Ceiling Lifted-Hope you don't notice

**LGB Cards** · 09-10-2011, 02:25 PM

I am extremely excited for this up coming season in hockey. I have been a Blues fan my entire life and have been waiting for this for a long time. Here is St. Louis we have a history of getting players after their prime, LaLime, Fuhr, Gretzky, and so on, but things have changed here in St. Louis. Not since the Blues run at the cup, almost 40 years ago now, have the Blues had such promise between the pipes as we now do in Jaroslav Halak. Halak set many Blues franchise records this past season and he played with a fractured hand and an upper body injury most of the year. Many people don't realize the history of the Blues and despite not winning the cup there is a tradition of winning. The Blues made the Stanley Cup finals every year for their first 3 years of existence but lost all 3 times. The Blues have made 34 playoff appearances in 42 years with 5 of those years they did not qualify coming in the last 6 seasons and having a 25 year stretch of qualifying. Despite this history many people do not look at the Blues as a threat and rightfully so as the last years have been dismal. The Blues are going to make a strong run this year and shock many people who think they are another "small market" or "redneck team", which yes I have herd both of those terms attached to the Blues.

This year will be very different for many reasons. Our new captain David Backes was second to only Zdeno Chara in +/-, we were one of only three or four teams to have four 50 point scorers and there were 3 more that were over 40. Halak set new records and new marks that were owned by Jacques Plante who lead the Blues to 3 straight Stanley Cup finals. Matt D'Agostini was added into the Halak trade as a second thought and fell only 4 points shy of the 50 point mark, Alex Pietrangelo would have likely won rookie of the honors if he had not played 1 game over the limit to be considered a rookie in his first full year of action in which he recorded 43 points, which was 20th best in the league, behind and in front of every day names like Chara, Doughty, Weber, Boyle, Yandle, and Lidstrom. His new acquired counterpart Kevin Shattenkirk finished 1 spot behind Pietrangelo in his rookie season. TJ Oshie is fully recovered from his ankle surgery that placed him out for 33 games and there is hope for David Perron to also be returning to the lineup this year after being knocked out for the season after only 10 games. Chris Stewart was acquired from Colorado at the trade deadline scoring 23 points in 26 games wear the blue note. The biggest difference from last year to this year is the two free agents we picked up, Jason Arnott and Jamie Langenbrunner who bring three Stanley Cup championships to the Blues locker room and a combined 32 NHL seasons. These two will bring the veteran mentality and leadership that the Blues have lacked in past years.

All of these thing add up to the best potential for a Blues team since the Presidents Cup winning team of 2000, and this team seems more than ever to prove they are for real. The Blues will finish the year by winning what could arguably be the toughest division in hockey over Detroit, Columbus, Chicago, and Nashville. The Blues will go into the play offs with the #2 seed in the west, bettered by only the Canucks. They will end third overall in the NHL in points behind the Presidents Cup winning Capitals and the Canucks who hold the first seed in their conference. The Blues will win round one in five games and round two in six games and will meet the Nashville Predators in the West finals, a team that the Blues beat out to win the division. It will be a hard fought series with each team winning on home ice until the Blues win one on the road and close out the series in the sixth game. In the Stanley Cup finals the Blues will face off against the Capitals, the Capitals take game 1 and the Blues get 2. Once back in St. Louis the inexperience of Vokoun will start to show as the Blues will take the next three game to win the cup, ending a forty four year championship drought, one of the longest in professional sports. Jaroslav Halak will win the Vezina and Pietrangelo will be a nominee for the Norris but not take the award home.