St. Louis hoping to not sing the Blues this season....

Ladies and gentlemen The Great Eight has officially left the building.  In his first full season as Gm of the Blues Mr. Stephens has shaken up the room and sent out the best goal scorer in the game has has brought it some much needed talent across the board as well as shed a few million in salary.  As well they have added to their D core in bringing in Johnson who will be a top 4 guy on a nightly basis in exchange for Bobby Ryan.

The deal shakes up like this Ovie, MItchell and Desjardins gone, in come Henrique, Atkinson, Nystrom and a 6th.  Instead of now relying on one man to steal the show everynight it appears the Blues now have 3 or 4 guys that can net them 25 to 30 in a season.  It also makes playing against the Blues much tougher on a nightly basis as they will be able to spread the puck around and use a by committe aproach so you are not able to just key in on one or two bodies.

" Obviously this was a decision that weighed very heavy on me, but after a few long days of talking with my staff we felt it was best to move on from one of the best snipers this game has to offer.  Even him scoring 40 goals meant us not making the playoffs so I would rather become a team that is more defensively sound and be able to win thos 2-1 or 3-2 battles on any given night.  We were focused too much on getting Ovie his touches and now we can play a simplified team game and everyone will be able to contribute, not to mention our defensive structure should also take a boost.   I think we have a deep enough team this year to not only make the 2nd season but to actual make some noise as well.  I would not expect much more to be done anytime soon I think we has us a solid off season and the boys are ready to go. "

These were the lines in todays practice as the team has finsished their pre-season games and looks forward to opening night wherever that might be...

Henrique-Statsny-Atkinson

Perrault-Ribby-Doan

Byron-Bailey-Setaguchi

Martin-Glendening-Nystrom

Extra - Dowd

Buff-Johnson

Daley-Stone

Petry-Wizzy

Extra - Hunt

Lehtonen

Hammond - Khudobin