Led by snipers Evgeni Malkin and James Neal, the red-hot Penguins have won six games in a row. Both players scored their 26th goals of the season Sunday in a thrilling overtime victory over Washington. Pittsburgh’s offense, ranked sixth in the league, is still potent, despite the absence of Sidney Crosby and Jordan Staal, both on IR with concussion and knee problems respectively. The Pens have always provided the Blues with a formidable opponent and tonight’s game will be yet another barn burner as both teams vie for two important points. Expect a knock-down, rough, tough 200-foot game for a complete 60 minutes. A consistent effort will be necessary and required from all the players on both clubs. And, of course, everyone hopes that consistency will be also provided by the referees and linesmen.  

NHL officiating, both on and off the ice, remains terribly inconsistent as fans around the league shake their heads in bewilderment. In Pittsburgh, spectators could not help but wonder why the Capitals Alex Ovechkin escaped on-ice punishment for smashing defenseman Zbynek Michalek’s head into the glass. Ovechkin was suspended for three games yesterday by the NHL. So, a third-time offender who recklessly left his feet to deliver a deliberate head-shot gets the same as Ian Cole, a first-time offender with no intent to head shot. Fans in Columbus saw Red Wings forward Henrik Zetterberg push Nikita Nikitin as the Blue Jacket defenseman lost an edge and tumbled into the boards. Despite being assessed a major for boarding and a game misconduct, Zetterberg (who later admitted to NHL.com correspondent Brian Hedger, “The rule is the rule, I made contact and he went down… I don’t think I pushed him hard.”) was not suspended because he did not intend to injure Nikitin. Of course, Ian Cole and Chris Stewart of the Blues did not intend to cause injury to the Red Wings players they hit, as noted by Brendan Shanahan in his ruling on Cole, yet nevertheless each received three game suspensions, even for a first offense. And that’s the problem. Shanahan contradicts himself with just about each new video explaining his rulings. One unintentional hit is worth 3 games, another is worth no suspension at all. In one case, intent is taken into consideration; yet in another, intent is discounted. Some first offenses get more punishment than some repeat offenders. And if the ultimate purpose is to eliminate head shots, then how can fighting be tolerated, especially in cases in which there is no actual fight, yet blows to the head occur, as in the skirmish in which Detroit’s Jimmy Howard attacked the Blues David Perron? And so the beat goes on as the one consistent factor concerning NHL officiating is total inconsistency.

Both the Blues and Penguins came out of the NHL expansion womb in 1967. While the St. Louis franchise was granted conditionally, the Pittsburgh bid was guaranteed even before the NHL decided to double in size that year. In the spring of 1965, Pennsylvania state Senator Jack McGregor began lobbying some of his campaign contributors to bring an NHL franchise back to Pittsburgh. Previously, the Pittsburgh Pirates had played in the NHL from 1925 to 1930. The group of local investors included H.J. Heinz III, heir to the food company fortune, Steelers owner Art Rooney and Richard Mellon Scaife, billionaire newspaper publisher. With the help and influence of Chicago Blackhawks owner James Norris and brother Bruce Norris, owner of the Detroit Red Wings, the bid was quickly approved. Of course, the Red Wings received an undisclosed indemnification payment since they had sponsored the AHL Hornets as their farm club. And McGregor became president and chief executive officer of the Penguins as well as a Governor on the NHL Board. It was very nice how all that worked out, eh?

Since the six expansion franchises were hampered by restrictive rules that kept most of the major talent with the Original Six clubs, the first Penguin team was made up of minor leaguers with the exception of aging star forwards Andy Bathgate, Ab McDonald and Earl Ingarfield and defenseman Leo Boivin. The Pens would finish out of the playoffs with the third worst record in the league. The Blues, on the other hand, finished third, a mere three points behind Western Division leading Philadelphia and went to the Stanley Cup Finals, only to lose four straight to the Montreal Canadiens. However, the first-year Blues could take solace and pride in being in every game, losing each by a single goal, two in overtime.

The Blues have had an incredibly amazing run on home ice, winning 14 out of the last 15 games, including wins over the Red Wings, Sharks, Rangers and Predators. In those 14 games, the Note outscored the opposing teams 46-21. Well-rested All-Star Brian Elliott is expected to continue his excellent play this season and stifle the Penguin sharp shooters. With extended road trips coming up after the All-Star Game, the Blues need every possible point.

If the Blues organization is looking for a musical theme for this season, I would highly recommend Ringo Starr’s 1971 signature song “It Don’t Come Easy.” Watching the Blues offense and power play struggle recently against teams like Minnesota, Dallas and Edmonton has us all fully aware that we  ”Got to pay your dues if you wanna (cheer for) the Blues.” Yes, this love of ours “keeps growing all the time, and you know it don’t come easy.” The Blues have now won an amazing six of the last seven home games (and the only loss was in overtime); however, four of the victories were by a single goal, and the inability to finish scoring plays resulted in a mediocre 19 goals during that span. Despite the wins, the Blues offense and power play continue to struggle.

Speaking of struggling, the out of playoff contention Buffalo Sabres come visiting tonight to provide yet another chance for the Blues to possibly regain possession of  first place in both the Central Division and the Western Conference. The Sabres have fallen on hard times, sinking to the bottom of the Northeast Division, with a stuttering offense (25th in league ranking) and overwhelmed defense (ranked 24th). All-Star goaltender Ryan Miller is having his worst ever NHL season. Only one defenseman (rookie Marc-Andre Gragnani has a positive plus/minus rating. Supposed lynchpins Robyn Regeher, Christian Ehrhoff and Tyler Myers are a combined minus-32. Yikes! Former Blues shootout star Brad Boyes has only contributed three goals in 34 games, which costs the Buffalo salary cap a $4 million hit.

Birthed by expansion three years after the Blues, the Sabres organization has had some success (one President’s Trophy and three Conference championships). However, like the Blues, they have never won the Stanley Cup.  Buffalo has a rich hockey heritage as the home of the American League Bisons, who trace their lineage back to the 1920s. With their red-white-and blue Pepsi-Cola bottle-cap logo, the Bisons participated in ten Calder Cup finals, winning the AHL playoff championship five times, including 1969, their last year of operation. When the NHL awarded a franchise to the Knox Brothers, Seymour III and Northrup, heirs to the F.W. Woolworth Company fortune, they immediately announced a name-the-team contest, which was, not surprisingly, won by Seymour, who chose the name Sabres, noting it was a weapon carried by a leader and had a double-bladed purpose, strong and decisive on both offense and defense. Former Toronto GM and Coach Punch Imlach was brought in to lead the expansion Sabres. The old Buffalo Memorial Auditorium (affectionately called “The Aud”), built in 1939 as part of a WPA project, was renovated at a cost of $9 million (approximately $47 million in 2012 dollars), raising the roof and expanding hockey seating to almost 16,000.

The No. 1 consensus choice for the 1970 amateur draft was a highly touted center from the Montreal Jr. Canadiens named Gilbert Perreault. Buffalo won the spin of a roulette wheel and quickly chose the junior phenom, much to the dismay of the new expansion Vancouver Canucks, as well as the Montreal Canadiens, who previously had the option to choose any player of French-Canadian descent before the other NHL teams could select players. Since the number on the winning spin of the roulette wheel was 11, Perreault chose that as his number. Perreault went on to be the face of the franchise, scoring 38 goals his rookie season, easily winning the Calder Memorial Trophy. The following year, Buffalo chose sniper Rick Martin from the Montreal Jr. Canadiens and later added right winger Rene Robert in a trade with Pittsburgh. That trio would become known as the French Connection and would lead Buffalo to the playoffs for the first time in 1973. After a sub-par year, the Sabres made the Stanley Cup Finals in 1975 to do battle with the Broadstreet Bullies of Philadelphia. Due to excessive heat in Buffalo that year and the lack of air conditioning in the Aud, most of game three was played in a virtual fog. Players, officials and even the puck were invisible to fans in the stands. And during a faceoff, Sabres winger Jim Lorentz, another ex-Blue, spotted a bat flying across the rink and killed it with his stick. It was the first time an animal was killed during an NHL contest. The Sabres would somehow win that game, but lost the series to the Flyers in six. The French Connection era ended when Robert was traded to Colorado (Rockies) in 1979 and Martin to Los Angeles in 1981. Perreault retired as a Sabre in 1987.

With no French Connection and a troubled defense, Buffalo is a team the Blues can and should outscore. The likely return of winger Alex Steen tonight should improve the Blues offensive capabilities and delight the faithful with another home-ice win. However, as we already know, it won’t come easy.

Yes, your memory is good; the Edmonton Oilers were here just a scant two weeks ago. And here they are again to do battle with the Blues in yet another game that can see the Blues retake first place in the Western Conference and tie the Rangers for first in the entire league. After losing in Edmonton in October, the Blues fought back to overcome a two-goal deficit with three third period tallies, two on the power play, to even the series in a contest featuring skirmishes between David Backes and Ryan Smythe, Jamie Langenbrunner and Ladislav Smid and T. J. Oshie and Shawn Horcoff. Yes, that was the game in which Roman Polak was ejected for slashing Taylor Hall, who needed ten stitches to repair the damage to his head.

It’s been a pretty tough month for Edmonton’s first-overall choice from the 2010 draft as he was cut above the eye for 30 more stitches before Tuesday’s game in Columbus. Hall, not wearing a helmet for warm-ups, stepped on a puck and got tangled up with teammate Smid. As both players tumbled to the ice, defenseman Corey Potter came around the boards and tried to jump over the fallen players. Unfortunately, he came down and stepped on Hall’s face, slicing it open. Ouch! Hall joins eight other Oilers in the infirmary, including rookie sensation Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Jordan Eberle and Cam Barker. 

Of course, the Blues know all about injuries, averaging four players out or on IR per game this season. Every hockey team that has taken the ice, from amateur to professional and pee-wee to adult league, is aware of the potential for injury in perhaps the most dangerous team sport of all. And the NHL has had some of the most horrendous injuries imaginable. Perhaps the worst occurred in March 1989, when Buffalo goaltender Clint Malarchuk suffered one of the grisliest, visually gruesome injuries in the history of hockey. As Blues forward Rick Meagher sent the puck into the offensive zone, Blue Steve Tuttle collided with Sabres defenseman Uwe Krupp near the goal crease, and Tuttle’s skate came up and caught Malarchuk on his exposed neck, slicing the external carotid artery. With pools of blood covering virtually the entire goal crease, Malarchuk somehow left the ice under his own power with the aid of a trainer and was rushed to Buffalo General Hospital, where surgeons successfully repaired the damage. Malarchuk was released the following day. Unfortunately, two fans in attendance suffered heart attacks.

During a December 1980, game in Hartford, Whalers defenseman Mark Howe suffered one of the strangest injuries in NHL history. Late in the third period, Howe crashed feet-first into his own net and literally impaled himself on the metal pointed wedge at the bottom center of the cage that had come up off the ice. Howe had to be carried off the ice on a stretcher and was treated at a local hospital for a deep laceration to his left thigh and buttocks. The puncture narrowly missed the base of his spine, which would have crippled him for life. Thankfully, the extensive bleeding had been stopped by the training staff, and eventually Howe recovered to continue his all-star career for another fifteen years.

Old-timers will point to the injury suffered by Irvine “Ace” Bailey of the Toronto Maple Leafs as one of the most awful during the early years of the NHL. At a game in Boston in 1933, Leaf defenseman King Clancy had knocked down notorious Bruin tough guy Eddie Shore with a solid body check, and Shore, seeking revenge, hit the first Leaf he could find, which unfortunately was the meek, mild Bailey. Shore viciously hit Bailey from behind and knocked the smallish winger into the air, his head smashing into the ice, fracturing his skull. Bailey was knocked unconscious, his body twisted and twitching in a seizure-like state. Two brain operations later, Bailey finally recovered to live a normal life, yet his hockey career was over. In February 1934, the NHL held a benefit game for Bailey and his family by creating an all-star squad to play against the Maple Leafs. Ace was present at the benefit and as each player was introduced, he would hand them their jersey. When Shore, who was selected for the game, approached Bailey at center ice, the apprehensive crowd broke out with a standing applause as the two men shook hands and embraced. This, of course, was the precursor to the annual NHL All-Star game.

With Kris Russell ready to return and Alex Steen very close; and Andy McDonald and Kent Huskins just around the corner, hopefully the hockey gods will continue to smile on the Blues and stop the bleeding from so many injuries. That will surely enable the Blues to keep it going and stay ahead of the other big boys in the Western Conference.