An entire post of random thoughts

I would like to start off this blog by giving a sincere and heartfelt congratulations to both the Texas Tornado and St. Louis Bandits of the NAHL. They had one of, if not the best series of the first round of the division playoffs. The Tornado gave the defending champion Bandits all they could handle and more. Texas won the first two games of the series in St. Louis. Then the Bandits stole back two games in Texas, including game four's triple overtime winner, and then St. Louis won another overtime thriller at the Hardees Iceplex in game 5. Jordan Bourgonje scored with 12 seconds left to tie it up and then Grant Gettinger scored with 9:22 left in OT to win it and advance to the division finals. The Tornado goaltender, Dan Sullivan, was definitely the top star of the series. He kept his team in every game despite being badly outshot in just about every contest. It was a privilege to call that game and I'll have highlight videos posted down at the bottom.

- On to the Rams. I have another blog about my opinion on who the team should draft, but I have resigned myself to the idea that St. Louis will probably draft a quarterback and that man will most likely be Sam Bradford. While this is what will likely happen I still say that it is a mistake. I still don't see the smarts in drafting an injury prone, shotgun system quarterback who isn't very mobile. The Rams offensive line, even when semi-decent, has been bad enough to cost us two good to elite quarterbacks. Kurt Warner got injured and shellshocked from too many hits as a St. Louis Ram. Marc Bulger looked like a zombie he got hit so much and developed happy feet, which signaled his end in this town. Now the brains behind the scenes think it wise to bring in someone who has repeated shoulder problems from being hit and someone who isn't any more mobile than Bulger was and put him behind the same offensive line. Also there isn't anyone for him to throw to. I'm sorry, but when the team's best receivers are an undersized, too-highly drafted Avery and a practice squad castoff from out east, then I highly doubt this team's offensive output will improve with a combination of AJ Feely and Sam Bradford.

- The St. Louis Blues officially made Davis Payne their full time headcoach. This is a good idea to me. I don't know who all is out there, but as a fan I saw enough improvement under Payne to give him a full season to show what he can do with this team. Also, with the retirement of GM Larry Pleau, new GM Doug Armstrong has an ideal situation with the team keeping Payne. As suggested to me by a friend, Armstrong either looks good by Payne keep his job and having the team succeed under him or if the team falters again he can say that he wasn't fully the GM yet and can bring in his own coach next season. Personally, I think Payne will succeed. Whether or not he's the coach to bring a Cup to the Lou, I don't know. Yet, he can identify with the younger players easier and there needs to be more of them on the team next year.

The Blues need to add either a top line scorer or solid veteran defenseman with enough left in the tank that they don't have cement in their skates. Goaltending has to be addressed as well. Chris Mason is a quality goalie but too inconsistent. If someone is out there to be picked up that would be an improvement, then the Blues should jump on that. All that said, regardless of roster moves, this team has to just simply improve and eliminate their mistakes. Even after Payne was brought in as coach, the club often did many of the same mistakes as when Andy Murray was coach. To me that says that coaching was not the only problem. Only time will tell and for this writer, September can't get here quickly enough. At least there is the World Cup in July to tide me over.

- Although my Blues are not involved, I will be interested to see how the NHL playoffs unfold. Lots of questions. Can the Coyotes hold home-ice advantage or will Detroit keep up their hot play since the end of the Olympics? Will Washington finally use all that talent to get to the finals or will they falter again? Can Ryan Miller carry the Sabers the way he did Team USA?

From a personal standpoint, I hope the answer to all of those is yes. I want Detroit gone in the opening round. I want Washington to make it to the Conference Finals at the very least if not the NHL finals. A matchup against Pittsburgh would be great for TV, but it would benefit the league just as much to have Ovechkin in the finals as Sidney Crosby. Plus Sid the Kid just rubbed me the wrong way after the Canadians defeated USA. Also, I would love to see an Ovechkin vs. Miller conference final but I'm not sure if Buffalo has the scoring to make it that far. We will see.

That'll pretty much wrap it up for this post. Again, check out the highlights of game 5 between the Bandits and Tornado at the bottom. Just remember, it's just my opinion...but I'm right.