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St. Louis Blues Preview
By Bethany | October 8, 2007
No, you read that right I’m doing the St. Louis Blues preview. The Blues are looking for a playoff appearance this year. They added free agent Paul Kariya and Erik Johnson has decided to quit college to come into the NHL. When Andy Murray took over last season the Blues went 28-17-9. Murray has this team going strong.
GOALTENDING
The number one goaltender for the St. Louis Blues is Manny Legace. Last season Manny played in 45 games before going down with a knee injury…however he did make an impression by winning 23 of those games. He had a 2.59 goals against average and five shutouts. This is Manny’s second season with the St. Louis Blue’s. His backups are Hannu Toivonen and Jason Bacashihua. Hannu Toivonen was acquired from the Boston Bruins this summer and last year played in 18 games and won only 3 of those games with a 4.23 GAA and a .875 save percentage. Bacashihua, played in 19 games last season with the Blues and had a 3.15 GAA. This is probably one of the weaker points for the Blues. TSN has Legace’s career potential as a number 2 goaltender. And, as much as I do like Legace it’s going to be a rough season for him.
DEFENSE
Erik Johnson is finally making his debut for the Notes and from what I’ve seen so far this season he is playing really well. With his 2 games played he has a goal and an assist. Not too bad for the rookie. Eric Brewer and Barrett Jackman are the blueline veteran. Brewer led all of the Blues with time on ice. Jay McKee is coming off a season where he was injured for most of it. Christian Backman is a great defenseman with not a lot of up side but is very sound defensively. The Blues are pretty good on defense.
FORWARDS
The Blues made a HUGE signing this summer by adding Paul Kariya. They also have Keith Tkachuk who was traded away at the deadline and then came back to St. Louis he is expected to play at centre between Kariya and Lee Stempniak who had a career season with 27 goals and 52 points. Dougie Weight will centre Brad Boyes and Martin Rucinsky. According to Aaron Portzline, Weight is looking slow and old. Take that however you want but…he is getting old and has been through A LOT.
You’ll have to forgive me on this preview I am in a bit of a hurry and not all that familiar with the Blue Notes…if you have anything to add please feel free to leave a comment 
Topics: St. Louis Blues, Central Division Preview, Central Division |
October 9th, 2007 at 4:59 pm
I watched the Kings/Blues game the other night for a minute and the Blues look alot better than I thought they would. Andy Murray will get that team rolling just like Hitch is getting the Jackets going. Erik Johnson is exciting to watch, and Toivenen will probably become an amazing goalie considering the Bruins traded him and he was a first round pick. The fact that Kariya went to them in the off season instead of… say the Blue Jackets…. really angers me. John Davidson is going to make that team competitive. Maybe even this year.
October 9th, 2007 at 8:32 pm
[…] Bethany’s Hockey Rants - Though she’s a CBJ fan at heart, Bethany takes one for the Central Division team and dishes the scoop on the St. Louis Blues. […]
October 10th, 2007 at 1:51 pm
[…] St. Louis Blues preview is up for the Central Division Preview. You can check it out here. I’ll give my thoughts after the Calgary game […]