FanHouse ErikJohnson

Let there be no question that the St. Louis Blues have character. They have guts. They have fire. Oh, and they have some great young players who will only get better as the years go by.

Trailing 2-0 in the game and 3-0 in the series, the Blues showed zero quit, rallying to tie the score on two second-period goals, and then getting some great goaltending from Chris Mason, who dueled with Roberto Luongo through a scoreless third period. That duel continued deep into overtime, before Alex Burrows scored his second of the game to eliminate St. Louis, 3-2.

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The St. Louis Blues have had a wonderful run this season. Just making the playoffs was an awesome achievement, and they should be very proud of themselves, no matter what happens from here. None of this is about trying to throw a bucket of cold water on a fine young team.

Reality, however, is about to set in. The Blues youthful exuberance on offense has been absolutely no match for the Vancouver Canucks disciplined defensive work in the first two games of their Western Conference quarterfinal series. In almost a carbon copy of Wednesday night's opener, Vancouver beat St. Louis 3-0 in Game Two Friday at GM Place in Vancouver.

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Entering the 2008-09 season, not much was expected from the St. Louis Blues. Most people recognized their talented young core, but few, if any, were predicting a trip to the playoffs. With just 13 games remaining on their schedule, the Blues enter Tuesday's game in Edmonton just two points out of the final playoff spot in the Western Conference, and have an opportunity to move into a tie for the No. 8 spot with a win (and a Dallas loss). So, how did they get here?

We're in the home stretch of the NHL season, and both conference playoff races are heating up as the standings change on a daily basis. The Eastern Conference has seven teams separated by just seven points in the No's 4 through 10 spots, while everybody except Phoenix and Colorado is still competing for a playoff spot in the West.

We're less than one year away from the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Once again, the NHL will take a mid-season break and allow its players to participate in the Games.

After a wonderful run to silver in Salt Lake City back in 2002, Team USA was nothing short of disappointing in Torino three years ago. The Americans went just 1-3-1 in pool play, including an inexplicable tie against Latvia, before dropping a 4-3 decision to Finland in the quarterfinals. Heading into 2010, general manager Brian Burke has plenty of decisions to make, mainly surrounding the question of age.

If the St. Louis Blues didn't have bad luck this season, they would have absolutely no luck. On Saturday night, the Blues announced that forward Paul Kariya will be undergoing surgery to repair a torn muscle in his hip, as reported by Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The surgery will, obviously, keep him out of the lineup for quite a while, if not the remainder of the season.

The 34-year old forward had not played in a game for the Blues since November 5, a 5-2 loss at Anaheim, while he had 15 points (2 goals, 13 assists) in 11 games this season, after a 65 point effort a season ago.

One of my favorite hockey moments will always be game 6 of the 2003 Stanley Cup finals when, after being on the wrong end of a Scott Stevens elbow, Kariya returned to the game and blasted a slap shot behind Martin Brodeur, helping the Ducks force a game 7. Ugly hit. Fantastic shot.

Kariya joins Erik Johnson, Manny Legace, and Andy McDonald -- just to name a few -- on the lengthy list of Blues to miss significant time this season in a variety of bizarre manners. Just as a reminder, Johnson injured his knee in a golf cart accident, while Legace was knocked out of the lineup after he tripped and fell on Sarah Palin's red carpet.

There were three pretty significant injuries in the NHL over the past week, as Francois Beauchemin (Ducks), Andrew Ference (Bruins) and Andy McDonald (Blues) all suffered major leg injuries that will keep them out of their respective lineups for extended periods of time.

A quick look at each injury, and the impact they will have on each team.

First, for the Ducks, Beauchemin suffered a torn ACL in Anaheim's 4-3 loss to Nashville on Thursday night, and is expected to miss the next six months. The 28-year old defenseman has been a steady 25-minute per game player for the Ducks since being acquired in a trade with Columbus during the 2005-06 campaign.

Aside from being second on the team in ice-time, Beauchemin was also one of the team's best shot blockers and penalty killers. His injury, combined with the early season trade of Mathieu Schneider to Atlanta (for salary cap purposes) has left the Ducks once vaunted defensive unit rather depleted. Let's face it, no disrespect to Kent Huskins and Bret Hedican intended, but it's not exactly the unit that hoisted the Stanley Cup two years ago.

If you're looking for a positive for the Ducks, Beauchemin's injury and ensuing placement on the long-term injury list has cleared enough space under the league's salary cap for the team to bring up top prospect Bobby Ryan. Ryan, a former No. 2 overall pick, had registered 19 points in 14 games for the Iowa Chops of the American Hockey League.

Now that we're into 2008, recovered from our hangovers (or flus, in my case), and pretty much halfway through the NHL season, it's time to reminisce about the past and look towards the future. There is no better way to do both than be looking at the league's rookies through the first half.

Here are the rookie scoring leaders as of January 3rd ...

Player	Team	GP	G	A	P	PIM	+/-	TOI/G
Patrick Kane	CHI	38	9	28	37	26	-2	18:29
Jonathan Toews	CHI	36	15	17	32	26	5	18:42
Nicklas Backstrom	WSH	40	7	22	29	10	-3	17:27
Tobias Enstrom	ATL	41	3	21	24	20	4	24:03
Martin Hanzal	PHX	38	3	17	20	16	0

For sure, the most surprising rookie on the top five is Tobias Enstrom of the Atlanta Thrashers. The 23-year old from Sweden was an 8th round selection in the 2003 Entry Draft, and pretty much written off as another 'small' (ie. under six feet tall) offensive defenseman who would never do well out of Europe.

Well, Enstrom is getting the most ice time for any rookie, by far, and is giving the Thrashers an unexpected boost to their rather poor defence corps. It's very hard for a defenseman to just come into the league and look like a 10-year vet (it took Lubomir Visnovsky a few years, for example), but Enstrom has done just that.

Erik Johnson, the first overall pick in the 2006 Entry Draft, had spurned the temptation to turn pro and earn some instant cash. Instead, Erik lived his dream to play with the University of Minnesota, and had given hints that he intended to stay there for a few years.

Well, the lure of the NHL must have finally got to the boy as he's signed on with the St. Louis Blues.

I talked to Erik today (Wednesday) and he told us he's not going back to the University of Minnesota and I got a big smile on my face," Blues President John Davidson told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

According to the Post-Dispatch, the contract will be for three years, with a base salary of $765,000 and an $85,000 signing bonus. The contract will also be loaded with incentives that could bring him anywhere from $2 to $3 million per season.

Widely considered the #1 prospect in the game today, Blues fans hope Johnson can bring them the same kind of 2-way defensive dominance that Chris Pronger or Al MacInnis brought to the club during the good old days.

While Johnson had offers to join the Blues right after being drafted, it was best for all involved that he went back to university. Why burn up a year of his contract to be overwhelmed at the NHL level, playing on a bad team? Now that Erik is one year older and more mature, he should be much more able to adapt to the NHL game.

The first step in Erik's development will be joining Team USA in the upcoming World Championships in Moscow. This will give fans their first chance to see how Erik does against some of the best in the world.

You can read more on Erik Johnson at Hockeysfuture.com