Literally about 15 minutes after I posted yesterday whining about how the Blues' free agent moves, while ok, weren't groundbreaking, the team goes and signs Jason Arnott and Jamie Langenbrunner. Think the Blues're excited?

 
Naah.

Anywho, I'm very happy with Arnott's acquisition. It's been a bit since he's played a full season, but he's still more than capable of scoring. Also, he's a big center who, when given the right linemates, can set up a goal or 20. He's veteran leadership that this teams' been lacking since Keith Tkachuk retired, but with 99% less pudding/doughnut jokes.

Langenbrunner's better known for his locker-room antics last year in New Jersey than anything he did on the ice in 2010-2011. It's no secret that the situation to start the year for the Devils was generally terrible, but it's been rumored that Langenbrunner, as their captain, might have added to some toxicity. Hopefully he'll find the situation in St. Louis more to his liking (the team's significantly less inept than the Devils were last season), because we don't need any bad attitude rubbing off on the kids.

I wrote this as a response to a post that Brad made over on St. Louis Game Time that basically perfectly summarized the Blues' off-season: cheap. I figured it was such a good (and long) comment that hey, why not post here, too? That, and it's summer and the off-season isn't giving me much motivation to write.

While I totally expected this from the Blues, and aren’t pissed off by any of the signings (ok, Brian Elliott bothered me initially), none of them are difference makers. None of them’ll give this team that depth or oomph to get over the hump when half of the team goes down with injury.

And we all know that’ll happen, because it always does.

Every single guy Brad mentioned would have helped the team, and wouldn’t’ve been a huge miss. Most of the guys I mentioned in my SBNSTL preview of the forwards are gone. Hell, I even mentioned Marty Reasoner, since he was a big part of the reason FLA’s penalty kill was outstanding last year, along with Mike Weaver. We need face-off help, and Reasoner could provide it. Where’d he wind up? Long Island. Eric Belanger would have been useful. Where does he go? Edmonton.

We didn’t get (not saying didn’t make a play for) the better depth guys who would have actually helped this team. When you have Doug Armstrong focused on a reunion with Jamie Langenbrunner, and THAT could be your big signing of the off-season, there’s an issue. I’d rather have Jason Arnott, because at least while his numbers are falling off due to age he still has heart. Langenbrunner didn’t make road trips with the Devils for a few games last year while he was captain because he was too busy bitching about playing time.

Sure, there are still guys to get, but the Blues have 11 forwards on one-way contracts right now. You can’t tell me they won’t plug those last three available forward spots with AHL guys like Brett Sterling and Ryan Reaves.

I love this team, and they’re doing exactly what I expected them to do, but good lord. Exceeding expectations sure would be swell once in a while.

I'm a big fan of political cartoons. More so when they involve sports. Mr. Gary Finkler's started up his own personal website, 7th Inning Sketch, with some pretty solid stuff up there from all sports - not just baseball. He whipped up this one on the Winnipeg/Atlanta situation, and I think it's pretty accurate.



If he could do something on the backroom deals between the NHL and ASG, that'd be awesome too. I'd be remiss in not saying that I fully expect the next panel of that cartoon to involve some big French Canadian fur-trapper standing over the Coyote. Maybe next season. 

(Also, I'm eagerly awaiting his assessment of Albert.) 

In an olive branch to everyone from Winnipeg, I am now going to mock the state that I live in. See? I'm EQUAL OPPORTUNITY (although I still maintain that I've never made fun of Winnipeg, ever. You must have me lumped in with my editor at SBNATL).

Walton County: Where We Haven't Done Anything, But The Guy We're Named After Did!

In an op-ed from the Walton Tribune (who, NYT alert, have stolen your logo/typeface in an attempt to be "journalistic"), a Mr. Brian Arrington goes on and on about how no one cares that the Thrashers are gone, how he never sees children playing ice hockey around him, and how much better things were when he was growing up in Buffalo.

Ok, I'm not going to pick on him because he's from Buffalo - despite some of my personal experiences here in Philips with drunken Buffalo fans, most of the ones I've talked to on-line have been very supportive of us in what's gone on here. I will, however, mock his county.

I had to Google the county to find it. I (probably because I'm an evil Northern carpetbagger myself, or something) try very, very hard not to leave the metro Atlanta area unless I'm driving to Florida. Why? Two - thirds of the state's population lives in the metro area. South of that all you have are strippers and truckers. North of ATL is beautiful country, but I really don't have a reason to go there. The population of these areas aren't exactly "hockey inclined." Or "basketball inclined." Or "Falcons inclined." They're more or less "UGA football" and "local high school football" inclined. Maybe possibly "Braves inclined," though that tends to be when they're winning. 

Of course no one in Walton County cares that the Thrashers are leaving. They're more concerned with 14 year olds playing football and if Mark Richt is a good coach (he's not) to care. The highlight of the op-ed was this:

Another reason I never thought hockey would last here is because it was an oddity. There are no outside hockey rinks like in the North, where kids of all ages could don skates and imitate Sidney Crosby or Tim Thomas.

Every day before school growing up outside of Buffalo, I used to play hockey with my friends on a frozen pool of ice in a field near our houses. A number of times I came to school with lumps on my head after falling on the ice skating after a frozen tennis ball.

I have never, ever, seen a child playing ice hockey here, or in the street for that matter. If you can’t get kids to like hockey in Atlanta, there really isn’t much potential for fanbase growth, is there?

Hockey's not an oddity in Metro Atlanta. You know, where the people are. Youth hockey has an enrollment of 2000 kids, making it one of the fastest growing in the nation. Hockey has to be played on rinks, because in the winter time it doesn't get cold enough for lakes and ponds to freeze here. At the very least they'll form a thin layer of ice and then some dingus (usually a Northerner, actually) has to go out and be all "Wooo! I'm on ICE!" for two seconds before he falls through. Find a tax base in your county that's half the size of the county seat of mine, and build a damn public skate rink. See what happens. 

Or, better yet, go mention to your Walton County compatriots (who apparently have nothng doing in their own county since most of your paper covers Athens) that UGA has an ice hockey team and they they play Georgia Tech. Watch the tailgaters come out in droves for that one. 

Get ready to look a hell of a lot more pooped, Teej.

Happy NHL Schedule Day, everyone! I (unlike everyone else in the NHL, apparently) am going to ignore when St. Louis plays the Winnipeg NHL (no, really, that's what they're called on the schedule) and look at the actual Blues' schedule. The Blues' site has it posted, with downloadable versions coming shortly. A few things stick out.

1. Only three home games in October. They start off playing Nashville on the 8th, play the Flames on the 10th, and then play the Canes on the 21st. That's it.

2. They play the Blackhawks and Red Wings at home earlier this year than last, but don't go to Chicago until February and Detroit until December. The customary New Year's Eve game against the Red Wings is back, though.

3. December and January seem really heavy on the home games, so I suppose that's a good trade off for October.

4. February seems like a holy nightmare. March is even worse.

5. The longest break the team has between games is five days, over Christmas. After that, the longest break they have is three days. These guys better have some serious staminia. Is it just me, or are most of the games just two days apart?

Finally, why is it that it always seems like the Blues' season gets harder down the stretch? Not whining here, because they're professional athletes who should be able to cope with this, but good God, NHL. We're a team with a bunch of young marketable talent. Wouldn't you like to see the Blues make the playoffs and not promptly get swept? Imagine the money you could make by exposing Oshie and Backes to the entire universe.

Chewing too hard on your mouth guard will do that, Beener.

Wow. This might be the busiest day of activity from the franchise in quite a while. First they sign RFA forward BJ Crombeen to a two year contract extension, worth about a million dollars for this season and a little over such for the next. Beener had seven goals and seven assists with a -18 overall rating last season, but is a solid checking-line and character guy. With the news that sadly Cam "Smash" Janssen will more than likely not return, and young enforcer-to-be Ryan Reaves in Peoria, Crombeen is an extremely important player to re-sign. Crombeen had an impressive seventeen fights last season, all of which are archived on HockeyFights.com for your perusal.

Also, the Blues released the pre-season schedule today. We only have to wait until September 20th to see some hockey!

From the Blues site:

2011 Blues Preseason Schedule (all game times Central)
Tuesday, Sept. 20 vs. Tampa Bay - 7 p.m.
Wednesday, Sept. 21 at Tampa Bay (location TBD) - 7 p.m.
Thursday, Sept. 22 vs. Minnesota - 7 p.m.
Friday, Sept. 23 at Colorado - 7 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 24 at Dallas - 7 p.m.
Tuesday, Sept. 27 at Minnesota - 7 p.m.
Thursday, Sept. 29 vs. Colorado - 7 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 1 vs. Dallas - 1:30 p.m.

The game on the 21st was scheduled to be played in the MTS Centre, but since the Thrashers decided to move. That mean, well... probably the game'll be played in Tampa. 

Even better, the Blues have released that they'll open this season at home against the Nashville Predators. A solid divisional matchup's set to happen on October 8th.

Thank you to the 90% of hockey fans in Winnipeg who have not bashed Atlanta or the sport during these last few months. To the other 10% (who I am convinced are all 15 years old and who don’t even remember the Jets), I’d just like to let you know that your vocal contingency is making an already difficult situation worse. Please try to refrain from gloating too much as the Board of Governors officially gives our team to you. And please, please refrain from telling any of us to "get over it," when we've had exactly 20 days since the announcement and a good many people in Winnipeg have been upset by the loss of the Jets for sixteen years.

Hockey’s the greatest sport in the world. It should grow to markets unexposed to it to give those people a chance to experience this great game. Moving an Atlanta team - a team that if given competent ownership would have a chance to succeed - to Winnipeg does nothing to grow the sport. It contracts it. I’ve always wanted a team back in Winnipeg, but not via relocation. Killing a growing market to satiate another makes no sense in the general NHL business scheme of things.

Of course, to hear the NHL’s statements on any of this, there are no fans in Atlanta. There is no market. This team didn’t sell out of 12,000 season tickets its first year in town. It didn’t pull over 17K a game that year. No, the playoffs weren’t a box office success at all - not being able to hear yourself think inside of an arena is a sign of a dead market, right? There were absolutely no sell-outs here ever. No one ever dared to walk down Centennial Olympic Park Drive chanting “HOSS-A HOSS-A” because of an unreal game that he had. Hockey fans are just a made-up creature here in Atlanta. We’re like the Whos. Except this time Horton can't convince anyone we exist.

Maybe that’s why the league has never directed a statement to us (aside from Bettman's pitiable one sentence). Maybe that’s why they never publicly recognized that the ownership and management killed this team, not lack of fan support - because how do you say something to someone who isn’t there? A fanbase that doesn’t exist doesn’t need a chance - no, doesn’t deserve a chance - to say goodbye.

Remember that, Winnipeg fans. As you got to say goodbye to the Jets in 1996 - as you saw Keith Tkachuk and Shane Doan walk down the tunnel for the last time - that’s not closure that we’ve had. The NHL might’ve treated you poorly back then, but keep in mind that you existed to the League on some level, just like you do now.

Us? Why, we’re just figments of your imagination.

Sure, Vladimir Sobotka could have won the Cup last night with the Boston Bruins had he not been sent to the Blues in a very lopsided deal that basically fleeced the Bruins of one of their best energy guys (an aside: that shows how good the Bruins are - lose three important players like Sobotka, Mark Stuart, and Blake Wheeler, and you're fine). But I think that Vodka is coping just fine. He signed a contract extension with the St. Louis Blues worth $3.9 million over the next three seasons. He started out on the fourth line, but by the end of the year was an assist-machine for Patrik Berglund. Injuries and everything else that went wrong with the team last year gave him a chance to show what he was capable of, and he seized upon that chance admirably.

Said Blues general manager Doug Armstrong:

"It's like dressing two players on a lot of nights. He can play left wing on your top line, be an anchor on your bottom two (lines), power play, kill penalties ... he's real versatile. You need two or three guys like that on a roster. I also think at his age, he's defined himself and we know what he's going to do now. He'll be able to provide more offense as he matures. But the type of player he is, he exemplifies what we want to be on the ice as competitors."

I can imagine the intimidation factor involved in this:

John Davidson apparently doesn't listen to my suggestions well. I tossed out Matt D'Agostini as the next free agent that the Blues should look into signing... he signs Chris Porter to a one year, two way contract. Porter wound up playing 45 games with St. Louis despite being an AHL caliber forward. He scored three goals and four assists in those 45 games, but his being called up was necessary considering that half of the team last season was horribly, terribly injured in some way or another.

Porter was set to test the UFA waters on July first, but I'm fairly sure that the realization that a bidding war wouldn't occur made the Blues' offer that much more desirable. Cam Janssen is also set to be an UFA on July 1st, but no news has leaked about those intense negotiations.