Hockey Guy is not the greatest fan of Saturday afternoon game, but this Red Wings-Blues matinee was great fun. Many fans prepared for the tilt by partying at the St. Patrick’s Day parade, which passed down Market Street right before the game.

Too bad this Red Wings team is all finesse. In the old (Chuck) Norris Division days, this would have been a free-for-all — on the ice and in the stands. This game was exciting, but pretty tame.

The Blues had no reason to start ruffian Cam Janssen, since Detroit starts three scoring lines and one counter-attacking checking line this season. Ah, for the days of Bob Probert, Joey Kocur and Darren McCarty . . .

FREE AGENCY ’09

TSN ran an excellent rundown of the top players headed toward free agency this summer. Many of these guys (like Keith Tkachuk) could re-sign with their current teams, but several interesting players – many of them late in their careers – will be looking for deals.

An older goaltender like Manny Fernandez or Nikolai Khabibulin could be interesting, at the right price. Or a younger goaltender like Antero Niittymaki or Craig Anderson might fit the Blues needs.

It’s tough to say how aggressive the Blues will be with position players, since the club will have Erik Johnson, Paul Kariya and (his back willing) Eric Brewer rejoining the talent base next fall.

Hockey Guy would like to see the Blues give potential free agent Brad Winchester on a new contract, but it has to be for reasonable money. The last quarter of the season will tell us where he deserves a seven-figure guarantee.

AROUND THE RINKS: Trent Whitfield skated in the warm-ups Saturday, then took off for Peoria to rejoin the Rivermen . . . Great stuff on late-season coaching changes and myriad other topics from the NHL.com’s Larry Wigge this week . . . The Sharks are glad to have Evgeni Nabokov back in goal after missing seven games with a lower body injury and the flu. Brian Boucher got exposed in his place . . . Red-hot Ilya Kovalchuk will miss at least one game with the inexplicably hot Thrashers due to a nagging upper body injury . . . The Stars won just three of their first 11 games after losing Bred Richards to a broken wrist. Their downturn helped the Note’s playoff cause, for sure, but the injury-riddled Blues can’t feel sorry for any other teams’ misfortune. BTW, Richards was a great pick-up last year for the Stars, a team that desperately needed to add a prime-age playmaker . . . The NHL salary cap may not shrink next year, but the league is headed a long-range market correction. Players who gained maximum-dollar extensions, like Vincent Lecavalier, should consider themselves fortunate. Teams rebuilding with a strong nucleus of young players, like the Blues, will be well-positioned in the New World Order . . . Nobody is surprised to see Rangers GM Glen Sather bail out former Oilers owner Peter Pocklington. Sather profited personally from Edmonton’s shameful talent tell-off when Pocklington owned that team, Peter has always been a scam artist – and now he is getting big heat from U.S. authorities over his alleged bankruptcy fraud . . . Record-setting Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur was taken 20th overall in 1990. The Toronto Globe and Mail notes that only three players taken ahead of him that year are still in the league: Tkachuk, Owen Nolan and Brad May. Considering the hard-nosed playing style of those three forwards, their longevity is amazing . . . Wayward Predators winter Alexander Radulov scored 48 points in 52 games for Salavat Ufa in Russia this year. Money troubles in the KHL has Nashville fans hopeful that Radulov could return to the Preds next season . . . Sabres winger Jason Pominville scored just twice during a frustrating 20-game span. And Old Friend Jochen Hecht, a 22-goal scorer last year, had just nine coming into this weekend. “Now is a good time to score goals,” Hecht told the Buffalo News. “We’ve got to make the playoffs, so I’ve got to find a way to contribute, whether it’s scoring goals or making defensive plays. That’s the way I’m going to look at it. Just forget the rest of the year and focus on the next 14 games that we have left.”