FanHouse Manny Legace

With the NHL playoffs just around the corner, FanHouse takes a look at some of the lesser-known teams that qualified. Monday's installment: the St. Louis Blues.

Raise your hand if you expected to see the St. Louis Blues as the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference playoffs. No hands raised, eh? Not surprising. Entering this season, not much was expected from the Blues after falling short of the postseason in each of the previous three years.

Despite a rash of injuries to several key players, the Blues were one of the best teams in the NHL during the second half, and now find themselves with an opening round match up against the Vancouver Canucks. So, who are these guys?

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?

Devils 3, Rangers 0: Scott Clemmensen has been fantastic for the Devils this season in the absence of Martin Brodeur, and on Monday night he registered his first shutout in New Jersey's 3-0 win over the Rangers.

Zach Parise picked up a pair of goals for the Devils, while Bobby Holik scored what proved to be the game-winner midway through the second period.

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.

It's been a rough season for the St. Louis Blues, a young team that's been decimated by injuries --ranging from the ridiculous, to the absurd -- so you'll have to excuse head coach Andy Murray if he's just a tad bit annoyed following 6-3 losses at home.

After Blake Wheeler and the Bruins completed their goal-scoring assault on Sunday, the St. Louis bench boss decided to go down the roster -- at least that's the way it seemed -- and point out the players who didn't exactly put on a strong showing against the top team in the Eastern Conference. Some guys played so poorly -- in his eyes -- that he mentioned them twice. And poor David Perron, I think that may have been the worst call-out of the bunch.

Jeremy Rutherford from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has the post-game carnage:

"I didn't think (Patrik) Berglund was good, I didn't think (David) Perron was good, I didn't think (Keith) Tkachuk was good ... I didn't think (Brad) Boyes was good," Murray said. "I thought (David) Backes was all right." "I expect Jeff Woywitka to be a lot better than he was today," he continued. "David Perron ... where's he? Berglund, I expect him to be better. Am I being a little hard on them here? That's just the way that it is."

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.

Well, plenty of people were jumping at the chance to tell you what to think about Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin's appearance in Philadelphia at a Flyers game. Now, here's your chance to gauge the crowd's reaction last night at the Scottrade Center, where she appeared to drop the ceremonial first puck before a game between the Blues and the Kings.

So, what do you think? I think we already know how Manny Legace feels.

Before last night's game between the hometown Blues and Kings in St. Louis, Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin was scheduled to drop the ceremonial first puck. But as the Blues came onto the ice led by goalie Manny Legace, Legace slipped onto the ice surface when he stepped onto the carpet that was going to be used for the Palin ceremony.

Seeing the risk, the team rolled up the portion of the carpet in front of the bench so the players could avoid stepping on it. Unfortunately, it was too late for Legace. Obviously in a bit of discomfort, Legace was seen taking a few extra stretches during warm-ups, and then proceeded to give up two goals on just 12 shots in the first period. He didn't return for the second, with the Blues saying he had suffered a "lower body injury." There's no word yet as to how much time he'll miss.

Video of the incident is after the jump.

There's nothing better than writing about something we can all disagree on. That's basically what ESPN has turned into between 5pm and 7pm EST every night. Just people with differing opinions bantering back and forth. With these noble ideas in mind, here's my list of questionable All-Star Selections.

Griping about All-Star selections -- It's one of those odd New Year's resolutions we all manage to miraculously keep year in and year out. These players are good, but they're not All-Stars in my mind. At least not this year. And if you don't like it, look on the bright side, tomorrow there will be a post on the most well-deserving players.

Questionable selection #4 - Jason Arnott
OK, what is this... 1996? This is only Arnott's second All-Star Game and he's not as big a name as he once was, but this selection is actually only mildly questionable. You can look at it as a guy who's only going because he's the only representative from his team. You can also look at it as a guy who at 33 is having the best season of his career.

Questionable selection #3 - Manny Legace
There's no doubt this guy is having a great year. The problem is, there are quite a few goaltenders in the West having better years. Two of them are in the ASG (Osgood, Nabokov) and one backed out (Luongo). Still, it's hard to believe that Pascal Leclaire, who already has seven (YES, SEVEN) shutouts and the Dominator did not make it past Legace. But I'm all for giving guys their due, and Legace certainly deserves his share.

Questionable selection #2 - Eric Staal
Granted, being selected only factors in on-ice accomplishments, but Staal's run-in with the law this summer is unbecoming of an All-Star. Not something we want our kids to look up to and that whole bit. This story came to the forefront and then went out back and died in the quietest and quickest way possible. That's to say that there really wasn't a big deal made out of it... It's hard to pick at Staal's numbers with almost a point per game, but he does have an ugly -7 +/- rating.

Questionable selection #1 - Scott Niedermayer
Is this guy a great defenseman? Absolutely. Did he win a Cup last year? No doubt about it. But what has he done for me lately? Nothing. He left his team hanging for almost half the season while he debated retirement. As good as he is, there's no Niedermayer in team. In my opinion, 17 games doesn't cut it. He's been good since he has been back (2G, 9A) but I think this would have been an honor better fitted for someone who didn't, how do I say this, bail on their team for almost half the season. Not to mention he's the fourth Duck on there, none of which were voted in.