most NHL experience and is as developed as much as he can be. He's a perfectly servicible last pairing/7th d-man who had been pushed down the depth charts of Atlanta and Anaheim. In order to not stunt the development of the youth, he's probably the safest option for the Blues to use as the scratch.

Not sure if I agree with his line-up (I'd go Oates or Federko over Janney - and Janney and Shanny on the same line's probably not safe anyway), but you gotta love Jon Hamm's legit devotion to the St. Louis Blues:

 

Even if this is a damned HAT OF LIES: