It’s 1 a.m and I just got back home from the Blues preseason opener . . . they lost 2-1 to the Kings.

I had intended to write a blog during the game, but I got preoccupied with the Erik Johnson story. Just to get you up to speed, Johnson is having an MRI today in Cleveland on his right knee and the Blues hope to announce the results this afternoon.

Here’s what John Davidson said before Monday night’s game:

“When it all gets said and done, they’ll be giving us what their opinion is,” Davidson said, referring to Dr. Tony Miniacci, who will perform the MRI in Cleveland today. “The swelling has come out of the knee pretty well, which is a good sign. But we want to get a good, clear understanding of how the knee is and then an understanding of where we go from there.”

Here’s the scoop: It ain’t pretty.

Johnson has some damage to the knee, but just how much won’t be determined until today. The Blues are 95 percent sure they know what they’re looking at, but don’t want to confirm it until Johnson gets a second MRI. There is still some gray area in this equation, so while Johnson is expected to miss significant time, there’s also a chance that he’ll be able to rehab the injury and be back sooner than later.

I’ll save the rest for today.

For my story in Tuesday’s Post-Dispatch, click on this link:

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/stories.nsf/blues/story/41D821E4C17C03A8862574CD0014C0F8?OpenDocument

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Let’s talk about the game Monday: Not a bad effort from the Blues, who outshot the Kings 31-24.

The Kings had a 2-0 lead through two periods. The first Kings’ goal went off Charles Linglet in front of the net, and the deflection slipped in off the glove of Blues goalie Chris Mason. The second Kings’ goal came on the power play with Marek Schwarz in net.

The Blues had dozens of chances, but couldn’t finish. The two chances that come to mind were T.J. Oshie’s amazing center-ice pass to Matt Foy, who missed on the doorstep, and Trent Whitfield’s wrap-around attempt.

“I think we generated a lot of scoring chances tonight,” Blues coach Andy Murray said. “We generated a lot of chances and missed a couple of tap-ins. . . . We scored one goal, so we’ve got work to do. I thought our compete was good, I thought our forecheck was real aggressive. I thought we were real hard to play against tonight, which we want to be. It was two teams with young lineups competing.”

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Some general observations:

- Mason and Schwarz both looked pretty good. Schwarz looks like a different goalie (which you can read more about by clicking this link):

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/stories.nsf/blues/story/80CB53396F717DDA862574CD0014C10B?OpenDocument

- T.J. Oshie likes to hit. On his first shift as a Blue, he sprinted to the opposite side of the rink and whacked a Kings player. Later he took a hit from LA’s Wayne Simmonds and stood his ground. The line of Oshie, Chris Porter and David Backes kept the boards bouncing Monday night.

- Don’t forget that Brad Boyes and Keith Tkachuk stayed back in St. Louis Monday . . . but the line of Paul Kariya, Patrik Berglund and David Perron sure is fun to watch. With his long arm-span, Berglund looked spectacular handling the puck and Kariya was very involved in the play. He took the puck to the net and was ready to shoot from anywhere. Perron simply makes things happen. He took the shot that led to Kariya’s power-play goal late in the game.

- Matt Foy is physical and he can play, too. He did everything right, except failing to bury the pass from Oshie late in the second period, with the Blues down 2-0.

- Roman Polak looks fast, he had a couple of nice hits and he looks confident playing.

- Jonus Junland didn’t play much because of an injury. He was hit pretty hard at center-ice by Simmonds and took a spill. He left with a shoulder injury and didn’t return. After the game, Junland said his shoulder felt funny. He may not practice today, but the injury doesn’t seem serious. Junland (I’m told) had shoulder surgery in 2005.

- D.J. King engaged in a pretty good fight with Kevin Westgarth. At least it wasn’t his brother, Dwight King, who plays in the L.A. Kings’ system.

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The Blues are back at it Tuesday. They play the Dallas Stars in an AHL game at 3:30 p.m., followed by an NHL game at 7:30. Those with tickets to the 7:30 game can get into the 3:30 game for free.

JR