It was nice to see that Yan Stastny has cleared waivers and was on the ice at practice this morning at the Mills.

At the beginning of the week I wrote that I didn’t see the Blues calling up Stastny based on the fact that he had to clear waivers and based on information I received before Saturday night’s game.  Evidently the injury situation finally caught up with the Blues and management deemed calling up Yan worth the risk.  Honestly in my opinion I’m glad that they called him up and that he cleared.  I’m not sure had they waited til later in the season to make the call, Yan would have cleared, that’s how well he’s played down in the AHL so far. 

Yan practiced on a line with Cam Janssen and Brad Winchester today, so it appears he’ll be back in that agitator role Blues fans are used to.  When asked about the way he’s played in Peoria versus the way he’ll play in the NHL, he said he understands the role he has in the NHL, and is fortunate that his game is able to adapt to play whatever style the big club will need from him.  Andy Murray went further to say Yan is an NHL player, had a great training camp, but was unfortunately just a victim of the numbers game.  I asked Stastny if it was bittersweet to leave the Rivermen a week after being named captain, and he basically said it was tough to leave, but it’s part of the job. 


Quick hits, news, and notes.

* Multiple sources are reporting that Dallas forward Steve Ott has received a two game suspension following his late hipcheck on Carlo Colaiacovo.  Carlo was upset about the hit that knocked him out of the game Saturday, and to be honest there was no reason for Ott to go low on a guy with the puck two zones away from the play. 

* Curiously the NHL did not review the knee-to-knee hit on B.J. Crombeen, which happened later in the game, and which to me was more malicious than the hipcheck, but either way justice has been served.  According to NHL.com, Ott is now considered a repeat offender (see photo) under the current rules of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

* Following practice, Coach Murray addressed the question of the strange scheduling this season that has the Blues making one game trips over short periods of time.  Murray said, “The idea of playing as many games in a short period of time as possible is good for the team…we found that out last year.”  Murray went on to compare it to the NFL schedule where when a team has a tough loss, they then have six days to think about it before they can move on.

* I asked Coach Murray why he thought struggling forwards have picked up their games when they have been matched up with B.J. Crombeen and Jay McClement on the stopper line.  First, T.J. Oshie scored his first goal of the season against Anaheim on that line. More recently David Perron recorded his first points while playing with the stopper line against Minnesota.  Murray said that Jay-Mac and Crombeen have been the most consistent forwards this season, but went on to say that playing on the stopper line simplifies the game.  Regarding the offensive output of both Oshie and Perron, Murray said that a consequence of playing against the other team’s top offensive line is that those lines don’t play much defense so there are more opportunities to score goals.  He added that Perron took advantage of those opportunities.