(Get) A Sporting Life

The Blues are back on home ice tonight hoping to get the taste of their last poor effort out of their mouths. While I'm not necessarily expecting an improvement in the scoring department, the defense has suddenly gotten healthy. Pietro and Polak are back in the lineup tonight and that is good news. To make room on the roster for Polak Ian Cole was sent back to Peoria. I was impressed with Cole in his short time with the Blues. He certainly looked the part on the ice and, if the Blues didn't exactly play well while he was here, it wasn't because the defense was poor. Hopefully, having our pre-season top six defensemen on the ice will allow us to make things tough for the Canucks. LGB

And I don't mean the usual winter weather we experience here in Wisconsin (state motto "We do nothing but drink beer and eat cheese and brats because its winter six months of the year you jackwagon"). No, its the weather in England that is annoying the hell out of me, especially since the UK can be absolutely crippled by 4 inches of snow. Well, they have had much more than 4 inches lately, the result of which is a slew of cancelled fixtures. My Notts County has played only once in nearly three weeks. Even the EPL, with its fancier turf managing systems, was decimated this weekend with only two matches being played one of which will not be the Chelsea v. Man U. game today. It has gotten so bad I may be forced to desperate measures. Yes, that is right. Watching the NFL. Luckily I have beer, cheese and brats.

Remember the old joke about the loser who couldn't get laid in a whore house? If so, then welcome to the 2010-11 version of the St. Louis Blues. Once again injuries have ripped out the heart of the team leaving it, frankly, flaccid. Tonight's 4-1 home drubbing at the hands of the Sharks can be chalked up to one thing; lack of scoring. This team knows if it falls behind 1 or 2 goals you can pretty much predict the outcome. To hear the management talk, as I heard on the radio tonight between periods, it is next to impossible to trade for needs anymore. I don't buy it. The same sorts of deficiencies and needs that have always arisen in the NHL are still there. To the perennial needs you can add a new one, i.e. making room for the salary cap, into the mix. Now, it is true, the types of deals can be a little restricted for those teams unable to take salary, but that should be when an organization loaded with prospects should be able to make a move. The Blues, unfortunately, seem...

DC United keeps making the moves: Timbers and DC United trade goalies The Portland Timbers have acquired goaltender Troy Perkins from D.C. United for goaltender Steve Cronin. The Timbers, who join Major League Soccer as an expansion team next year, will also send D.C. United allocation money as part of the trade announced Friday. United will retain a portion of Perkins’ salary budget for next season.... Cronin has appeared in 56 regular-season matches over two seasons for Portland’s second-division side with a 26-11-19 record. He has played previously for the San Jose Earthquakes and the Los Angeles Galaxy. Cronin has "backup" written all over him, but at least he is an experienced backup. This means, however, that DC is convinced that 20 year old Bill Hamid has what it takes to be a number one in MLS. Hamid looked pretty good in his action last year, but it was a perfect situation for a young player. The team was terrible and there was not a ton of pressure to be found. The...

Yesterday I looked at the potential pickings at forward positions offered by the Minnesota Wild roster as they fall out of contention. Today the distressed animal we are circling over is the Calgary Flames. The situation Calgary finds themselves in certainly make something of a fire sale a necessity. Given the depth of competition in the West it seems unlikely the Flames could make serious noise this season. As constituted the Flames are a pretty old team (avg. age 29.7 years), and they don't have much room under the cap, only $1.7m. They may take awhile to accept that they are not going anywhere this year, but I've got to think they will eventually begin to look to the future. Alex Tanguay: Age 30 LW 32GP 9G 16A +4 Given that Tanguay is the type of player Canadian hockey fans love to hate, and given he is playing well enough to score a much more lucrative contract on the free agent market after the season, Tanguay should be available. If the price was right I wouldn't have...

I thought it might be worthwhile to take a quick look at where the Cards' 40-Man roster sits as well move into the last two weeks of 2010. Pitchers: Major League Roster Locks/Probables/Possibles Mitchell Boggs Chris Carpenter Ryan Franklin Jaime Garcia Kyle Lohse Kyle McClellan Trever Miller Jason Motte Fernando Salas Francisco Samuel Brian Tallet Adam Wainwright P.J. Walters Jake Westbrook Starting Rotation: 1. Wainwright 2. Carpenter 3. Westbrook 4. Garcia 5. Lohse It's amazing what the Phillies signing of Lee does to one's perceptions. Not all that long ago I would have looked pretty favorably at this group of starters, particularly since we now know Westbrook had been banged up last year and, so, might improve when healthy. Today, I look at this fivesome and I feel nothing but dread. "What if Carp or Waino goes down? What if Garcia becomes afflicted with a severs case of the sophomores? And, Lohse?? Might we better served by putting a dead cat in the fifth spot?...

We may be rapidly nearing that time of the season when the Blues will have to start feeding on the rotting corpses of the NHL. The Blues have spent the better part of five years holding onto draft picks and stocking the organization with prospects. Not all of them can find the ice at the Drink Scotch. The whole point was to move some of them when needs arise. Given the open-ended nature of some of the injuries forwards have taken this year I'd say needs have indeed arisen. One of those rotting corpses is the Minnesota Wild. In today's Pioneer-Press Tom Powers runs through some names the Wild would probably listen to offers for as the Wild is near the salary cap and going nowhere fast. Here are the options: Andrew Burnette: Age 37 LW 30GP 6G 8A -6 This would definitely be a rental situation. Burnette is a solid experienced pro who wouldn't cost much in return, but I'm not sure there is enough upside here to merit the Blues moving on him. Pass. John Madden: Age 37 C 28GP ...

As if losing to the Red Wings wasn't bad enough, the Blues are now looking at another possible injury to a main cog in their lineup : A knee injury suffered by Erik Johnson is expected to keep the Blues defenseman out of tonight's game against Los Angeles, but club officials were reluctant Wednesday night to look past the next 24 hours. Johnson left the team's game Wednesday seven minutes into the first period, after he was tangled up with Detroit's Pavel Datsyuk in the neutral zone. Johnson got up slowly, headed to the dressing room and didn't return. It appeared that he was favoring his right knee, which is the one he had surgery on two years ago to repair a torn ligament and caused him to miss the entire 2008-09 season. But there were hints of relief that it might not be a re-aggravation of Johnson's prior injury. "Well, at least he's not dead!" I'm sorry, but it has gotten to the point where it is impossible to see the "glass half full...

This simply isn't good enough: D.C. United selects veteran forward Josh Wolff with first pick in MLS re-entry draft D.C. United claimed former U.S. national team forward Josh Wolff with the first overall pick in the second stage of the MLS re-entry draft Wednesday. He signed a one-year contract with a club-held option in 2012, United General Manager Dave Kasper said. Although terms were not disclosed, Wolff, who will be 34 in February, had to accept a salary cut after earning $220,000 with Kansas City this year. He was with the Chicago Fire from 1998 to 2002, spent four years with Kansas City and played for 1860 Munich in Germany for 1 1/2 seasons before returning to the Wizards in 2008. This year, he had two goals and three assists in 25 league appearances (16 starts). In 2009, he scored a career-high 11 goals. "He fits our style, he's intelligent and he has the leadership qualities that will benefit our younger players," Kasper said. "It's a solid fit....

Well, come Wednesday , if DC wants Juan Pablo Angel they can have him. If they don't select Angel I will riot.