Travelling Riverside Blues: No More Season Ticket

By Scott We Go













These pics were inspired by St. Louie's best: The Checkerdome, 42, Bradford, beer and multi-ethnic females, acid wash jeans, and vintage Blues.

I must admit, I've been such a die hard Blues fan since childhood, it's hard for me to see the NHL in any other color besides blue. My dad brought me to Blues games at the old Barn starting at age 2 and we had season tickets until a 4 year hiatus (replaced with heavy drinking at U of Illinois - Illini hockey? .... meh, not so much). Some of my most vivid memories of childhood are being at Blues games with Dad, smashing peanut shells with our boots, mullets and mustaches everywhere, acid wash jeans, giving high fives to the players as they came back to the locker-room, getting pucks from Bernie Federko, Bobby Bassen, Hullie, Oates, Garth Butcher and CuJo among many others; the towel guy, the fog horn, going nuts for a Hull from Oates goal against the Winnipeg Jets and realizing, as we're going nuts, Hullie has just put another one in before the first one was even announced!

This year is a bittersweet one for my Blues and I. Since I got back from school, I've had 6th row goal-line seats on the Blues-shoot-twice-end with my best friend, Dustin.

HIGHLIGHTS: Dustin winning one Halloween costume contest (as Richard Simmons) and coming in 2nd by a hair (as Pauly Shore) to an old lady dressed like a beer pong table, meeting the Blues Chick while winning the Clarkson Eyecare contest for a T.J. Oshie autographed stick (nice!), our playoff run two seasons ago, the Perron goal, the Oshie goal, almost catching the Towel Guy's towel .... so many more. The bittersweet part comes from the fact that Dustin now has twins due on November 27th, which also means that $ is not leaving his pockets right now unless it has to do with diapers, baby food, or breast milk pumps. I tried to convince my girlfriend to join me, but to no avail. And also, I see it as a result of the U.S. economy, that no one else was willing to make the financial commitment. Although I was tempted to be "that guy" that goes it alone, I couldn't bring myself to cough up a small fortune for many nights of lonely drives home. It's also bittersweet because I'm so excited about this year's squad with the addition of the Halak-ness Monster and the other boys having grown up a bit.

So, I can't watch every game from the edge of my seat, but my best friend does have healthy twins on the way. I'll miss getting there on time (ya, right!), the first Budweiser of the night, the terrible introductory video, the between-period entertainment, the towel guy ("that guy" alone at every game .... I know this because we followed him to his car one night .... CREEPY, I know), not knowing anyone around us even though we had season tix (I think we were in the corporate section, new people every night), yelling out each player's nickname way too loudly and too many times throughout the game, screaming at Jackman about how much I hate him, and Cam kicking ass (Dustin coined the phrase, "He just Cammed all over your face, bitch!" © 2008).

Oh well, I guess I'll be hitting up Stub Hub a few times this year and watching too much TV. In conclusion, I wasn't sure what this post was going to be about, but I had to get that off my chest.

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Carnac the Guru: The Modern-Day Cinderella Men

By Hockey Guru


Outscored 9-0 in two games – down two games to zero – the “Cinderella story” Montreal Canadiens return home for Game 3.

“A team is never in trouble [in a series] until they lose a game on home ice.”

Assuming that cliché rings true, it is surely being tested in this series. Needing to win four of the next five games is no small task whatsoever for Montreal, and that fact has created a line-up to jump off the bandwagon.

As the Guru was one of the last ones on, he was one of the first ones off, as demonstrated by his change of prediction after Game 1.

If the series is to end in 5 games, Montreal would have to win one of them, and if they can win one, they can win four.

The Guru continues to shake his crystal ball, hoping for greater clarity. Will this actually become a sweep or will Montreal prevail in 6?

Tonight will prove one of those is not a possibility, and the Guru is standing by his predictions from Tuesday.

Or as they are fast becoming known, Guru's Two-4-Tuesday predictions. The near perfect predictions from Tuesday still have the hockey world all abuzz. The Guru's prognostications have led to increased traffic to the Sports Talk Pool blog, reaching record levels of readership in anticipation of the latest installment of Carnac the Guru, and nearly causing a crash to the server!

With the NHL schedule switching up to alternating nights for each Conference, the Guru must put all his eggs into one basket tonight - or more fittingly, all his pucks into one net. And it is extremely difficult to put a single puck into the net - just ask the Montreal Canadiens. After being shut-out so far in the series, the Canadiens are on a mission to find some answers to Michael Leighton and the Flyers' defence.

Rather than employ the same coaching strategies as Claude Julien from last year's playoffs - calling out players and giving them the day off - Jacques Martin spent considerable time constructing and explaining an offensive game plan, including new powerplay approaches, with his players.

That new game plan will surely include similar plans that both Pittsburgh and Washington attempted against Montreal - throw everything at the net. Shoot, shoot, shoot - from everywhere - bad angles, behind the net, the corner - then crash hard to the net. Hope for a bounce, a rebound. Pray for a goal.

That approach back-fired for Pittsburgh and Washington and will back-fire on Montreal. This year in the playoffs - the formula for beating Montreal is DO NOT PUT MORE THAN 35 SHOTS ON HALAK. More importantly, do not out-shoot Montreal. When being out-shot, Montreal is 8-3. When Montreal out-shoots its opponent, however, they are 0-5.

The crystal ball shows Montreal putting together a great effort tonight, out-playing Philadelphia for stretches, definitely out-shooting and out-chancing the Flyers, but not out-scoring them. As the Canadiens pour on the pressure, the Flyers will generate some opportunities on the counter-attack and be opportunistic enough to prevail 3-1 in Game 3.

The Flyers match up very well with Montreal (or conversely, the Canadiens don't match up well with Philly) and to expect a different result tonight doesn't compute according to the Hockey Guru and his enormous crystal ball.

Bonus prediction: Jeff Carter returns to the Flyers tonight.

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