Last night I saw the best Blues hockey game of the year thus far. We took on the Vancouver Dumbfucks....I mean Canucks at home at Savvis Center. The first period was intense as hell and the boys in blue came out flying with some authority. The action was non-stop and very physical. We were finishing all our checks and putting faces to the glass whenever the opposition touched the puck. The Canucks scored first but less than a minute later Pavol Demitra tapped one in at the side of the crease. Later in the period, on a Canucks power play, Steve Martins in his first game back from the minors stole the puck in their end and spun around and whipped a quick slapshot over Dan Cloutier's glove to score a shorthanded goal and take the lead. Towards the end of the period Reed Lowe and Brad May went fisticuffs for about a minute and a half. Ended up being a pretty good brawl. This game had everything you could want including a penalty shot. There was even almost a fight during the warmup skate. It was like a playoff game. We ended up winning the game 3-2 and again we did all this without four or five of our key players. BTW the Canucks have the best record in the Western Conference right now and haven't lost a game when scoring first, until tonight that is.

Ken Wilson and Bernie Ferderko were talking about how the Blues - Canucks rivalry is shaping up to be one of the best new rivalries in the league. All this stems back to last season when Brad May took out Keith Tkachuk with a nasty hip check. Then Todd Bertuzzi layed Al Macinnis out for the playoffs when he boarded him into the glass. We of course ended up losing that series in seven games. Tack on to that Bertuzzi knocking Jackman's shoulder out of the socket for the next four to six weeks in our first meeting this year and you have the makings of an interesting season between these two teams. Hopefully after that game we'll be heading up in the Power Rankings next week.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 1:28 PM