The Sunday Blues: Q&A Recap & Twitter Growth

The heatwave over St. Louis has temporary broken and given everyone a great Sunday to enjoy. I spent mine at the St. Louis Zoo with my wife and daughter. Those around St. Louis already know about the world famous zoo. For those that don’t, it’s a great place to take you kids. Free admission and you can bring you own food. A great cheap day where your only expense is gas and parking (for non members). I don’t suggest it in the middle of the hockey season for those of you traveling from other NHL cities to St. Louis to take in a game. At the beginning and end of the season its a must see place if you road trip to the Lou.

Erik Johnson and some of the other young Blues spent their weekend in Vegas. Taking shirtless pictures with Cuba Gooding Jr. Is Patrick Kane jealous? Maybe…maybe not. At least he had girls and a limo. I’ll have more on the Blues and their recent forays on Twitter (where this pic comes from) in a moment. First up though is the Blues Q&A recap.

The Results

Question 1. Did the Blues do the right thing in not pursuing Kovalchuk?

Yes – 87%
No – 13%

Question 2. Is now the time to make David Backes the Captain of the Blues?

Yes – 90%
No – 10%

Question 3. If you had to pick one of the two “enforcers”, would you rather the Blues keep DJ King or Cam Janssen?

King – 60%
Cam – 40%

Upon Further Review

Kovalchuk

The question of whether or not the Blues should have been involved in the Kovalchuk sweeps is a “no-brainer”. To me at least. As I say for the 100th time (and I apologize for the broken record), the money isn’t there. Even if TowerBrook was still in the equation the Blues likely wouldn’t be talking about offering a $100 million (or more) deal to anyone.  A deep pocketed investor has to be found before the Blues could ever offer that type of contract. There aren’t too many of those around St. Louis stepping up.

There are folks out there who will say that the money doesn’t matter. The reality is that the real world doesn’t operate like the Be-A-GM Mode in NHL 10. The Blues like all 29 other NHL teams are a business. They have projections, plans, and employees that don’t skate on the ice. Teams have to make sure that all personnel moves fit from a business point of view.  Kovalchuk and St. Louis would have been a bad business deal.

There is a need for his services. The cost is just too great.

Backes and the Captaincy

I’ve floated the idea of David Backes as Captain several times over the course of the last 18 months. Either to friends, on message boards, blogs, etc. The response has generally been that David will get it some day. The time for that question has passed and the question becomes, “is now the time?”

Around 87% of responders said it is the time and I am in full agreement. I mean this not to demean the value of Eric Brewer. When healthy Eric has been a capable defenseman who can play 20 minutes a night and give you an honest effort. He just isn’t the guy who can take over a game from the back end. Too bad he was traded for a guy who could do just that. Right or wrong Brewer has been judged in comparison to Chris Pronger. Once he was appointed Captain the target on his back grew ten fold. His Captaincy is associated to the darkest of times in St. Louis hockey. The franchise as a whole has worked very hard to escape that image. With a new coach, new GM, and the draft picks the team was rebuilt around taking on their largest roles to date its time for the change to be made.

Backes is articulate, honest, and hard working young veteran whose bright smiling face needs to officially become the new face of the Blues. Put the “C” on his sweater.

King Kong vs. Bam Bam Cam!

This was the closest vote to date till the final few votes were counted. Three of the last four votes to come in tilted the balance to DJ King. I am a little surprised. Not only because Cam is the local boy favorite, but I found my vote changing.

I was on Team DJ since Cam came on board and the Blues started carrying two fighters. Based on how King played prior to his shoulder injury he was the superior player. He was the better skater and looked like he was capable of taking a regular shift. Then I see Cam at training camp last September. He looked every bit of a regular shift taker. He was skating well and working hard. DJ King looked to still be troubled and wasn’t moving as well. A seed of doubt was implanted.

As the 2009-2010 progressed I became a little frustrated with Cam. After the growth I saw in camp, his play slid throughout the season. I know he plays on the edge. To be an effective agitator you have to. When he crosses the line it makes me wonder if he is worth the trouble. Cam doesn’t hurt the team when he is in the box for fighting. He hurts the team when he succumbs to the predatory late hit. While the Blues beat the Washington Capitals in their last game before the Olympic break, Cam had such an incident. Coming in late to nail Matt Bradley. Those are the type of hits the league is working to end (and I am 100% behind all efforts to do so). Is Cam worth these dangerous negative impact events for the 3 minutes a night he is on the ice? You don’t see King taking those types of penalties.

Then again, that seed of doubt is still there.

What has swayed me is a deeper look in to what makes each of these guys effective. A heavy weight needs to be a consistent threat to be effective. Is a fragile heavy weight effective? King has struggled to remain healthy over the last two seasons. IF DJ is not playing he cannot be a deterrent. Cam, the little ball of hate his is, doesn’t have the same injury issues. He takes his shift with reckless abandon and hits any moving target. Including goalies.  It’s that type of energy that will get a team going. He is the only player that can get the team and crowd going without scoring. I can’t say DJ King has the same impact outside fighting. He isn’t that little agitating ball of hate on the ice.

Assuming Cam continues to grow as a player he should be the Blues first choice. I do hold a reservation to change my mind if Cam cannot keep the late hits in check.

The Blues on Twitter

The last ten days or so have seen an explosion of Blues discourse on Twitter. Erik Johnson, Patrik Berglund, and Ian Cole have all joined the Blues Tweeting Team. Between Cole’s inside joke affair with James van Riemsdyk and Johnson’s tweet on the Kovalchuk contract rejection I’ve been wondering how much of a positive this Twitter growth will be. Is there a tweeting fiasco in the making coming or will the charity push by David Perron, Johnson and Berglund be the norm? There is a very open attitude that the new Blues tweeters seem to have that you don’t normally see from hockey players on Twitter.

Stephanie Phillips who writes with me for The BlueNoteZone posted about this issue Saturday. She seems to see the glass as half full on this issue. I’m a little skeptical for the moment. Too often words are taken out of context easily when those words are in text. At this point I’m on the glass half empty end of the debate. Remove the professional athlete tag from these young men. They are college aged boys who don’t always think before they act. I’ve been there and am not that far removed from that era of my life. The potential is there for a slip up.

The potential is also there for countless positive tweets. From charity promotion to ticket giveaways. Those in question are professional athletes and should know how to filter what they say. If what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas… I could easily change my mind.