Game #70-St. Louis Blues

St. Louis Blues vs. Chicago Blackhawks April 27th, 2013 ScottTrade Arena Today is the final game of the regular season for the Blues and they are playing a Chicago Blackhawks team that is not going to dress many of their star players tonight, but the game means a lot to the home team as well as to my LA Kings. My day started off a bit interesting. I was able to get over to the Gateway Arch, ride the elevator up, and then see nothing because it was raining and cloudy…but still a cool experience. But the odd part of the day was the fact that there is a huge robotics competition in town for kids from 10-17 years of age. My hotel was overrun by nerds in matching outfits, weird hats and glasses, and odd colored jewelry. There were packs of teenagers roaming the streets, all of which could easily be seen at ComiCon in San Diego or on the TV show Big Bang Theory. Combine that with the fact that there were thousands of Blackhawk fans in town, it was a weird site. On one corner, big burley Chicago fans and on the other corner 15 kids in matching florescent green jumpsuits all wearing protective eye masks in the rain… Well, I made my way over to the Scott Trade Center and outside the area are some cool player statues, my favorite being Brett Hull. Inside the center I was surprisingly met by a ton of memorabilia showcases that not only featured the Blues, but also the Cards that I really desired the night before at Busch Stadium. They had uniforms, hats, ticket stubs, old team photos, everything I love to see in a sports complex. I would highly suggest that all Cards fans go to a Blues game just to check some of this stuff out. As I mentioned before, everyone knew that was going to be a lopsided game. The Hawks clinched first in the western division a while ago so they had no reason to suit up stars like Patrick Kane, Marian Hossa, or Jonathan Toews. The Blues on the other hand were in a dog fight for fourth in the division with the LA Kings and San Jose Sharks. Basically if the Blues win tonight, they get home ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs where if they lose and the Kings win, the ice advantage would be flip flopped. Therefore the Blues came out real strong and went up 2-0 in the first with goals from Patrick Berglund and Jaden Schwartz. Schwartz netted a second goal in the second period and not until the last ten minutes of the game did Ben Smith for the Hawks put one away to avoid the shutout. Again, I know the Hawks were not playing that hard but the size, speed and skill of the Blues kind of scared me tonight. I knew my LA Kings would face them in the next round (which the did after a win against the Sharks) and I think they will cause a lot of trouble for the current Stanley Cup Champs. The game ended with a 3-1 win for the home team, and the next game would be a first round playoff game right here in Scott Trade. After the game I went out to a bar to watch the final period of the Kings game, and the UFC fight between Chael Sonnen and Jon “Bones” Jones was on. I know this has nothing to do with the hockey game tonight, but it was real nasty when the TV’s showed Jones’ toe pointing the wrong direction after his win. I had the unfortunate pleasure of seeing the replay in slow motion when his toe snapped nearly in half. Not a good way to end the night.