I understand totally why the NHL chose to not have a host for the 2012 NHL Awards. Why concentrate all of the terrible jokes and awkward pauses on just one person when you can make several people unfunny instead? 

In all honesty they need a host. While watching the red carpet show yesterday, I noticed how the lead singer of Nickelback, Chad Kroeger, has started to look remarkably like former Kids in the Hall cast member Scott Thompson. Witness:

 

It's almost like they're the same person (except one of them is talented)! I'm not the only one who saw it. After I tweeted my suggestion yesterday, George Malik, who is the Detroit Red Wings blogger for Kukla's Korner, agreed with me:

I stand by my suggestion to @hildymac regarding a Nickelback singer's resemblance to Scott Thompson sans moustache. SCOTT THOMPSON.

— George Malik (@georgemalik) June 20, 2012

Red Wings and Blues bloggers agreeing on something? End times. Bank on it. It's hard not to agree with such an awesome idea, though. Just take Chalet 2000, add Canadian guys in suits who look like they want to go home, and then toss in Queen Elizabeth II. Stir, and pour into one of Buddy's martini glasses.

My God, a funny Canadian who knows hockey hosting (and, God willing, writing) the NHL awards? I'd tune in even if the Blues weren't up for anything. 

Tomorrow night brings us the 2012 NHL Awards, which are commonly referred to as the most awkward professional sports awards show in existence. Nickelback? Oh, goodie. And two performances, you say? 

Sign me up. 

Seriously, though, despite the sad fact that Jon Hamm will not be a presenter, there are plenty of Blues ties to go around. For the first time since Andy Murray was nominated for the Jack Adams in 2009, the Blues will have some hefty representation up there. Ken Hitchcock is up for coach of the year for turning around a sub-.500 team, winning them the Central Division, nearly winning them the Presidents' Trophy, and getting them to the second round of the playoffs. Doug Armstrong is nominated for GM of the Year for putting together a team that could do all of that. And finally, Captain David Backes is nominated for the Selke as best defensive offenseman... and according to some folks might stand a chance of beating perrennial favorite Pavel Datsyuk.

If I were into sports betting, I'd plunk down some cash on Backes winning. Of course, my luck isn't nearly as good as I'd like for it to be, but hey. There're odds for everything, and the awards *are* in Vegas, after all. I'm not going to tell you who to bet on, but I will say that both Hitchcock and Armstrong's odds of winning are just as good as anyone else's. Both Ottawa coach Paul MacLean and New York Rangers coach John Torterella did amazing things with their teams -- no one expected the Rangers to win the Presidents' Trophy and no one expected the Senators to even make the playoffs. There's just something about Hitch, though, that makes me feel like he'll walk off with the trophy. The night and day difference of the team without then with him is too glaring to ignore. It just strikes me as more obvious than the other two coaches that Hitchcock had a direct hand in how they played.

There's probably no player on the Blues who causes the kind of emotions Barret Jackman does among the fanbase. You either love the guy and his work ethic and understand the role that he plays on the team, or you hate him and want to see him strapped onto a rocket flying at the sun. There's nearly no happy medium, which is comical considering that he's just a shut-down defenseman. A good one, one that was a +20 rating last season (albeit he and Kevin Shattenkirk misfired something terrible in the playoffs for some reason), and one that's been with the team his entire career. You want a player that bleeds Blue? Look no further.

Jackman re-signed today for three seasons for a $9.5 million deal, causing a good chunk of excitement on my Twitter feed, followed by tweets of people who hate Sir Jaxx. The hatred is understandable for fans of other teams -- Jackman is a very frustrating, physical player to play against who purposefully eggs on the other team. That's his job. The Blues' fans hatred of him comes from a total misunderstanding of his role. He's not Alex Pietrangelo. He's not Kevin Shattenkirk. He exists so guys like that can be the offensive players that they are. He holds down the fort. It's rare for a pre-lockout defenseman to have made the transition to the new non-clutch and grab era of hockey so well, but Jackman did just that. 

Look at it this way: either the Blues re-signed Jackman at a reasonable amount, or they go out and overspend on a clutch shut-down defenseman who is a good leader on and off of the ice. They made the smart move. Keep the guy who knows the team and the system. 

I pay somewhere exactly between little to no attention to trade rumor websites, especially ones that I've never heard of. A site like My NHL Trade Rumors is the perfect thing for me to ignore, but when a link arrives in my inbox care of Google Alerts, I have to click on it. Said link led me to some trade rumors... top five trades to happen before the NHL draft, to be exact. I noticed the name "Bruce Garrioch," who some of you might know as "Malkin to the Kings." Then I noticed the Blues... so eh, why not. I clicked. This is what I was treated to:

Several teams would like to make a pitch for Staal — including the Buffalo Sabres and St. Louis Blues. The Sabres want to get bigger in the middle, which is why Derek Roy has been made available.

 

Ok, then. Hey, I'm not complaining if the Blues want Staal as long as they don't give up anyone core in return. I thought for a second about this situation... this exact same thing came up in 2010... on my copy of NHL 11 in Be a GM Mode. The Penguins offered me, the GM of the Blues, Staal for a couple of draft picks and -- no kidding -- B.J. Crombeen. I love video games. But anyway, out of all of the trades I made on that game, this one was the greatest. Plunk Staal between David Perron and David Backes, and what do you get? 60+ goal and 120+ point seasons for all three! Three Stanley Cups in a row! Staal winning the Lady Byng, Art Ross, Ted Lindsey, Rocket Richard, and the Conn Smythe.

All that I have to say is that if Bruce Garrioch is going to base his trade proposals around a video game, he could do a hell of a lot worse than this.

This is totally do-able, right Doug?  I kid, I kid. It's not.

After the Kings poured in three goals on a five-minute power play in the first period of Game 6 to effectively clinch the Cup, I could only think about one thing: this didn't have to happen. The five-minute boarding major was called, as everyone knows, on Steve Bernier. What everyone might not know or remember: Bernier was nearly a St. Louis Blue.

In July 2008, the Vancouver Canucks made a move on the Blues' restricted free agent and future Inglourious Captain, David Backes, signing him to an offer sheet worth $2.5 million a season. The Blues, obviously, quickly matched that and retained Backes, but John Davidson and then-GM Larry Pleau were just a little peeved at the Canucks for the maneuver.

So they retaliated by signing RFA Bernier to a $2.5 million offer sheet. Bernier hadn't even played a game for the Canucks yet, his rights having just been acquired for draft picks. But the Blues' fuck-you move forced them to vastly overpay Bernier, at least for the one season (evidence of the vast overpayment: four years later, Bernier is making the league minimum, and on the AHL shuttle). 

But what if they hadn't matched? The Blues would have had Bernier for the 2008-09 season at least. And, given the organization's strong proclivity for retaining and attempting to the greatest extent possible to develop young talent (Exhibit A: sticking with Patrik Berglund), it's not inconceivable that Bernier would have played a few more seasons in St. Louis--he is, after all, still only 27 years old, and had shown some promise in his early 20s with the Sharks (he also put up good numbers in the QMJHL, but everyone puts up good numbers in the Q). In all likelihood, he wouldn't have been with the Devils this season, and wouldn't have been in a position to commit a dumb penalty, which his teammates promptly followed up with a horrific penalty kill.

It's the Butterfly Effect, on ice. 

Congrats to the Kings, who just won the 2012 Stanley Cup. Special congrats to The Royal Half, who's been waiting for this for a veeeery long time. In case you're wondering why a Blues fan is congratulating fans of the only other team that was part of the 1967 expansion who hadn't won a cup until today, well, it's because a team like the Kings winning gives St. Louis fans some hope. Anyone can win this thing if they work their asses off, and the Kings are a great example of that. Unsure if they're going to make the playoffs, squeak in as an 8th seed, and then blow through the competition to win the Cup. It's doable. Numbers mean nothing, the standings mean nothing... nothing means anything unless winning one game at a time in the Stanley Cup Finals.

I'm looking forward to summer and everything it brings with it (including hopefully a re-worked CBA and a lack of a lockout), but this was a good way to end this season. Frankly, either team winning it would have been fine with me -- I had a dog or three in the race with Kovy, Moose, and Boults, obviously -- but this was a nice wrap-up to 2011-2012. Here's looking forward to opening day.

Drop that puck. 

Ilya Kovalchuk didn't leave the Thrashers on the greatest terms back in February of 2010. It was a forgone conclusion that he was gone, and it frustrated fans of the Thrashers because of his platitudes all season long. He talked the talk of wanting to stay here, and then poof. Off to New Jersey. Lots of fans, myself included, were unhappy, especially when word leaked out of how much he was offered. His contract would have made him the highest paid player in the league, a rare move by an ownership group too tone deaf to understand the importance of any highly paid player aside from Joe Johnson. Finally, they were offering someone useful money, and Kovalchuk decided to do "what was best for his family" and walk.

What fans didn't know at the time was that Kovy actually probably did want to stay, but it's hard to sign a ten year deal with a team that might not be there in two. And lo, the ownership group that delivered on exactly jack Zhit(nik), not only lost Kovalchuk, they lost Atlanta fans their team. There's a good reason to be upset at them, but whatever hard feelings fans had for Kovy's gone.

I noticed the thaw at the start of this season. Everyone got the grumbling of 2010 out of their system, and everyone got the Nelson Muntz "haw haw" out of their systems the following full season after Kovy's statistical numbers didn't match his contract dollars. Now? Well, let's just say that Thrashers fans now that we don't have a team have re-adopted IlyaKovalchuk. Sure, it helps a lot that Eric Boulton and beloved goaltender Johan Hedberg are also playing for the Stanley Cup, but I've noticed an increased amount of love for Kovalchuk. At the relocation anniversary not-a-party last Saturday, folks came in Devils gear and it was a near unanimous cheer when the NBC cameras showed Kovalchuk coming onto the ice for warmups -- loud enough that half of Taco Mac cut our party room a really odd glance. 

So, what gives? Why the love for Kovy? Wouldn't you think that fans might be troubled by that one last stab in the gut the season after losing their hockey team: seeing three former players with their name on the Stanley Cup? I can see where that conclusion might be jumped to. Heck, there's been enough this year to frustrate and confound Thrashers fans past the relocation... why not cheer on someone who brought a hell of a lot of good times to Philips Arena? You have to cling to something.

Kovalchuk's chance at the Stanley Cup this year might be over with tonight, or it might live to see another game. Regardless of if Kovy gets his name on it this year or in ten, Thrashers fans are behind him. This has been one unexpected positive that we've been able to cling to this year. We take them where we can get them.

I already wrote some reflections of how I felt, and still feel about the loss of the Thrashers over on Arctic Ice Hockey. It's a better post than what this one will be, probably because I wrote it at 1:00 in the AM and I was all "inspired." Today I'm just sad. I'm not declaring a Twitter moratorium so I don't have to see Jets fans celebrate -- they deserve to. I'm not going to wallow in self-pity here, either. It sucks to lose a team, no pity about it. I don't believe in pity when you know the explicit reasons for relocation, and the reasons are fairly obvious here. Terrible owners, lack of attendance, lack of giving a rip by the NHL... there. Relocation in a nutshell.

We can cry about how it "should" have been another team going. We can get upset at Winnipeg fans enjoying our old team. We can hate on Canadian media that never even noticed the squad before last May, but who now think that they're the greatest thing since sliced bread. None of that is bringing the Thrashers back to us. Nothing is.

Resignation is a great thing. It allows you to come to terms with the circumstances of the past and cope with whatever the future throws at you. It also gives you some perspective on the good times and not so good times had while the team was in town. Constant frustration, losing top players, terrible ownership, no playoff wins and just one trip. That's the Thrashers. But the other side of the coin? Having a great (but small) fanbase, making friends who share a common bond of watching futile hockey but still loving it... there were some good things, too. I'm thankful for having the chance to watch some of the greatest players ever to play the sport come through Atlanta. I'm thankful for being able to drive 30 minutes and pay $1000 a season to watch NHL hockey. I'm thankful for the friends that I made, the folks that have read my stuff, and the other bloggers I have met on-line. 



I miss the team, and it's bittersweet to watch them play now. They're not my second-favorite hockey club anymore, and that's fine. That's really how it should be. More time to focus 110% on the Blues is always appreciated, especially with how they have been growing in the past five years or so. But what's also appreciated? The fact that the Thrashers existed to begin with. Sure, it was evident that the ownership group and the league had no concept of what it would take for the team to be successful, but the fans did. Does it help knowing that you're right in the end when there's nothing left to be right about? Probably not, but it's appreciated when people are realizing that you were spot on... even if it did take a year. 

Ned Kuflan of the Detroit News has an interesting proposition for fans of the Red Wings: if you can't get star defenseman Ryan Suter during the free agent frenzy, Barret Jackman'd do in a pinch.  Are Suter and Jackman comparable? Absolutely not - they have different roles on their respective teams and perform those well. Booming point shot? Suter. Rough and tumble old school shutdown? Jackman. It's an interesting theory, but probably one that most Blues fans would prefer to not see happen.

Come July 1st, Jackman is an unrestricted free agent if he is not re-signed by the Blues. Jaxx has stated that he would like to stay with the team that drafted him. Heck, he even told Andy Strickland that it wasn't about money, noting that "you could make more money elsewhere and still be unhappy." It's rare that you hear a pending free agent say that, although in St. Louis it seems to happen more often than fans like. The difference between Albert Pujols and Barret Jackman is that Jaxx probably actually means it.

He was disappointing in the playoffs, giving the "OMG BARRET JACKMAN IS TEH SUCKS!" crowd something to crow about. But during the regular season, there's no one better suited to give the opponent a face wash or to block a shot. He's loyal to the team, he's veteran leadership on a team that might not be bringing Jamie Langenbrunner and Jason Arnott back, and who else will the Blues' rely on to tell opponents they're a dumbass without saying a word?

Sure, fans'd be concerned about him joining so many other Blues who left St. Louis and then won a Cup with Detroit. But if I were them, I'd be more concerned about losing a guy that we'd just have to turn around and replace with the same type of player, but in a cheaper model.

St. Louis Blues hockey great Brett Hull is going to be a member of Tom Stillman's front office somehow. Doing what, we're not really sure, but he'll be working for the franchise that most hockey fans remember him playing for. Yeah, yeah, Cups in Dallas and Detroit, but individual records were set while a member of the Blues. Heck, the Scottrade Center's even on Brett Hull Way! How much more of a confirmation do you need that he belongs in St. Louis?

Well, he's here. And he'll be doing...something. No, he won't be the co-GM as he was in Dallas. We'd rather not have Sean Avery here, thank you very much. But what's he going to be doing? If you have a suggestion, shoot it out on Twitter at the hashtag #jobsforbrett, or send me a tweet at @hildymac. I'll add them here after the jump. Have fun!