The moment has finally arrived. Klim Kostin, the wrecking ball also known as a young Russian hockey player, is with the St. Louis Blues and could skate tomorrow. Nothing has … Continue reading Why Klim Kostin is the tough guy (with skill) that the Blues need for the playoff run
Sports fans can be a fickle bunch. Uber-passionate and diabolically vindictive. Hitting a walk-off home run last night means they smile, but if you strike out in the eighth tomorrow, … Continue reading Buffa’s 5 Things: Is Taylor Hall’s talent worth his clubhouse trouble?
The move proves that Doug Armstrong is a first class businessman and better thief than Danny Ocean.
Think about when you were a kid. It’s 5:30 in the morning. The sun is coming up. School is in two hours. It’s time to get out there and skate around with a puck and play a little hockey with your friends. The most important meal of the day for a legion of young kids was a slab of ice, a black puck and a net to chase. Thursday, the St. Louis Blues paid it forward in the best way possible.
Via STLBlues.com, Tom Stillman and his ownership group put up two million dollars in an attempt to rebuild the city’s youth hockey foundation. The campaign is called “Hockey STL 2020” with the goal being to grow the city’s youth hockey population by 70 percent when 2020 rolls around. The two million dollars will roll the two million dollar plan over the next five years.
This isn’t just dropping off a sack of pucks and shirts and letting the kids get after it. This is providing a future for a lot of families and their kids. Nobody goes to a game at Scottrade and doesn’t leave imagining themselves burying an overtime one timer. That’s where it starts. For a guy who jumped at the chance to play ice hockey as a sophomore in high school, I can admit the cost is steep and forced my small school, Brentwood High, to only play for a couple seasons. Ice time alone can bury a community in depth. This is a chance to erase that burden. This plan lowers those costs and makes ice time more affordable.
If the plan goes right, 25,000 kids will be introduced to ball hockey and 5,000 new ice hockey players will be born on the rinks across the city. Total Hockey and other companies are working with the Blues to get this done. After all, the interest in this town’s team has grown throughout the years. With it, come new rinks, players and a growth in the interest. If all things work out, maybe the team creates a revenue stream back towards the team down the road while doing a lot of good.
The St. Louis Cardinals just introduced a new stadium dedicated to Tony La Russa this past season. The St. Louis Rams may not have the greatest owner in the world, but they also do a lot of good in the area, including programs like Basket of Hope, Character Plus and a celebrity softball game. These are great ways of giving back to the community in a way that gets better every year.
Maybe, a few hundred of these players make it out of the city teams into amateur games and some play in college. In the end, a few NHL players may be introduced. Stillman and company can smile and know that they paid it forward in the best way possible. Building a community of hockey in the St. Louis area. This cup of coffee is for you Tom!
You ever pick up an interesting looking book and want to flip to the end of the book and read the ending? Save the time, heartache and see what lies ahead. Well, that’s the Blues in a nutshell for fans.
It’s time for hockey in St. Louis, and that means a few things. Doom, gloom and the urge to flip to the end of the book and see what the last page reads. Let’s talk strengths, weaknesses and what to expect.
Strengths-
Weaknesses-
Most young kids get on a rink and all they can think about is wanting to be the next Alexander Ovechkin or Sidney Crosby. The next NHL sensation. It’s all they think about. A few wouldn’t mind playing in the NHL and putting together a respected career. While it’s not as sexy as leading the league in goals or hoisting The Stanley Cup, a 14 year career in the NHL is something to be extremely proud of. Bryce Salvador played 14 years in the NHL, splitting time between the St. Louis Blues and New Jersey Devils. Salvador is calling it quits.
To Blues fans, he is the young kid who came to St. Louis in 2000 and played seven seasons with the Blues. He never put up gaudy point totals or was a perennial All Star, but he was a durable tough and solid defenseman for a playoff team. How can you forget Salvador’s game winning goal against San Jose in the playoffs in 2001? Many will know who Salvador was traded for(Cam Janssen) instead of the stout seasons he put in guarding the blue line. He was understated and did his job well. Not bad for a kid who was selected in the 138th spot in the sixth round and told by NHL scouts he would never play a single game in the league.
To Devils fans, he was the bullet headed lefty brick wall who solidified their blue line for the final seven years of his career, even after enduring a terrible puck shot to the face that almost ended his career. As Salvador revealed today in his heart pouring retirement blog for The Players Tribune(a website dedicated to providing players with a voice) the road back wasn’t an easy one. His issue were rooted in his vestibular system. Basically, his eyes weren’t working together anymore and were causing him to be constantly dizzy, nauseous and out of it. The shot had knocked his system out of wack. After a recovery that took several months and simple child like activities like spinning in a chair, Salvador came back in 2012, playing all 82 games. He made sure that he went out his way. The lights getting turned off when he said so.
To me, he will always be the quiet yet cool and polite neighbor. I met Salvador during his playing days with the Blues. He lived in a condo in Brentwood Forest, a suburban community in St. Louis county, next door to me. There were instances when fellow players like Jamal Mayers and Jamie McClennan knocked on my door instead of his. Salvador didn’t talk much but I did get to talk hockey with him after a couple games. One time, he came home after a game with a black eye and I had to commend him on the fight he won. He came home after the San Jose goal and I talked to him about it. It was cool living next to a hockey player. While I never got a 1 on 1 lesson like you would see in the movies, I couldn’t complain.
Salvador won’t get an extended clip reel on Sportscenter or be remembered for scoring a ton of goals(24 goals in 746 games). He will be remembered for hard work, defiance and playing the toughest position in hockey quite well for two teams and 14 seasons. He played in 74 playoff games and will be remembered for his 2011-12 postseason where he scored 4 goals and assisted on 10 others. When it comes to the little things forgotten by most NHL fans, Salvador leads the league in those. The gritty aspects that don’t fit into a website and must be seen in person in order to appreciate.
Take a moment and read Salvador’s career ending blog. It’s got detail, hope, fight, and all the power you would expect from a guy who just wouldn’t quit. He’s an embodiment of endurance that can’t be forgotten among young players, which is why Salvador’s post career will involve working with youth hockey leagues in New Jersey. He’s a testament to never believing in doubt and always placing your money on sweat equity. The next time your son gets told he isn’t good enough at hockey practice or at a tryout, just tell them about Bryce Salvador.
It’s official. The St. Louis Blues are in serious trouble. It was only 36 hours ago that I wrote a post on Arch City Sports about the team simply needing to find an energy and
get back to their winning ways before the playoffs started next week. I went to a movie and came out to find that the Blues had lost 4-1 in lackluster style to the Washington Capitals(minus Halak in net). Alexander Ovechkin came in and draped the net in red Russian fury, scoring once to start things off and assisting on another goal. The Blues were beaten again at Scottrade Center and have scored only four goals in their last 4 games there. Also, the Ducks hopped over the Blues tonight with 112 points to take over ownership of the Western Conference with 3 games to go.
What is going on with this team? Let me run down a quick list of potential issues and ideal remedies.
*GET A SHOT ON GOAL. Let’s not speak lightly here. The Blues defensemen and forwards are horrible at putting pucks on net. If it isn’t Alex Pietrangelo air mailing a slap shot from the point into the upper left boards or Alexander Steen unleashing a wildly inaccurate slap shot, the team simply isn’t hitting the targets. They are ranked 24th in the NHL when it comes to getting shots on net. We want to. We try. We simply can’t. Change that.
*It’s been a while since this team scored a lot of goals over a decent multi-game stretch. Sure, they have won a decent amount and risen to the top of the division via fine defense and goaltending, but the Blues aren’t scoring furiously anymore. As nice as it is to see T.J. Oshie make a fool out of a goalie in shootouts, it would be swell to see this team take charge this last week and put a few pucks in the net.
*When you have trouble beating teams like Buffalo, how do you expect to fare against Colorado and Chicago? The Blues peaked in the early part of the year, went to Sochi, came back half asleep, woke up briefly and have now fallen off a cliff into pure despicable solitude. If you know a way out, comment below. I’d love to hear it.
Dose of Buffa 