Fuhr To Sit A Month
After a loss on Saturday to Anaheim where usually solid goaltender
Grant Fuhr let in two softies, letting the Ducks win 4-3, the
veteran goaltender met with Blues trainer Ray Barile and surgeon
Dr. Rick Wright.
After talking things over and discussing medical options, the three
decided surgery was needed on Fuhr's right knee, the knee that has
given him problem ever since joining St. Louis.
On Monday, St. Louis team officials announced Fuhr will miss four to
six weeks after undergoing arthroscopic surgery to repair meniscus
damage.
After Saturday's game, Fuhr admitted that his knee was affecting his
play.
"I'm not very good right now, and simply put the leg's not allowing
me to be," he said. "My leg is not liking me very much. Until we
can get along, it's going to be a struggle."
Health concerns have been prevalent this season for the 36-year-old
netminder. Through knee and groin troubles, Fuhr has only 23 games
this season, a far cry from the 79 he played in 1995, including a
record 76 straight starts. Fuhr's statistics have also taken a turn
for the worse. He is only 7-7-5 with a 2.69 GAA and a .876 save
percentage, second worst to New York Islanders' goalie Felix
Potvin.
"Whether the knee is part of it or not, Grant's play has not been as
good this year as last year," coach Joel Quenneville said Sunday.
"He's been uncomfortable with the way he's been feeling. This has
probably been on his mind for some time. He felt it was best now to
get it checked out and fixed. Hopefully, this makes it all better,
physically and mentally."
Jamie McLennan and Rich Parent will share the goaltending duties in
Fuhr's absence.
At Least It Wasn't A Devils Jersey
Following the All-Star break, the Blues embarked on a four-game road
trip.
"Why?" you may ask.
Well, it's because the Kiel Center was preparing to host Pope John
Paul II. So, it's a good reason. I'm guessing the pope, like most
priests south of the Arctic Circle does not like serving mass on
ice.
At the Papal Youth Rally on Jan. 26, one young Catholic person
decided to give the Pope a present. No, it wasn't a rosary air
freshener for the Pope Mobile. It was a home Blues jersey, with
"John Paul II" on the top of the back and the Number "1" on it.
If that doesn't help the Blues with their defense, nothing will.
Broken Notes
It has affected the Washington Capitals this year. It took the
Phoenix Coyotes from one of the most dangerous teams in the NHL to
one of the most pathetic. And now it's hitting the Blues.
Going into Monday night's match-up with Florida, the Blues have lost
100 man games due to injury.
The infirmary list reads like this:
Grant Fuhr- knee injury on Feb. 6, underwent arthroscopic surgery-
out four to six weeks
- missed one game with this injury
Rudy Poeschek- sprained ankle suffered on Jan. 28- missed five games
Marc Bergevin- day-to-day with stomach strain- missed 12 games
Geoff Courtnall- post-concussion syndrome- missed 27 games
Luckily, for St. Louis, hope is on the horizon.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that Geoff Courtnall rode a
stationary bike and jogged without pain. He thinks the great
Chinese practice of acupuncture had something to do with it.
Marc Bergevin has done a little skating, but he traveled to Boston
Feb. 2 to determine the status of his stomach injury.
To The Games:
In the tank
Well, the St. Louis Blues haven't been doing to well as of late.
They lost five of six as they sputtered into the All-Star Break and
had reassured the rest of the league that, if you have the
Bluenotes trailing behind you going into the third period, chances
are you're going to win.
So, as the 1998-1999 NHL season rebooted for its playoff run, the
Blues found themselves at the "Shark Tank" in San Jose, perfect
irony for how their season has been going.
And it did not get any better when normal starter Grant Fuhr, who
has been hampered by age and injury all season, was scratched
because of a nagging groin. His replacement - second-year Worcester
Icecat backstop Rich Parent, who had never stood between the pipes
when the opening face-off of a NHL game was dropped.
Luckily, Parent, fresh-faced with inexperience, stepped up to the
moment.
After a scoreless first where Parent stopped just three shots and
his counterpart, Steve Shields, stopped 12, Scott Young helped give
the young netminder some confidence. At 17:06 of the middle period,
Terry Yake slid a pass across the slot to Young, who beat Shields
in the corner for a power-play goal and a 1-0 advantage.
The Blues doubled their lead 2:32 later. Pavol Demitra's shot was
stopped by Shields, but Pierre Turgeon, showing no ill effects from
a recently healed broken hand, lifted the rebound over the
sprawling Sharks goalie for a 2-0 lead.
And that's all Parent needed.
He stopped nine shots in the final period, giving him 20 saves on
the evening and, with the help of Craig Conroy's empty-netter with
17 seconds left, a 3-0 victory in his first ever start.
"I couldn't have scripted it any better," said Parent. "The guys
played great in front of me and I didn't get too many shots. I was
a little nervous before the game, but I got into it early in the
second when I got a couple of quality shots."
Parent's head coach was even more impresses by the sophomore's
performance.
"Not bad for his first NHL start," St. Louis coach Joel Quenneville
said. "I thought he played great and he made a couple saves that I
don't know how he did it."
Hey, Keena...Hey, Where'd You Go?
Fresh off of a win against the Sharks, the Blues traveled up to the
Great White North for a three-game Canadian road trip. Their first
contest was supposed to be a grudge match against former St. Louis
head coach/general manager/dictator Mike Keenan and his Vancouver
Canucks.
But while the rest of the National Hockey League was focused on
Tampa Bay for the league's All-Star/fireworks extravaganza, Canucks
GM Brian Burke canned the ruiner of franchises and hired Marc "Why
didn't I put Gretzky in the Olympic shoot-out?" Crawford.
So, instead of a hate-filled/blood-spilling grudge match where the
Blues would fight tooth and nail with the Canucks to prove they
were a better team without Keenan than with him, the Blues got a
chance to spoil the debut of Marc Crawford.
Ah...what the heck.
Scott Young got the scoring started 13:06 in when, on the
power-play, Pierre Turgeon and Kelly Chase set him up to beat
Canucks goalie Garth Snow for a 1-0 lead. Vancouver tied the game
at 1-1 when Trent Klatt beat Rich Parent less than four minutes
later. The goal was the first Parent had let passed him in 116:26
of play.
Late in the opening stanza, the Blues regained the lead. Craig
Conroy, with the help of Young and Campbell, picked up his seventh
on the season with 2:45 left in the first to give the Blues a 2-1
lead going into the break.
Super-rookie Bill Muckalt leveled the score at 2-2 on a power play
15:05 into the second. Mark Messier and Markus Nasland helped
Muckalt earned his 15th of the year, tops in the NHL among
freshman. With the game tied and things looking more and more as if
the Blues would blow another lead in a hockey game, two familiar
faces from the first period popped up again.
Young picked up his second goal of the night and fourth in his last
three game with 2:12 left in regulation. Off of a face-off, Chris
Pronger sent a pass perfectly to the tape of Young's stick, who
took the biscuit and beat Snow under the cross-bar for a 3-2 lead.
Craig Conroy put the game out of reach with 22 seconds remaining for
his second goal of the game as the Blues ruined the coaching debut of
Marc Crawford with a 4-2 victory.
Rich Parent stopped 17 of the 19 shots he faced for his second
victory in his second career start, but was helped greatly by
Young, who had a hand on all four St. Louis goals.
The Home of the 1988 Winter Olympics (If that really matters)
The Blues had a two-game win streak on the line when they traveled
to Calgary for a Western Conference match-up with the Flames. And
as a wise manager from the movie Major League II once said, "If we
win one more, that's what they call a winning streak."
Valeri Bure took the first shot at ending the Blues' streak with his
goal 11:06 in. Bure, husband of the TV sitcom Full House "star"
Candice Cameron was helped by Theoren Fleury to give the Flames a
1-0 lead. The Blues tied the proceedings eight minutes later when,
down a man thanks to a Tony Twist tripping penalty, Scott Pellerin
added his 11th of the season to tie the game at 1-1 after the
first.
The Flames started to blow the game wide open in the first five
minutes of the second. Fleury picked up his 24th of the year at
2:10 and Clarke Wilm scored 2:53 later giving Calgary an
all-important 3-1 lead. Jim Campbell scored on the power play with
4:49 left in the second, but the Blues still trailed after the
second at 3-2.
A deficit after 40 minutes??? Surely, the Blues were screwed.
But, 3:11 into the third, Chris Pronger sent a pass to Pierre
Turgeon, who then cut to the net and beat Flames' goalie Fred
Brathwaite to tie the game at 3-3.
The Blues came back!!! The Blues came back!!!
Terry Yake almost blows it 3:22 later.
Yake was sent to the box for a double high-sticking minor, leaving
the Blues to face a four-minute power play and protect the tie and
a chance at winning. Luckily, Rich Parent stepped up his game. With
Calgary setting up, Fleury sent a pass to Wilm, but Wilm's shot to
the high corner was gloved by Parent, who had to reach behind him
to keep the game knotted.
Unfortunately, in overtime, the Blues' luck ran empty. Derek Morris
sent a long pass to Fleury, who flipped ahead to Jeff Shantz.
Shantz fired low and inside the post on Parent to give the Flames a
4-3 win in overtime, the Blues' first loss of the season in
overtime.
Parent stopped 15 of the 19 shots flung in his direction in his
first loss as a starter.
Farewell, Canada
In the final game of their three-game Canadian swing, the Blues
stayed in the province of Alberta to take on Edmonton. After a
disappointing loss the game before in Calgary, the Blues looked to
get out of the gate quickly and try to leave the North with four
points.
That they did.
Pierre Turgeon scored in his second-straight game 14:18 in to give
the Blues a 1-0 lead. Michel Handzus scored 36 seconds later to
give the Blues a 2-0 lead. Scott Young scored on the power play
14:23 into the second to give the Blues a commanding 3-0 lead.
Then, with St. Louis firmly in charge, the Oilers took command.
Todd Reirden scored 7:54 into the third. 3-1 Blues.
Janne Niinimaa scored 1:15 later. 3-2 Blues.
Ryan Smyth scored with 1:21 left in the game. Game tied at 3-3.
As quickly as the Blues built their confidence and a big lead, the
home team took it away from them, forcing overtime. Luckily, for
the Blues anyway, Oiler defenseman Boris Mironov left Pierre
Turgeon standing alone in front of Edmonton goalie Mikhail
Shtalenkov. Pavol Demitra found Turgeon in front, who beat
Shtalenkov 35 seconds into the extra frame to give the Blues a 4-3
overtime win and two points they should not have struggled for.
Rich Parent played a solid first two periods, stopping every one of
the fifteen shots he faced. He didn't look solid on the next
fifteen fired at him, all coming in the third, as he let three get
passed him. Nevertheless, it was his third win in four shots.
Back Home on "Holy Land"
Would you like to know why the Blues didn't play at home for a
while? Well, on January 26 and 27, Pope John Paul II visited the
Gateway to the West to say mass and do a lot of things that Popes
do. (which is pretty much anything he wants to because he is best
buds with God and everything. I mean, who in their right mind would
tell the Pope, "NO!")
Even away from home ice, the Blues were blessed with six points in
four games, something that doesn't happen too often for the Notes
when away from Kiel.
Finally back home with the wife and kids, the Blues took on the evil
minions from the pits of hell, the New Jersey Devils. (Hey, I like
this religious theme!) Unfortunately, Satan won this battle. (Hey,
isn't that what the league called the Devils back when they won the
Stanley Cup with the neutral zone trap?)
Brian Rolston scored with a minute left in the first and tagged on
an empty-netter at the end to give New Jersey a 2-0 win. The Blues
had 36 shots on goal in the game, including 15 in the second, but
Chris Terreri, not Martin Brodeur, stopped every last one of them.
The loss was the sixth time this season St Louis has been shut out,
causing frustration amongst the Bluenotes.
"We make a lot of goalies look good," said center Craig Conroy.
Another Lead Bites The Dust
Teams win championships with great scoring and offense. But it's the
team's defense that decides whether it carries Lord Stanley's Cup or
fails to qualify for the playoffs. The way the Blues' defense played
against Anaheim last Saturday it looks as if the Blues will miss the
post-season first the first time in quite a while.
In a game that looked eerily reminiscent to the match five days
earlier in Edmonton, the Blues had a big lead heading into the
third and blew it.
St. Louis's special teams clicked in the first period. On the power
play, Pierre Turgeon put the Blues up 1-0 just 4:45 into the game.
5:19 later, this time short-handed thanks to a Mike Eastwood
obstruction-tripping minor, Al MacInnis netted his 13th of the year
to put St. Louis up 2-0 after the first.
After Matt Cullen scored on a power-play 2:32 into the second to
make it 2-1 St. Louis, the Blues got another goal from Al MacInnis
at 14:06 to give them a 3-1 lead heading into the third period.
That's when it all fell apart.
Marty McInnis's slap shot from the top of the left circle beat
Blues' goalie Grant Fuhr, playing in his first game since Jan. 25,
to bring the score to 3-2 just 3:58 into the third. Only 3:45
later, Fredrik Olausson's shot from the right wing appeared to
deflect off of defenseman Chris Pronger. The shot went in, tying
the game at 3-3.
With 10:54 left, the Ducks completed their comeback. Pascal
Trepanier scored to finish off a three-goal on seven shots barrage
in a span of 5:08 and a 4-3 victory, sending Anaheim to fifth in
the Western Conference and dropping the Blues to seventh.
"It's frustrating and disappointing to have a two-goal lead and
lose," MacInnis said. "There are no excuses. It's not acceptable.
We've got to play better in the final 20 minutes."
The most frustrating part was hearing the sound of rubber hearing
metal twice in the final three minutes.
Thank God It's Finally Over
The St. Louis Blues ended two streaks Monday night against the
Florida Panthers. They stopped a two-game losing streak. And they
stopped an even longer streak, one that lasted 69 games.
The streak that has haunted the city of St. Louis since Mark Twain's
death. The 69-game winless skid when the Blues trailed after forty
minutes. St. Louis trailed 4-3 going into the third period. Then,
2:36 into the third, Jamal Mayers, the unlikliest of all heroes used
his backhand to tie the game at 4. 4:07 later, Pavol Demitra put St.
Louis up with his second goal of the game at 5-4. Then, it was all up
to the defense.
Oh God, we're doomed!!!
But Rich Parent stopped every one of the ten shots he faced in the
third to give the Blues a 5-4 victory, their first when trailing
after two period since Nov. 14, 1996.
To put that in perspective, THAT WAS A FRIGGIN' LONG TIME AGO!!!
For the Blues, this was a big win.
"It's a huge win for us, one of the biggest wins in the history of
the franchise," Blues coach Joel Quenneville said. Quenneville said
later: "It was an incredible win. One that we'll remember for
awhile."
On a personal note: Thank God this streak is over. I was starting to
lose count.
