St Louis Volume 4, Issue 14 Game Time December 8, 2008 Four Dollars Of Good Karma The Game Day Guide To St. Louis Blues Hockey Established in 2005 By Brad Lee Jovanovski skated in from the point, found plenty of open space in the slot right in front and buried the goal. Roman Polak was one of The Blues can extend a couple of two-game streaks tonight the defensemen on the ice for the score. Remember that. against Nashville. On St. Louis’ first goal, Keith Tkachuk took control of the puck St. Louis can earn points in three straight games with their in the corner, tried to center and was successful only after the third straight win against the Sexual Predators. A regulation win puck bounced off the side of the net. It ricocheted to David Backes would bring the Blues within three points of Nashville, the eighth who slammed the puck home. When asked about it in the Blues’ -place team in the Western Conference. It’s been a tiring stretch dressing room after the game, he said of course he planned it with games Friday, Saturday and now tonight. The poor that way. And then he told the truth. “It was one of bastard who runs this paper can’t wait for the Blues those where I wanted to put it at his feet, hope for to head out for a quick three-game West Coast the best and I just got a lucky bounce. road trip. The second period saw a lot of action. On the We’d probably be ready to blow shit up if second Phoenix goal, defenseman Polak the Blues had blown three home games in a couldn’t hold onto the puck in his own end, to row where they enjoyed a two-goal lead. But Legace’s right. Peter Mueller skated in hard, they somehow figured out the difficult task pushed Polak off the puck and found Doan of having two more goals than the other open in the right faceoff circle for the goal. team. It feels liberating. Suddenly the Blues were down again by a The win Saturday night showed that a goal, this time 2-1. Remember Polak’s name. crappy team can’t keep the Blues down forever. While both Phoenix goals were strong plays by Phoenix swept the Blues in all four games last the Coyotes, the Blues didn’t do a very good job season. But that was before Patrik Berglund became TM of making quick decisions in their own end. a St. Louis Blue. The rookie center with the heart throb Phoenix got aggressive, caught St. Louis Fighting Sioux for a roommate is super smooth with the puck flat-footed and capitalized. I hate to sound like Bernie Federko, and has a nose for the net. His size and skill with the puck is a but the goaltender, and I don’t care if it’s Emmanuel Legace or game-changing combination. I’m gushing. Let’s move on. Emmanuel Lewis, he doesn’t have a chance on those The Phoenix game didn’t get off to a great start. For the opportunities. second game in a row the Blues allowed a goal after an opposing The Blues didn’t panic and scored their second goal on a very forward set up shop behind the St. Louis net. This time it was smooth power play. With the man advantage, the puck came to Shane Doan killing time, unmolested behind the goal. As the attention was turned to the back of the cage, defenseman Ed (Continued on page 26) Today’s Records, Injuries & News Today’s Team Records: Today’s Injuries: Today’s News & Notes: Blues: Predators: Blues: C Andy McDonald (fractured • Maple Leafs’ rookie defenseman Luke 11-11-3 (25 points) 14-10-2 (30 points) ankle) and LW Paul Kariya (lower Schenn (drafted 5th overall) is out two 4th in Central 3rd in Central body) are out. RW Dan Hinote (lower weeks with a lower body injury. 13th in Western 8th in Western body) is still day-to-day. F TJ Oshie • Paul Maurice wins first game in his (ankle, again) is out. second tour of duty as the coach of the Last Ten Games: Blues: Predators: Predators: LW Steve Sullivan (back Carolina Hurricanes. 5-3-2 6-3-1 surgery) is out. G Dan Ellis (knee) is • Avs’ Wojtek Wolski is 5-for-5 in SO. probable. Season Series: All-Time Series: • Game Time Staff not exactly sure what 2-0-0 27-21-10-1 day it is anymore. CAUTION: St. Louis Game Time contains extreme sarcasm and less-than-gentle language. But it is a hockey paper, so you should fucking just get over it. Volume 4, Issue 14 From The Editor December 8, 2008 I’ve done a lot of research over the years to back on Nov 6, 2005. But it has never St. Louis Game Time find out if there’s anyone else out there in been easy. The procedures have gotten Established: November 6, 2005 any NHL city that is like us. By that I mean easier and we’ve figured out some of the St Louis, Missouri anyone crazy enough to run a fan-based tricks and time-savers along the way. Phone: 402-2266 paper that caters to the hardcore fans of the We’ve also gotten a lot of help from www.StLouisGameTime.com team and prints and sells an unofficial people who really didn’t have to help us, program before the home games. either. All of that made this possible, but it has still always been difficult. Godfather I’ve never found any. Jeffio So I was never that surprised to find To be honest, if not for Jeffio and his that there weren’t any other papers like Game Night Revue, I never would have had ours out there in other NHL cities. Publisher & Editor-in-Chief the idea to do something like this on Sean Gallagher my own, so it’s not surprising to find Imagine my surprise then, when [email protected] that no one else in any other city I was contacted by a guy from has had this idea on their own and another website that is like then gone through the hardship of ours and he asked if he could Advertising designing it, creating it, printing it interview me about the Blues [email protected] and then stepping out on the city for his fan-run paper he was [email protected] streets to try to sell it to a skeptical group of putting together. I was surprisingly excited, especially since my new fellow fans on their way to a game. I’m lucky that Distribution Jeffio forged out and did it here in St. Louis, crazy person was a Hawks fan. I John Nicolay otherwise I’d just be a frustrated fan sitting responded quickly and helped him out with his questions to fill some space for Amy Benoist, Becky Benoist, at home yelling and throwing stuff at the TV. Billy Cash, Clarence Walker the upcoming Blues-Blackhawks game But Jeffio had someone to inspire him, in Chicago. I also barraged him with too. The idea for the GNR came from a night questions about his paper. It’s nice after Columnists in Chicago many years ago as he walked into all, for misery to have a little company. Chris Gift, Duke, Brad Lee, the Chicago Arena to catch a game. He Answer Man & Brian Weidler stumbled onto a guy hawking a fan-based The new venture is called The paper called The Blue Line. Boasting itself as Committed Indian and, just like us, is Contributors ‘A Real Program’ it was 20 pages of comedy, sold outside the rink before all home Jeffio, Jeff Browning, LosBri, stats and full-on Wirtz bashing. games. They’re doing about 16 pages Childhood Trauma, Dan Doke, Jeff now, but I expect that they’ll expand, just Fahrenkrog, Jeremy Pratte & Chris Reed Jeffio was immediately inspired. After as we did, as they get more and more spending time with the publisher of The Blue writers and contributors. Their editor, Photographer Line and getting his own paper together, the Andrew D’Angelo publisher and maniac-in-chief is a guy Game Night Revue was unleashed upon the named Sam Fels and he did much the world in the lockout-shortened 1994-95 Mission: same as I did, taking the format and season. experience of a predecessor and spinning Game Time will provide prospect At some point The Blue Line gave up the information, up-to-date statistics, articles off of that. When you see The Committed that spark discussion and humor that ghost in Chicago, but not before building a Indian in print, it looks a lot like The points out the best and worst about our huge following among the remaining Hawk Blue Line did, just as Game Time has favorite team and sport. We are all fans of faithful who hadn’t been run off by the plenty of nods to the Game Night Revue the Blues and our opinions will reflect those of subjective fans. owners. The Game Night Revue ran for 10 format. Funnily enough, Game Night years before Jeffio put it to rest, printing one The paper is published for every home Revue took some cues from The Blue game, excluding the pre-season, which we gigantic farewell issue for the home opener Line too, so when you flip through any of all know sucks.