D Day

We're playing for pride tonight. We haven't been swept since the Dallas Stars did it in 1994, and we'd really rather not be swept tonight.

Is this team young? For the most part, yes. Are they untested? As far as the playoffs are concerned, indeed they are. But what they fought through during the regular season is a testament of the skill that these boys have and what the future holds for this organization. This has been one of the best rebuilds I have ever seen (of course, I live in Atlanta, where the Five Year Plan has now become the Ten Year Plan, so that's probably a bad thing to compare it with) - it yielded massive success probably 2 years ahead of schedule. I brought my mother to the preseason Thrashers/Blues game down here, and we were right next to the Blues' bench. Mom grew up going to games and watching the Plager Bros. play, so imagine her surprise when she saw all the young kids out there. "They all look like they're 12!" was her response when she saw them, but after the game she was very impressed with their speed, their style, and just how well they played.

We're here, and we got nothing to lose. Bring it.

There's an interesting quote from Alan Muir over at SI. He draws an interesting Buffy analogy:

That's the sort of lesson that teams learn the hard way. To paraphrase the eloquently self-aware Buffy Summers, these Blues are cookie dough, and they're not done baking. The wait isn't much fun, but having the Canucks turn up the heat on this group definitely is part of the process.

At some point, these guys will be cookies. But not this year.

There's some joy to be found in cookie dough, too. So, we're five by five* regardless of if we win or lose... but let's go out there and get those bitcas good, shall we?* Especially ones who decide to trash talk players wives, or talk smack about the team in general. You don't pull the mask off the ol' Lone Ranger, and you don't mess around with David Backes.

No special teams meltdown, no line shuffles, and the crowd better sustain the pressure as much as the team does. If they score, don't be quiet, PLEASE. Don't let them deflate you like the thundersticks they're handing out. Do NOT line up at the all-you-can-eat moron bar.*

*I apologize for the Buffy slang, but when someone quotes it in SI, I feel the need to run with it.