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… in the East. In the West, St. Louis is still on the outside looking in, plugged in at 13th and five points back. I’ve touched on the differences between Eastern and Western hockey before over on St. Louis Game Time, and another year of “Gosh, if only the Blues were over there” with the standings highlights my often held opinion – the West is just better. Why? Physicality.
Physicality is something that the Blues have, but haven’t been using too much of recently. Cam Janssen was a healthy scratch again last night in the Blues’ 3-2 OTL to the Blue Jackets. Frankly, I (and a good number of Blues fans) are of the opinion that the li’l sparkplug needs to be on the ice for every homegame – but now we’re going to have to alternate between sparkplugs. Glass Joe DJ King is back. Interestingly enough, using some wonky algorithm, he’s the #3 fighter in the league – when he can not break his hand after 8 seconds.
Is DJ King returning adding an important piece without a trade, shades of Kariya and Brewer returning? No. Frankly, those guys returning from injury were not the saving move that everyone thought they were going to be heading into this season. Brewer has managed to be on the ice seemingly for every goal scored, and Kariya’s 10 goals (feel the rush!) have all been away from the Scottrade Center. Luckily for the Blues, Kariya is a UFA this season, and they can shed some salary at the trade deadline. Unluckily, who wants someone as a rental who has scored that little, and who is a minor injury risk due to past owies and just pure age, is not going to garner the Blues that much. We’ve spent $6 million for ten goals and probably a few mid-round picks. I realize we had to overpay to get him to come here, but it just looks like a worse and worse deal every day, regardless of if he was a big splash move by a struggling franchise.
Brad over at Game Time has some in-depth looks at the possible trade deadline casualties, so I’m not going to re-hash them here. As to whether the Blues look to be buyers are sellers, that’s a matter of opinion. Would unloading bloated contracts for picks we will probably use and use well count as selling? Not to me, particularly. Would dumping Mason for a 5th round pick or something count? Yes, but that’s not going to happen (unless we work something for a starter like Biron or Lehtonen, which I’m pretty sure won’t happen – and neither of which I would want.
No, I don’t want Kari – as a Thrashers fan, my opinion of him being such a wonderful talent has been tarnished. The Blues already have ‘Splodeybones. We don’t need ‘Splodeygroin, too.
Some Other Articles That You May Enjoy:
Wild Still Kicking…Barely
Blues Make Meatballs out of Swedish Elite Team
Canucks off to a strong start, but it’s off to St. Louis
St Louis Blues
Blues are pushing for a turn-around.
Why Teams Have Reason to Fear the Blues (Eventually)
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