The Fifth Liners

Today a long standing rumour was executed as after almost a year of speculation, the Buffalo Sabres have traded long time goaltender Ryan Miller along with captain Steve Ott to the St Louis Blues in exchange for fellow goalie Jaroslav Halak, Chris Stewart, young prospect William Carrier along with a first round draft pick at the 2015 draft. The 2010 Veniza trophy winner has been under fire the last couple of seasons as the Sabres' form has declined considerably to the point of being laughable (their standing at the bottom of the Western Conference clearly reflects this point). As one of the prime assets on the market and a Olympic Gold Medalist, Miller has been one of the most sought after players in this trade deadline. But in the press conference when the announcement was made, Miller was visibly upset at leaving his home of the last 11 years. He leaves behind an impressive legacy at the HSBC Arena with 284 wins from 540 games played with a GAA average of 2.60! He also beat ...

Today the Olympic Ice Hockey rosters for the upcoming Sochi 2014 games have been officially confirmed, after much speculation surrounding them there has been some interesting selections made and no doubt this will spark furious debate among hockey fans, let's take a look at the main contenders. Canada  The 25 man Canadian squad certainly isn't lacking in depth, and this year they will be the team to beat and 11 of 2010 Gold Medal team will make a return journey! The defensive selection is one I highly commend as they have mixed youth of players like PK Subban along with defensive quality like Jay Bouwmeester. The St Louis pairing of JB along with Pietrangelo could well be a wise selection! Offensively the star count is ridiculously high with Crosby, Toews, Perry, Stamkos and Kunitz among others being featured and Canada will rely on this goal power to see them through! There are few surprise selections with Marc-Andre Fleury missing out in favour of Roberto Luongo and the ...

I know this piece will probably seem a bit hypocritical to some seeing as I basically slated the St Louis Blues during the off season and implied that they better not hold their breath waiting for the glory days to come! Well after last night's 6-0 thrashing of Edmonton, it seems this year could well be the year that hockey goes big in Missouri! So far the Blues firm has been nothing short of exceptional and currently they stand 4th overall in the Western Conference with only four points separating them from previous cup champs Los Angeles and Chicago! Last season brought a similar result and despite their best efforts, they were eliminated by the Kings in the playoffs first round. It seems head coach Ken Hitchcock has been firmly wracking his brains in the off season. His solutions to plugging the gaps seem to be working as the Blues have the third most goals in the Western Conference with 125 goals and have been led by the free scoring forward Alexander Steen with 38 points!...

My question this week once again turns to the city of St Louis as Mike poised this particular question to me:  “The St. Louis Blues are rebuilding their team, the big money signing of Bouwmeester and the extension of Pietrangelo show the team's commitment to its core group of players.T.J. Oshie and David Backes are great players but will the Blues need to shore up its group of forwards if they really want to challenge for the cup?”  Very good question Mike, so let’s go to work. In a city still reveling from the St Louis Cardinals victory in the 2011 World Series of Baseball, blues fans have had little to cheer about in recent years. Last year on paper appeared to be a success as the Blues finished Fourth in Western Conference and pushed the LA Kings all the way in their playoff quarter final and were only narrowly defeated in six games. St Louis now have a potentially great defensive pair after Calgary Flames’ financial problems forced them to trade Jay Bouwmeester las...

The St. Louis Blues ! There's been a lot of trades made this season, but Alex has challenged me to find the best off season trade this year. There's a lot of contenders to choose from, but one trade really stood out for me. After missing five of the last eight playoffs, the Blues have been steadily rebuilding. The main focus is on the blueliners, superstar Alex Pietrangelo has just been locked into a seven year contract and in April the team picked up Jay Bouwmeester from Calgary. The Blues are hedging their bets in Bouwmeester, paying him 2 million a year more than the high earning forwards T.J. Oshie and David Backes. The trade for Bouwmeester meant that the Blues gave up their first round draft pick as well as two of their prospects. A small price to pay for a guy who's played 635 consecutive games. Is this a step on the road to building a Stanley Cup winning team? Maybe. Time will tell.

Calgary Flames have been dealt another fatal blow this season as they continue to sell off their high end assets as now their popular defenseman Jay Bouwmeester has been traded to St Louis Blues along with the Blues 2014 First Round Pick, Minor League defender Mark Cundari and Swiss League prospect Reto Berra. But the Flames loss is the Blues gain as Bouwmeester has had an impressive record playing for Calgary and his previous team before that, Florida Panthers and has so far notched up 71 goals 229 assists over an 11 year career. But how ever he has yet to grace a play off game and currently has played 750 games without reaching the playoffs, maybe St Louis can help the Canadian break that spell. Flames GM Jay Feaster has confirmed that the Flames initated the deal, not Bouwmeester himself. St Louis it seems has gained a valuable asset for years to come! Mike's edit. Gutted that Bouwmeester isn't going to Detroit as rumoured, he'd have made a great addition to our d...