Archive for September, 2009

Training Camp and preseason are over, and the regular season is here. The Blues started camp with around 57 players, and they have made all of their cuts to chop that number down to 24. By NHL rules, teams opening the season in Europe are allowed to carry 24 players on the trip, but once they return to the United States, they have to make that final roster decision to get down to mandatory number of 23 players. The Blues open in just a couple days, and here is how the opening day roster will look: Forwards: Andy McDonald – [...]

The Blues have landed in Sweden, and preseason play is officially over. The Blues scrimmaged against Linkopings, a popular Swedish team in the Swedish Elite League (SEL) and won 6-0 today, which was expected. Paul Kariya scored twice, and Colaiacovo, Steen, Berglund and Perron also added goals. But they had more than just one exciting win this September. The Blues went 5-1-1 throughout the preseason as they racked up a ton of goals and saw good goaltending from all of Mason, Conklin and Bishop. All the scores are listed below. Sept. 13 — vs. Wild — 3-1 W Sept. 18 — vs. Avalanche [...]

The Blues trimmed their roster by 14 this week, sending down the following players: The team is sending 10 players to Peoria: Justin Fletcher, Chris Morehouse, Adrian Veideman, Adam Cracknell, Anthony Peluso, Mitch Love, T.J. Fast, Sebastian Dahm, Ryan Turek and Alex Hellstrom. Another four players are headed back to their junior teams: James Livingston, Mark Cundari, Tyler Shattock and Brett Ponich. Link As usual with the first round of cuts, there are no surprises here. I have mentioned Anthony Peluso a lot in a couple of my blogs, and he will be on the team in about two years or so. [...]

Blues head coach Andy Murray will be coaching the team for at least another two years. His option for the 2010-2011 season was picked up this week, which is good news for Blues fans. Andy Murray has been a great coach for this team. In 2006-2007, when he took over for Mike Kitchen in December, he turned the team around and gave them a winning record over the last 56 games of the season. The Blues went 27-18-11 in that span and finished the season with 81 points which is pretty impressive given the lack of skill the Blues had [...]

Training Camp is underway! The Blues are getting back into the swing of things by hitting the ice for practice every morning at the Scottrade Center, and everyone associated with the team seems to be ready: the fans are buzzing, Andy Murray is excited, and judging by their 3-1 win over Minnesota to start off the preseason – apparently the players are focused too. In the game against Minnesota, newcomer Derek Armstrong was the star. He scored a goal, added an assist, and got into a fight – also known as the Gordie Howe hattrick. What a great first impression he made to the [...]

Just as I promised, here is a follow-up on the Traverse City Tournament: The Blues’ prospects finished 2nd in the West and 4th overall out of 8 teams in this year’s Traverse City Prospect Tournament, which is pretty good. They went 2-2 with 4 points. Results: Sept. 6 — vs. Dallas — 9-6 W Sept. 7 — vs. Columbus — 5-4 L Sept. 9 — vs. Minnesota — 4-3 W Sept. 10 — vs. Rangers — 5-4 L Not bad at all. Aaron Palushaj was the star of the Blues in this tournament, as he led the team with 7 [...]

As I posted yesterday, forward Ryan Bayda HAD agreed to a deal with the Blues, but supposedly he didn’t like the fact that the Blues also signed Derek Armstrong. As reported by Andy Strickland, Bayda has changed his mind and will instead head to Pittsburgh to tryout with the Penguins: Bayda will attend Penguins camp on a tryout. He originally had agreed to attend camp with St. Louis before changing his mind after the Blues inked Derek Armstrong to a 2-way contract. I personally think it’s a stupid move by him to change his mind like that, but it really [...]

The St. Louis Blues were busy making transactions the past couple days, as they spent their time adding more depth players. Two gritty, defensive forwards were officially signed to two-way deals yesterday. Former Los Angeles King, Derek Armstrong, and former Carolina Hurricane, Ryan Bayda, were both brought on board. They can be referred to as 3rd or 4th-line players who can kill penalties and play the “shut-down” role, much like our own Jay McClement does. Being on two-way contracts gives them the opportunity to go back and forth between St. Louis and Peoria without having to be placed on waivers. That said, they [...]