That Was Fun AKA God, I Hope They Don' t Play Like That During The Regular Season

Another Steph sighting 9-21-05 19:00 CST, St. Louis, MO; She attended the Blues first preseason game with me last night. Except for the fact that she kept hitting me and yelling, "YAY, HOCKEY'S BACK!" it was great fun. However, her dreaded nemesis, the cotton-candy man made several appearances and a few attempts to ruin her night.

My team fell to the Nashville Predators 4-3 in regulation and took the exhibition shootout 3-2. I had never attended a preseason game before and will have to make a point to see more in the future. We moved from our seats(thanks Big Joe) in the second to top row of the arena near on end, down to the middle of that end on the bottom bowl of the arena, about 15-20 rows from the ice. Nothing like good, free seats.

I know it is just preseason and this was the first real game that they have played but, damn, the Blues looked bad. They couldn't pass, they rarely got a good, clean shot on net(two of our goals were scored from behind or beside the net on deflections off the Nashville goalie and a defenceman), and they were playing a lot of hockey in the defensive zone. I was not impressed by either goalie that we kept, although, I expect Patrick Lalime to step it up before too long. But, there is a reason Reinhard Divis has been a backup/farmhand for the last 4-5 years, I think the management should have taken a better look at one of the younger guys. I was impressed by the play of Jay MacClement and Andy Roach, they both seemed to handle the puck without hurrying and skated well. I think if we can get Keith Tkachuk back in shape and out there, our defense should be steady and if Lalime returns to pre-lockout form, we may have a pretty good team.

Two weeks and counting to the home opener against Detroit. This will be my first time attending a game against the anti-christ of hockey teams, hopefully this is the year we can beat them regularly.