Jackman Skates
Blues D-man Barret Jackman skated Thursday morning for the first time since injuring his knee earlier this month against San Jose. Jackman is unlikely to return before next week.
David Perron remains out with a concussion and has yet to resume skating.
It looks like the Blues are committing to D-man Nikita Nikitin. Apparently he was recently told to find a place to live.
The recent losing streak hasn’t done anything to effect ticket sales as the team just set a record for most tickets sold in a seven day span. This included individual game and season tickets.
The Blues are also running commercials in movie theatres this weekend during pre-views of the new Harry Potter movie.
Strong organizations don’t panic.
It’s important the Blues stay calm during their recent struggles. John Davidson and Doug Armstrong are well aware of this which is why they aren’t punching holes in their office walls.
This is why you don’t allow yourself to get above the clouds when things are going well. The attitude, win or lose, must stay consistent every day. The last thing they need to do is feel the pressure and complicate things.
The Detroit game is what it is, if you place the two rosters side by side the Red Wings have a clear advantage. This doesn’t excuse a 7-3 loss but if the team doesn’t get goaltending against a healthy powerful Detroit club, more often than not this will be the result.
This doesn’t excuse some of the sloppy play we saw Wednesday night either especially in the defensive end. There were some obvious communication breakdowns as well as some costly turnovers that wound up in the back of the net.
I thought Erik Johnson and Eric Brewer did a nice job against Pavol Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg much of the game. Outside of Zetterberg’s goal that should have been stopped, both these guys were pretty much held in check. Johnson lost an edge on the play which allowed Zetterberg to come off the wall and get his shot off.
This is a big part of Johnson’s growth process. This is a lot different than being on the third pairing as he was much of last season?
More than 5,000 fans were in attendance Wednesday morning for the first ever Peoria Rivermen school day game. More than half the crowd was made up of students.
Tyson Strachan joins me tonight for Blues Buzz live from Johnny Mac’s. The show can be heard from 6-7 on am 590 the Fan KFNS.
More to come,
Andy Strickland
Strickland.andy@gmail.com
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I really wish I could have seen Winchester's goal, but for some reason TV people think its a good idea to force us to watch from the "You Won't See a One Timer-Camera" It happened last night for one of Stamkos' goals. When the blues have a 2 on 1 break, they zoom in on the guy with the puck. When the puck goes into the corner, they change to the angle that makes the players look like they are stepping on a bug. During a power play, they sometimes switch to the camera that is on the opposite side, all the way at the top, really? And what does zooming in on the puck drop do?
If your a hockey fan, you NEED to see all the players on the ice. Hockey is too fast paced and watching a play develop is exciting. I like all the camera angles but only for replays.
However, I will say that I kinda like the camera angle that's directly behind the goal and elevated. The arenas that have cameras there tend to show play during the PP or PK (depending on who's team your rooting for). I like it only b/c it provides you with the full view of everyone on the ice and it's kinda cool to see the play from the goalie's perspective (albeit elevated). You get to truly appreciate the traffic they have to deal with in front of the net. flag this comment
It also has hurt us that our two biggest puck pressure guys (Perron / Oshie) are on the shelf. Those two alone contributed the vast majority of the fore and back checking. Guys like Backes and McDonald need to step it up and fill these roles. I think both of those guys (including Boyes) looked really good in the Detroit game. I hope they can continue to play well together....we're going to need them too.