By way of St Louis Game Time commenter ingmarWbergman, here's scans of the picture of Barrett Jackman being a tough-ass against Detroit farmhands Tomas Holmström and Johan Franzén some of you seemed to like.

Link to bigger picture.

Link to bigger and unedited picture.

Enjoy!

I'm not going to report much from the Swedish games. Gerard and DanGNR is doing such a great job at bringing you all that went down, plus with everything being written in the PD and on the Blues site etc, what's the use? I will say however that I had a blast seeing NHL-hockey in Stockholm, and it was absolutely fantastic meeting DanGNR (and wife), Gerard and ingmarWbergman. You guys make me want to go over to St Louis to experience the real deal. I'm saving up and coming over soon. Promise.

So what's on my mind? Well, as you might recall, a few weeks back I wrote about how the Blues were viewed as big underdogs by the Swedish media. And especially how Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet pictured the Globe Arena with a big Red Wing on it, and so on. Well, just to follow up, here's what the papers pages looked after the games.

After Friday's game:

"Here he ruins the party". Pauly Walnuts, party pooper.

After Saturday's game:

"The Swede Fiasco". Jackman is king in that photo.

Well, we sure showed those asshats.

More photos » by Tom Gannam - AP

Tonight's the night big guy. Give 'em hell.

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It must have been in the 93-94 or 94-95 season. I was 14 or 15, up in the middle of the night watching NHL hockey live for the very first time. The Blues were playing and Brett Hull scored a hat-trick.

Brett Hull. He's the one who started it for me. I'd watched plenty of hockey already, or at least I thought I had. Tre Kronor, the Swedish National team, was successful during this time, a player called Peter Forsberg was just getting started, Mats Sundin was already a household name. I'd been to quite a few hockey games live, too. But I'd never seen anyone like Brett Hull. The speed in which he played the game, the precision and power of the shot, the killer instinct. From that day on, whenever someone would ask me what team I rooted for I'd answer with Brett's team -- the St. Louis Blues.

I admit, I didn't follow the Blues, or the NHL for that matter, all that much during my teenage years. North American hockey was cool, I saw a game now and then, sure, but c'mon, I was a teenager. Girls, rock music and getting drunk was my main interests. But hockey was always there, and it grew.

Now I'm as much a Blues fanatic as you can be. I check all the websites for updates several times a day. I constantly tell my fiancée about the team, whether she wants to hear about it or not. I sit up watching all fucking night on a Tuesday when the Blues are playing an away game in Nashville. I'm easily irritated days after a loss, I'm happy and on my game after wins. I taught my goddaughter to (almost) say "David Perron, Blues de St Louis" this summer. This team is everywhere for me.

And now they're even here, playing in the capital of my home country, against the arch rival's, the bastards, the FUCK Detroit Red Wings, with those stupid-looking farmer boys Franzén and Holmström and their equally stupid-looking fans. It's been said over and over how much red jerseys there will be in the stands in the Globe Arena tonight and tomorrow. I don't think that will be the case. The Red Wings is a popular team over here, but their fans will never be as passionate and as engaged as the Blues' fans. I'd say the audience will mostly be made out of normal Swedes. They will think that it's cool that the Red Wings and Blues is coming over, they'll be there to watch an NHL game, not a specific team. We'll see tonight if I'm right.

I'll be there, rooting the good guys on, the players I follow everyday. The awesomeness-on-skates that is David Backes, Mr Cool David Perron, Oshie with his furnace face and beautiful checks, Cam Smash Cam Bang Janssen, old man Walt, sneaky little Andy Mac and of course Pretty-boy TechnoViking Patrik Berglund and the rest.

It's Friday morning, I'm getting on the train to Stockholm in 30 minutes. For me this truly is a dream come true. And damn, this is going to be great!

Hey gang.

Found some videos that SVT (Swedish national television) made. No translations for the ones in which they speak Swedish (I'm lazy, plus it's basically just the usual blahblahblah's), but I thought it might be fun for you to see anyway. Lot's of stuff going on in the background, too.

Video 1: About Murray and Berglund. Love when the Goblin's yelling at the guys in the start of the video. "Are you guys stupid, or what?!" (In Swedish.)

Video 2: Interview w/ the coach. (In English.)

Video 3: Interview w/ Keith Tkachuk. (In English.)

Video 4: Interview w/ Alexander Steen. About three minutes in, DJ King Kong comes in view, looks stupid, then leaves. There's just something hysterically funny about those 5 seconds. (In Swedish.)

Oh, you're gonna l-o-v-e this.

Today, on my way home from work, I stopped by the grocery store to pick up some toilet paper food etc. As usual, I came home with lots of unnessesary items, among them a newly released hockey magazine focusing on the upcoming Swedish Elite League start, with quite a few pages on the 09-10 NHL season.

The magazine, humbly named The Hockey Bible, is released by Aftonbladet, Swedens biggest and most successful newspaper, and is a guide to everything hockey (or so they claim). I personally bought it just to have something to read on the shitter.

Anyhow, after having glanced through the Elite League pages of the magazine, I came to the good stuff: the NHL Premiere games in Stockholm between the Blues and the fuckoffs of Detroit. Well, let's just say I was not happy about how the paper's editors chose to illustrate the premiere matchup.

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Not much hockey news coming out of St. Louis (or anywhere else, really), so I thought I'd contribute a bit with a some translated stuff. Swedish sports site svenskafans.com recently published short interviews with Blues prospects Jonas Junland and Lars Eller. Both hoping to make the team out of camp. We'll see how they do in just a few weeks. In the meantime, here's something to read for us poor hockey-starved people.

Continue reading this post »

Just a note for whomever might be interested.

In about an hour, Blues rookies and former roomies T.J. Oshie and Patrik Berglund will square off as Team USA take on Team Sweden in the IIHF World Championships in Switzerland. Both players have apparently been trash talking, all smirks and smiles.

Some quotes:

"I'm going to run you over." -- Oshie to Iceberg

"When I get the chance, I'm going right through him." -- Berglund

Iceberg claims Oshie wants more than bodychecks. He also want to make sweet sweet looove!
"He's talking about fighting. Not the smartest thing, perhaps, but maybe something will happen after I check him."

A journalist asked him if he should'nt go after David Backes, too, while he's at it. Berglund:
"No. Backes is tough as hell, I'm staying as far away from him as possible."

Funny stuff.  I know I'll be watching.

More photos » by Terry Gilliam - AP

Vroom Vroom Pahtee Stahtah!!!

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You heard it here first, folks. Our very own, incredibly handsome, newly cropped, rookie stud Patrik Berglund has gotten a ticket to Switzerland, and will suit up for the Swedish National Team in this year's World Championships. He crosses the Atlantic on a flight that left Lambert Int. at 8 a.m. this morning.
-- We have a good shot at going far, Berglund said to Swedish newspaper Expressen.

When Berglund woke up on Wednesday morning, a text-message had been sent to his cellphone.
-- It was Bengan (Team Sweden coach Bengt-Åke Gustafsson) asking me to call him as soon as possible. Then when I spoke to him he said he wanted me to come over. I had a short discussion with our GM, Larry Pleau, and he told me to go for it.

Gustafsson had this to say about TechoViking:
-- What's most impressing about his stats is his plus/minus. On a team where two thirds of all the players have a minus record, he is plus 19. That's very strong. We´'ll have to wait and see where and with whom we'll play him. I usually have lots of centermen on my teams, so that's no big deal.

Bengt-Åke Gustafsson also tried to bring in the Blues' other Swedish forward, Alex Steen, but Steen turned the offer down, referring to "family issues".
-- Bengt-Åke was very understanding. I'm hoping to take part the next time I get asked, Steen said. He also had some nice things to say about Mr IceBerg:
-- Patrik will bring lots to the World Champinships Team. He has a very hard and fast shot and is a good two-way centerman. He'll be a great reinforcement.

When asked about what he brings to the table, Berglund told the paper:
-- I'm very excited about playing in the World Championships. How many goals I can contribute with, I have no idea, I'll just go in there and play my best.
Are you familiar with the team?
-- I looked it up online.
Who do you think you'll line up with?
-- No idea. I just want to go, play and do a good job for Sweden.

Also, as pointed out by the Prof, David Backes and T.J. Oshie will play for team USA in Switzerland. Every opposing player should be well advised to keep their heads up.

Finally a good reason to follow that sorry excuse of a tournament.