2006 St Louis Blues Preview

2006 St Louis Blues Preview from Maddux Sports. With the NHL Hockey Season opening up, now is the time to get aquatinted with the 2006 teams and players. Remember if you are NHL hockey betting look no further, as we offer hockey picks and can help you turn a profit betting on the NHL this season.

2006 St Louis Blues Hockey Season Preview

Certainly you can argue which team was the worst one last year, but in that mix you would need to include the Blues. They finished last in their conference and last in the NHL. Their offense was rated 30th, defense 28th and power play 27th. The highlight, if you want to call it that, was the penalty kill, which was at 82.2% (15th overall).

There should be more offense this season with winger Keith Tkarchuck (15 G, 21 A, 36 Pts in 41 games) healthy and playing in a contract year and with the addition of vets Bill Guerin (17 G, 27 A, 40 Pts.) and Doug Weight (15 G, 42 A, 72 Pts). There’s some fine young talent too, including Lee Stempniak (14 G, 13 A, 27 Pts).

Christian Backman (6 G, 12 A, 18 Pts in 56 games), who has begun to bloom as a two-way player, anchors the defense. Backman was the team’s ice time leader and also a leader by example on the ice. Free agent Jay McKee (5 G, 11 A, 16 Pts) will be a strong presence and a healthy Eric Brewer (6 G, 3 A, 9 Pts in 32 games) will add more stopping power and goal scoring.

Disastrous is the best way to describe the Blues’ goaltending in 2005-06. Curtis Sanford (33 GP, 13 W, 13 L, 5 OT, 2.66 GAA, .908 SP) blew out a knee and then the season turned ugly. Replacements Patrick Lalime and Reinhard Divis just didn’t cut it. Sanford enters as number one, but is coming back from a tough injury. If he is lost, Jason Bacashihua (19 GP, 4 W, 10 L, 1 OT, 3.23 GAA, .899 SP) an athletic player with great potential, will probably backup.

Can things get any worse for St. Louis than they did last year? Probably not. There will be more stability but still plenty of frustration. The playoffs are doubtful, and that’s an optimistic assessment.

For more information on the 2006 St Louis Hockey Club check out the Blues team website.