You won't hear me say this often...

... but I'm glad I didn't get a chance to watch the Blues game last night. Any game in which you allow RJ Umburger to score a hat trick can't be good, and any game where Barrett Jackman tries to kill someone (Rostislav Klesla), even if it is on accident, is probably one to avoid.

The upshot of this game, though, and the past few games, is that the scorers are waking up. Backes has points in 3 straight, Kariya scored in the game against Nashville and again last night, and hit the post on a break-away, and Oshie's starting to pick it up. Even Patrik Berglund seemed to have a little more pep, and was allowed ice time last night for the first time in 2 games. I'm not happy with the loss, and the 4-3 SO loss to Detroit, but we have been playing with considerably more focus.

Carlo "'Splodeybones" Colaiacovo sat out with a minor injury, so you would assume Pietrangelo would play. Right? Um, no. The Blues called up Jonas Junland for a game to play instead. The Blues' justification stands to reason:

Doug Armstrong, the Blues' director of pro personnel, said Junland was chosen because, like Colaiacovo, he's a lefthanded shot, and like Colaiacovo he plays the left point on the power play.

"The type of player that's leaving our lineup is the type of player we're replacing him with," Armstrong said. "This is not an indictment on Alex Pietrangelo. I think we're probably reading too much into Alex's situation."

Fair enough. The fact that Junland got re-sent down today probably speaks to Cola's return here in a few. But the vibe from the statements in that Post-Dispatch article don't sound positive. There's always the World Juniors, Alex.