Sturm Eyeing December 23rd Return
Newly acquired forward Marco Sturm looked good skating Thursday morning as he continues to build up strength in his surgically repaired knee. There’s been plenty of drama surrounding Sturm who was finally traded to Los Angeles after the original deal with Boston was put on hold.
The delay in the trade between Boston and LA had more to do with Sturm’s left knee which he injured back in 2008. Apparently there was some arthritic buildup in his left knee that set Sturm’s return date back. A source with LA says there was never any concern with his right knee which he injured last season in the playoffs.
Both Sturm and the Kings are targeting a December 23rd return date against Edmonton. There is an outside chance he plays December 21st against Colorado if Sturm tells the coaching staff he’s ready to go.
Kings D-man Rob Scuderi needed more than 20 stitches to close a cut in his lip last Monday in Detroit thanks to a Justin Abdelkader high stick. Scuderi made a visit to see the Blues team dentist this week as the Kings have been in St. Louis since Tuesday.
Hollywood actress Katie Cassidy has been in St. Louis this week visiting her boyfriend and Kings forward Jarret Stoll.
The Kings never had any intention of loaning rookie Kyle Clifford to Canada for the upcoming World Junior Championships later this month. “We gave them Brayden Schenn, that should be enough” said Kings Head Coach Terry Murray.
Blues D-man Roman Polak will pay a visit to the doctor on Friday to have his surgically repaired wrist checked out. He began shooting pucks this week as he’s still likely looking at a January 2011 return.
D-man Alex Pietrangelo skated this morning but remains day to day with a shoulder injury.
The Blues will make an announcement tonight regarding the significance of Erik Johnson's knee injury he suffered Wednesday in Detroit.
More to come,
Andy Strickland
strickland.andy@gmail.com
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Uh-oh.
Sobotka has been a bright spot at least. He's got pretty good hands, nice pick up by JD.
Nikithin isn't brutal. I'm thinking a lot of his mistakes are coming from his lack of English. When split seconds count a voice can travel faster than a player and that can save you alot of choices and what have you.
Sobotka's already one of my all time favorite players. I loved watching him in the play offs last year and seeing him in the Note has been awesome.
If not, we will be seeing more games like the one in Detroit than the one last night. Believe me, I want to believe that the team we currently have can do what they did last night every night. I just know that it won't happen. flag this comment
There really is a lot of positives that you can take from this rash of injuries - mainly the Blues are getting a good long look at a lot of guys and virtually everyone who dresses is getting opportunities to get as much ice time and he can earn.
Guru mentioned Sobotka.
Has anyone noticed how well Patrick Berglund is playing?
How about Ian Cole? Tell that kid to find a place to live in St. Louis, you ain't going anywhere buddy.
Would anyone else dress Cam Janssen tomorrow night for the specific purpose of going out and beating the ever loving @#$% out of Joe Thornton?
Despite all these injuries, a lot of these guys are playing waaay above their paygrade like Sobotka and Steen. And thank God someone finally told Winchester to stand in front of the net. flag this comment
Why I want another offensive threat: Do I believe it will solve the Blues' problems--No. Do I think it could help them when a few extra games during this rash of injuries--Yes.
Why am I interested in guys that have underachieved this year? Many are in contract years and want to make a statement and a few of these cases they are not able to do so. This despite some of their reputations for taking nights off. We could actually afford one of these guys and for them to take a night off. I introduce to you my three picks for potential new Blues players: Frolov, Zherdev and Kovalev. All posses tremendous amounts of skill and none seem to be able to show up with it every night. These guys are perfect third liners when the team is healthy and in situations like now even if they show up every three games it would be a healing elixer to the score sheet.
I think the time is here for the Blues to find a new home for Brad Boyes. If there's a similar player out there that has his team scratching their heads trying to figure out how to get their guy going - maybe some new surroundings for both guys could be a positive.
Boyes doesn't really do much of anything else like some of the other Blues' forwards, if he's not scoring, he's invisible. It's hard to justify his presence out there on a lot of shifts. flag this comment