SB Nation - St. Louis Blues

Tampa Bay Lightning Game 34: at the Detroit Red Wings

Cassie McClellan — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:01:46 -0000

about 13 hours ago: Detroit Red Wings Drew Miller, right, flies through the air while scoring a goal on Tampa Bay Lightning goalie Mike Smith, below, in the first period of an NHL hockey game in Detroit, Thursday, Dec. 17, 2009. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

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The Tampa Bay Lightning lost to the Detroit Red Wings 3-0.

This game was very much within reach for the Lightning. Detroit was decimated by injuries and weren’t playing that well. The score stayed 1-0 up until over six and a half minutes into the third period.

But they didn’t. They were unable to put together a sustained effort that would’ve led them into tying things up and perhaps winning this game. Oh, at times they looked good. They had a couple of very good power plays, despite nothing coming from them. But they couldn’t finish.

In fact, the second goal broke them. I realize that they’re in the middle of a losing streak, having lost 10 of their last 11 games, and this game being their sixth loss in a row. But we’ve seen this team come back to at least tie things up when they were four goals down. And they buckle after being down by only two? That should tell you everything you need to know about their confidence right there.

One of the few bright spots were penalties. Detroit is one of the least penalized teams in the NHL, while the Lightning are one of the most. For one night, however, they were able to limit the Wings to only two power play chances, which they didn’t convert on. The downside is that the Lightning had five power plays and were unable to convert on any of theirs as well.

Their next game is tonight at 8 pm Eastern at the St. Louis Blues.

Lightning vs Red Wings coverage [SB Nation]

Winging It In Motown [SB Nation Detroit Red Wings site]

Lightning vs Red Wings recap [TSN]

Lightning vs Red Wings boxscore [TSN]

Friday links: T.J. Oshie superstar edition

averagejoe — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 11:00:21 -0000

Friday!

Blue news

Blues vs. Tampa tonight. Can St. Louis beat the Lightning? Let's hope so. [CBS Sports]
I hate question mark headlines, but this one does raise a point. When do the struggling vets get the Matt Walker tour of arena press boxes? [St. Louis Post-Dispatch]
T.J. Oshie claims he doesn't think he's a star. Good, because he isn't. A star has more than 20 career goals. [Belleville News-Democrat]
One thing learned in this Jeremy Rutherford chat: he expects a trade before Murray gets the boot. [STLtoday]

Hockey news

Last night's results. [Yahoo! Sports]
Blues and five others are playing tonight. [Yahoo! Sports]
Canada is unhappy about not getting a Winter Classic yet. At least this guy is. [Toronto Sun]
A look at the 10-worst deals of the aughts. Shockingly, no Chris Pronger for Eric Brewer, Doug Lynch and Jeff Woywitka. [Puck Daddy]
Henrik Zetterberg suffered an upper-body injury last night. [ESPN]
Luke Schenn (sophomore slum) and Jonas Gustavsson (heart) are expected back for the Leafs on Friday. [TSN]

David Kock and Jarkko Ruutu received fines. [TSN]

Other links

This is extremely complicated, but cool nonetheless: The beerodic table. [Pic]
More year-end countdown stuff: The top 15 local news stories of the year. [Buzzfeed]
I've never written on a stall wall, but I've often thought about it. As a lefty, I'm usually pretty close to the wall and as a journo, I always have a pen in my pocket. Anyway, these people aren't like me and write on walls. [OMG Staff Wall]
I don't have many rules, but if you submit to this Web site, we can't be friends. [Rate My Pecs]

Video

Look, the video well has dried up. After doing this for like 10ish months, I'm about tapped out. So today, you're getting Muppets.

Lisa Simpson: Dad, what's a Muppet?

Homer Simpson: Well, it's not quite a mop, and it's not quite a puppet, but maaaan! (laughs) So to answer your question, I don't know.

Poor College Student has the weekend shift. I'll be in Kansas City helping a friend move. Go BLUES!

Run Run Rudolph, Santa's Gotta Make It To Whirlaway

SamFels — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 20:10:01 -0000

Another holiday, another big road game for the Hawks, which means it must be time for the Three Amigos to host a road watch. So, we invite you on Dec. 23rd to join Killion, McClure, and myself at Whirlaway (Fullerton at Kedzie) for the Dec. 23rd tilt against Scum. It's at 6:30, so just head straight from the office and avoid even more time with your family. Just look for a tall doofus with the shit-eating grin, the Irish-looking motherfucker in the Toews jersey, and the bald, Scott Ian-looking moron with the look of desperation in his eyes.

Few thoughts from last night:

-Brian Campbell had his best game of the season last night, and it wasn't just the goal. He was flying into the Blues' zone, and was pretty damn fair in his own end. Andy Murray was quoted after the game as saying the difference between this year's Hawks and last year's in 51 Phantom is playing well. That's definitely part of it, as the Hawks have a d-man capable of quick transition for at least 40 minutes a game (combined with Keith). Though his numbers don't look all that impressive (due to inexplicably having his PP time cut), Hjalmarsson has brought the best out of Soupy. The best play of the night didn't result in a goal, but Campbell's rush up the left boards and blind pass to Hossa, who then faked Conklin out of his gord but contrived to not score, was a treat to watch. Two sublimely talented players displaying it to the hilt.

-The encouraging thing about Troy Brouwer's goal was the way he drifted into a scoring area by stopping to lose his check. That displays instincts that we know Troy has always had, something that would be awesome to pass to Buff.

-That said, since Buff has been skating with Madden, he's been a presence, and a very physical one at that. Whether he scores or not, as long as this continues, I won't complain.

- The Blues are a mess. They didn't put forth any sort of energy until down three, and I can only imagine a fear of embarrassment was the main factor. The only two players I noticed all night were David Perron and Erik Johnson.

I think that's it for now.

Scumbag Blues - Hawks 3, Blues 0

McClure — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:31:36 -0000

More photos » by Paul Beaty - AP

That's what you get for switching from Graf skates, McDonald.

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Wanna hear one of my favorite jokes, as originally told to me by a college roommate?

"What would you call Chicago if it sucked?"

"St. Louis."

That pretty much sums up my sentiment regarding the Hawks' division rivals after watching last night's game. The Hawks were all over the Blues from the get-go. Troy Brouwer finally dented the twine after one-timing a pass off of a cycle from Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane from the top of the left circle. Shortly thereafter Brian Campbell scored his first goal on North American soil on the power play, blasting a slapshot far-side past St. Louis goaltender Ty Conklin.

Even though during the second period the Blues mounted at least a half-assed attempt to get back into the game forcing Cristobal Huet to make some timely saves, the Hawks managed to extend the lead fresh after killing a penalty when the Unholy Alliance that is Kane-Toews-Hossa got thrown out there once the penalty had been killed. Hossa broke into the zone, and once again a low cycle ensued which somehow left Hossa alone between the hash marks to receive a pass from Toews which he buried.

From there on out, things got quite chippy, as cuntrags Barrett Jackman, BJ Crombeen, and Cam Janssens decided it was time to exact their pound of flesh since they clearly couldn't skate with the Hawks. Credit the Hawks for standing up for one another, as once again Kris Versteeg took on a much larger opponent in Jackman during one of the many extended sessions of slap-dick in the third. While it may earn him much respect in the dressing room, personally, I'd rather not have VERSTEEG!'s skillful hands be pounded to cinders on someone's face, or have his own face re-arranged should he be taking on anyone other than Kyle Turris. Cristobal Huet even nearly got into the act, as he skated out to the blue line and subtly motioned to Ty Conklin during a 5-on-5 dogpile that was the result of Janssens getting in Huet's grill. While I don't need fights to enjoy a game, a goalie battle would have certainly endeared Huet to the fans, and it would be one more thing I could check off my list of things I've seen live. Oh yeah, Hawks win again in shutout fashion.

Observations

In spite of Campbell's goal, the power play is still fucking clown shoes.
Kerry Fraser = Hockey Hochuli
Hossa's backchecking has to be seen live to be believed. One cannot fathom the distance on the ice he covers in such short order to retrieve the puck from his own zone.
Did I mention that Barret Jackman is a fuckhole?

Player of the Game

With the tinted visor he becomes Darth Kaner, harnessing the power of the Dark Side to the tune of three assists.

Lightning look to rebound while visiting Motown; Bolts at Red Wings preview

John Fontana — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:28:40 -0000

More photos » by Mike Carlson - AP

Alex Tanguay feels singled-out after his healthy scratch earlier this week. (AP Photo/Mike Carlson)

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WHERE: Joe Louis Arena, Detroit, Michigan
WHEN: 7:30 PM EST
MEDIA: Sun Sports (cable), 620 WDAE (radio)

Alex Tanguay feels singled out after his benching on Tuesday:

"I'm working as hard as I can, and I'm watching games, too," Tanguay said. "I made mistakes, but I think out of the un-success we've had the last 10 games, I must not be the only one … and I'm the one who ends up paying the price. I don't think that's 100 percent fair."
For the record, Jeff Halpern was also benched... So Tanguay wasn't singled out. Made an example of? Now that's a different story, and the team didn't exactly respond.
Vincent Lecavalier hopes he's turned the corner after his three-point performance in Nashville.

"I'm hoping it's going to build," he said Wednesday. "I've been feeling better as the year has gone on. Scoring chances have definitely been there, so, yeah, I'm hoping to keep going."
...now just when are they going to get on Martin St. Louis' back as much as they've gotten on Lecavalier and Tanguay for lack-of-production? I say that because of the hypocrisy, not because of dislike for St. Louis.
Victor Hedman took a Kurtis Foster slap shot off his foot during practice yesterday.

Hedman continued practicing but took any chance he could to keep weight off his left foot. He limped to the locker room after practice and limped through the arena hallway toward the team bus with his left shoe untied.

He's a hockey player, of course, and said, "I can play."
The Detroit Red Wings' defensive corp is in flux with thanks to injuries, but head coach Mike Babcock is dismissive:

"If we're waiting for them, we're not making the playoffs,'' he said. "So our attitude is just find a way to win every night. I think guys have done a real good job with that, played really hard, given us a chance. That's all you can ask for. We're hanging in there.''

Detroit is an even point better than the Lightning on both the Power Play (19.4% compared to 18.4%) and penalty kill (80.4% compared to 79.4%). That puts Detroit right in the middle of the league in both categories (15th and 16th, respectively). It's also a sign of the Lightning actually improving somewhere in their game while the team flounders in the standings.

Detroit, however, also leads the league in shots... Averaging 33.9. With how porous the Lightning's goaltending was in Nashville, Mike Smith (the likely starter) better be out to redeem himself for the sieve effort that began his mop-up duty for Antero Niittymaking (13 shots, 10 saves, first two shots faced were goals).

The Red Wings are also coming off a trio of 3-2 wins, the last being over the Phoenix Coyotes. They've won four of their past five (while the Lightning have one of their past ten). Henrik Zetterberg leads the Wings with 32 points (10 goals, 22 assists).

After this game, the Bolts head to St. Louis to face the Blues tomorrow before ending the road trip on Long Island this weekend.

We'll have line combos for the Lightning posted later, here is what Detroit's forward line combo likely will be (by way of Mlive.com ):

Bertuzzi-Datsyuk-Holmstrom
Leino-Zetterberg-Eaves
Draper-Abdelkader-Miller
May-Newbury-Maltby

[Note by John Fontana, 12/17/09 5:27 PM EST ] The lineup is admittedly best guess. Zenon Konopka is supposed to be hurting, Steve Downie suffered a concussion in Nashville and Hedman is hurt. I expect Zenon to play but smart moves would have the others rest.

Other Previews

Tampa Bay Lightning official preview
TSN
The Triple Deke
Full Detroit coverage from Winging it in Motown

Thursday links: Happy Birth-day after edition

averagejoe — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 11:00:28 -0000

One year ago yesterday, this little blog left its humble Word Press home and joined SB Nation. It's hard to imagine a world without the "z" button and auto-refresh comments. Happy Birth-day after to everyone.

Blues news

Blackhawks top Blues via a shutout. Ugh. Classic letdown game. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch]
Alex Pietrangelo may not have played last night — in fact, he was in Canada — but according one fan, he helped knock off the glass last night at the United Center. [Chicago Now]
Team Canada has named its World Junior Roster, and Jake Allen and Alex Pietrangelo are on it. Go Team Canada? [NHL.com]
With Jake Allen making Team Canada, his family will be doing some traveling. [Daily Gleaner]
Look, this year may be a bit of a downer, but the future is still bright in St. Louis. [The Hockey News]
Erik Johnson and the Blues are talking contract. Surprisingly, the Blues aren't talking to David Perron. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch]
If you see cats and dogs living together, you'll know why: Brett Hull and Mike Keenan have patched things up. [Belleville News-Democrat]

Hockey news

Results from last night. [Yahoo! Sports]
Hey look, the Blues aren't playing tonight. We can't lose! [Yahoo! Sports]
The NHL wants not one, but TWO outdoor games. One in the States and one in Canada land. [ESPN]
Speaking of Canada, the Canadian teams are no longer struggling to stay afloat. [ESPN]
More Canada: The league is looking at increasing exposure in the Great White North. [TSN]
Joffrey Lupul will be out 6-to-8 weeks with back surgery. Does he have any kids to lift so Ducks fans can chart his progress? [TSN]
Joining Lupul in the "out 6-to-8" club will be Jason Spezza. Spezza has a torn MCL. [TSN]
The NHLPA is looking for a new leader and five players have joined the search. [TSN]

Other links

A list of the 10 biggest memes of 2009. The drunk guy we featured twice? He's No. 1. [Ranker]
The best mugshots of 2009. There are some AWE. SOME. ones in here. [Buzzfeed]
Get someone really good? That's a burn. [Buuurn]
Remember earlier I said dogs and cats living together might be a sign of the end of the world? I meant bears, lions and tigers. [urlesque]

Video

I think we all could use something lighter with the struggles on ice. I present you singing Muppets.

Adios, bitches. Gametimelinks(at)gmail.com

Flames @ Blues Post-Game - Flames Heavy Lifters Need Some 'Roids

Kent Wilson — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:03:31 -0000

More photos » by Tom Gannam - AP

Browse more photos »

"We have to find a way very quickly to get it back. We took our foot off the pedal in the third period and made some mental mistakes."

That's Brent Sutter with the press after last night's contest. And I hate to disagree with the Flames coach (well...not really; I tend to be fairly disagreeable), but the Flames never really had their foot "on the pedal" so to speak last night. They were out-shot and out-chanced in every single period. The third just happened to be the worst of the bunch. Implicit in this quote is the assumption that the Flames played 40 minutes of good hockey and tripped over their own feet down the home stretch. They didn't, but the relative quality between the first half and the last half skewed perceptions of the team's efforts after the fact. See also: the anchoring effect.

In short, the Flames were about as poor in this game as they were in the last two losses. In fact, in many ways this was Calgary's worst contest in recent memory at ES. Two of of the Flames top 3 lines had their heads beat in by the opposition - par for the course when it comes to Iggy and Jokinen this year, but a rare poor evening out of Moss, Glencross and Conroy. Had the Langkow unit not shown up for the party, the Flames would have been blown out of the water.

A poor three game stretch isn't necessarily something to panic over. Teams lose three games in a row all the time. What's perhaps concerning is the manner in which the Flames are losing however - not only are they bowing to ostensibly inferior teams, they are getting legitimately out-classed all over the ice. In addition, issues that have plagued the club all year are finally beginning to show up in the teams results - that is the lack of shots on net and the relatively poor ES (and PP) performance of the "#1" scoring unit. Hidden by good goaltending a rash of favorable bounces to start the year, things have begun to regress to the mean and the Flames have looked decidedly worse than ordinary as a result.

What's perhaps most unnerving for Flames fans is that the decision-makers behind the bench don't seem to see the problems.

"To be honest, I think it’s something mentally right now," said coach Brent Sutter, following the game. ‘There’s been so much talk, ‘oh, they’re not scoring goals, they’re not scoring goals’. All of sudden when that happens, then we’re doing some things we shouldn’t be doing.

"We’re pushing, forcing certain situations instead of staying with our game, sticking with our game. If we win games 1-0, 2-1, 3-2, whatever . . . so be it. It’s the bottom line. It’s a process you go through to get a victory at the end of the night. We’ve gotten off track on our process and we have to get it back."

There's a lot of garbled coach-speak in there, so it's all very vague but none of it is comforting to me. Is it a mental thing plaguing the Flames right now? Really? Perhaps you can put the Conroy lines lackluster effort down to something transient like "lack of focus" (since they typically beat up the competition), but Iginla and Jokinen have been playing like this for most of the year. That suggests not an acute condition but a chronic one. And until the conditions change around their deployment, I can't imagine things improving all that much: a team can only win for so long with the grinders and pluggers dragging the big guns along by the ears.

Teams of the Decade: Shooting and PDO

Hawerchuk — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:00:27 -0000

by Bill Kostroun - AP

Play defense, guys!

View full size photo »

We've seen in numerous contexts that the key to winning hockey games is outshooting your opponents: in the long-run (like a decade), your shooting percentage will converge to near the league-average, as will your goalie's save percentage, making shot differential and goal differential one-and-the-same. So it should come as no surprise that four of the top five teams in outshooting their opponents were also at the top of the leaderboard in wins:

	WIN%	GP	SF/G	SA/G	DELTA
DET	645	738	32.6	26.3	6.3
NJD	572	738	30.6	26.2	4.4
OTT	589	738	30.8	27.2	3.6
STL	507	738	28.2	25.9	2.2
DAL	566	738	27.6	25.6	2.0

The Blues are the only outlier here, and it's because they were simply unable to put together a good goaltending tandem before this season. For nearly a decade, they could barely find a league-average starter, but still managed to make the playoffs six times. Given their dominance in shot counts, it was an egregious oversight in the team-building department.

What about the opposite end of the spectrum?

	WIN%	GP	SF/G	SA/G	DELTA
MIN	489	656	26.1	29.1	-3.0
CBJ	399	656	27.2	30.2	-3.0
PIT	458	738	27.3	30.6	-3.3
FLA	455	738	29.1	32.5	-3.4
ATL	390	738	27.2	31.9	-4.7

There aren't many surprises down here either: three expansion teams, a Panthers team that made the playoffs three times in 16 years, and a Penguins team that was bad enough to be able to draft Marc-Andre Fleury, Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby in the span of three seasons. Well, there is one exception on that list, the Jacques Lemaire-led Minnesota Wild:

	PDO	SH%F	SH%A
MIN	1011	9.7	8.5
OTT	1009	10.4	9.5
COL	1008	10.2	9.5
MTL	1008	9.9	9.0
SJS	1007	10.0	9.3

PDO is the sum of shooting percentage and save percentage. At a team-level, over nine seasons, with changing personnel, it gets pulled very strongly towards 1000. Clearly, some teams, like Ottawa, Colorado and San Jose, are able to exceed it, usually by having a very good offensive team that gets more power-plays than its opponents. But Minnesota is a clear outlier, pushing its PDO to the top of the league through exceptional defense and suppression of shots in the slot. Montreal's story isn't quite as clear since the Habs cycled through six coaches in less than a decade, but they appear to have had tremendous goaltending as opposed to an exceptional defensive strategy like Lemaire does.

As for the other end:

	PDO	SH%F	SH%A
NYI	992	9.2	10.0
CHI	991	9.5	10.4
CAR	990	9.2	10.2
CBJ	990	8.9	9.9
TBL	989	9.5	10.7

I don't think anybody's surprised to see Tampa at the bottom of this list given their goaltending and defensive woes. Chicago and the Islanders have iced some very bad teams too. Columbus plays adequate defense but has always had trouble putting any goals on the board. But what about Carolina? The Hurricanes have simply had really bad goaltending during the season but have turned it up in the playoffs - Cam Ward has posted .915 and .920 save percentages in the post-season, while an Arturs Irbe/Kevin Weekes tandem hit .938 on the way to a Stanley Cup loss in 2002. We tend to remember Carolina's strong finishes, but they've frequently been very, very bad during this decade.

Islanders Gameday: Resumed, The Battle of New York Has

Dominik — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 11:30:13 -0000

[Update: Per Botta, Roloson indeed in -- and Bruno Gervais scratched, pleasing a few readers I'm sure.]

Well how about that: Last year at this point, the Short Island Smurfs were 23 points above the Islanders. This year, the Rangers' hot start wasn't as long, their luck not as strong, so the oldest regional rivalry in the NHL resumes with each team at 31 points, though Sather's city boys possess a game in hand.

Episodes II and III of this year's New York Derby take place tonight and tomorrow. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't pumped. I'd be disingenuous if I said I wasn't pissed that the Islanders played so vacuously Monday, as if looking past the Panthers toward this home-and-home.

Long Island Islanders (12-14-7) at Short Island Smurfs (14-15-3)
7 p.m. EST | Madison Square Garden | MSG, MSG+2, radio
Home of Misspent Youth: Blueshirt Banter

Of course, seeing Glen Sather's handiwork all over the Blueshirts is always a cheap, instant pick-me-up. We may assign inflated importance to these games -- and damn right, that's what fandom is all about. But no matter how big these derby games feel to either side, they can never be significant or influential enough to make the Redden or Drury contracts disappear. And that, why that is a beautiful thing.

Since these teams met in October -- the start of an Islanders four-game win streak -- the Islanders have gone 11-9-2. The Rangers in the interim have gone 6-12-2. They just got Brandon Dubinsky back from a broken hand, and John Tortorella is set to ride his top six forwards hard. But squeezed against the cap and now having demoted Matt Gilroy, it's hard not to see them as Marian Gaborik plus Henrik Lundqvist ... and a pile of dust.

If I'm honest, I still say Tortorella is a good coach who should be able to get that team to squeeze into the playoffs in the end. But the brand of hockey that sold me on Torts involved stars in Tampa Bay -- each of whom in 2004 was preferable to his Blueshirt counterpart in 2009.

But despite their struggles, the Rangers still score more (2.69 vs. 2.52) and give up less (2.97 vs. 3.12) than the Islanders. (And yet: The Rangers haven't scored more than two goals in 11 of their last 13 games.) The Smurfs' shots per game are higher (29.6 vs. 29.3), their shots conceded lower (30.2 vs. 33), and their special teams, too, are ranked higher (21.5%, 83.8% vs. 18.6%, 77.6%) than the Islanders.

Still, the old truism stands: This is a rivalry game, so throw all those stats out the window. Bring it.

Let's. Go. Islanders.

Prediction: The preponderance of evidence remains clear: 4-time Stanley Cup champ Denis Potvin still doesn't suck.

Wednesday Links: The Goblin lives to coach another day edition

averagejoe — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 11:00:25 -0000

A home win? What is that? Now let's get a road win again tonight.

Blues news

Blues win! At home! Exclamation points! [St. Louis Post-Dispatch]
Were the Flames star-struck? Who knows. I'm just glad they lost. [Vancouver Sun]
Brett Hull is, and always will be, the man. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch]
Some quotes throughout the day — did you know the Blues told Brendan Shanahan he was traded in a five-second phone call? [Belleville News-Democrat]
Here are some pictures from last night. [Blues]
The Blues are back in action tonight, taking on the hated Chicago Blackhawks. [CBS Sports
Patrick Kane will play tonight against the Blues. [Chicago Breaking Sports News]

Hockey news

Here are your results for last night. [Yahoo! Sports]
Eight games tonight, but really one worth watching. [Yahoo! Sports]
FIGHT! Everyone loves a good throw down, here are the Puck Daddy Top-10 of the aughts. No love for the Cam Janssen/Aaron Downey fight? [Puck Daddy]
What's ailing the Sharks? For once it's not being in the playoffs. [Fear the Fin]
The 12 Days of Christmas gets a Vancouver makeover. [Nucks Misconduct]
Canadiens goalie Jaroslav Halak might be on the move. [TSN]
Gary Bettman tells the Board of Governors they won't have to cover the Coyotes' losses. That means, of course, they will. [TSN]
Guess what? The Canadian media loves Sidney Crosby. [TSN]
More notes from the first day of the BOG meetings. [ESPN]
Brian Burke will carry the Olympic torch. [ESPN]
Michael Leighton, who is not that good, has been claimed off waivers by the Flyers. [ESPN]

Other links

This map looks pretty accurate said every one of my neighbors. [Pic
You've heard of Letters to Santa, well this is Letters to Walken, as in Christopher Walken. [Letters to Walken]
The year in viral videos. Enjoy. [Videogum]

Video

Donut King knows who he wants to take over the Blues when Andy Murray gets fired: this guy.

That's it for today. Come back for the GDT. I'm off work so I'll be there.

SB Nation - St. Louis Blues

Tampa Bay Lightning Game 34: at the Detroit Red Wings

Friday links: T.J. Oshie superstar edition

Run Run Rudolph, Santa's Gotta Make It To Whirlaway

Scumbag Blues - Hawks 3, Blues 0

Lightning look to rebound while visiting Motown; Bolts at Red Wings preview

Tampa Bay Lightning Projected Lines

Forward Lines:

Defense:

Other Previews

Thursday links: Happy Birth-day after edition

Flames @ Blues Post-Game - Flames Heavy Lifters Need Some 'Roids

Teams of the Decade: Shooting and PDO

Islanders Gameday: Resumed, The Battle of New York Has

Wednesday Links: The Goblin lives to coach another day edition