Hey St. Louis.....Just Chill

Playoff time is here, and what is becoming an all too familiar scene has happened again.  The Blues are out  while their AHL affliate is in.  The good news this year about the Blues missing on the NHL playoff hunt was that the idiot of a GM they have running the Blues organization was smart enough to hold on to their first round pick in which they will have the 2nd most lottery balls in the pot to win the Laffy sweepstakes (don't need to give away results yet).  Meaning they could pick anywhere between the 1 and 5 hole.  I think the number 1 is obvious, but picks 2 through 6 or 7 are probably different on 30 teams boards.

St. Charles will be seeing playoff hockey for the first time since their United Hockey League days when they were known as the Missouri River Rats.  It is obvious this St. Charles team has some players we will not see next year and will be making the transition to the next level once this run is over.  Players like Caleb Jones, Jack Roslovic, Taro Hirose, Andrew Mangiapane and several others will hope to do what the likes of Barret Jackman, Bryce Salvador an Jamal Mayers did and make the jump to the show after playing in the city of St. Charles.   There they will get to play in front of a nearly sold out arena every night rather then the 12 people who show up in St. Charles on a regular basis probably because they tickets were given to them.

First Round Matchup: The Manitoba Moose

In the 8 Games the Moose and Chill played, St. Charles won the matchup 6-2 but those 2 loses have been the last 2 games played right before the playoffs start which may leave the players on their heels going into game one.  When we talked to Pascal Vincent earlier about this he clearly said that some lineup changes will be made going in to game 1 and that the team has been missing the body of William Carrier since he went down a month ago.  Carrier is close to returning and the break between the regular season and playoffs will help him get back sooner.  They are expecting a game 3 return but we will see what game 2 brings.  St. Charles manged to outscore Mantioba 28-20 over those 8 games but all of that goes out the window come game time.

Offensive top 6: Matchup your two leading scorers in the AHL this season..both team have some great top 6 talent who can put up numbers.  Good luck to the goalies

St. Charles - Hirose, Mangiapane, Hunt, Roslovic, Greco, Carrier(IR)

Manitoba - Howden, Goldobin, Mcleod, Gurianov, Bracco, Joly

EDGE: Tie

Offensive Bottom 6: This is where the season will be won, in the tranches with the bottom 6

Chill - Haley, Kuhlman, Aube-Kubel, Vorobyev, Sherwood, Ang

Moose - KopackA, Chekhovic, Walcott, Popugaev, Stevens, Nantel

EDGE: Chill

Defence Minute Munching Top 4: Both Clubs boast a solid top 4, not to sure which way to lean..The Chill have the better bottom pair which may lead to a bit more rest for their top 4.

Chill - Jones, Larsson, Carrick, Carrier

Moose - Bayreuther, Lernout, De Simone, Brickley

EDGE: Tie

Goaltending: One is older yet will be starting in his first ever EHE playoff game, the younger one has started 13 on the Wolves Conference final run last year.

Chill: Nedeljkovic

Moost: McCollum

EDGE: Chill

Overall I think this will be a high flying, goal scorers series.  While the Chill might have an edge on the lineup sheet, lets remember in a 5 games series if a goalie can steal at least 1 game things might not go the way we expect them to.  I am fully expecting this is going to be a 5 gamer and if the Chill are victorious they will have either the Wolves or Griffins to face next, which will be a story for a whole new day. 

We urge you people in St. Charles and the surrounding area, please come down to Family Arena and enjoy the show the boys will be putting on for you!

Side Notes:

Active Chill member Connor Carrick has officialy taken over top spot in EHE AHL history as being the top shot blocker.  He has also moved up to 2nd in all time assists

Active Chill goaltender Scott Wedgewood is now top 10 in all time EHE AHL games played and currently sits 7th all time in wins.