Blues coach Andy Murray walked to the podium for this afternoon’s press conference and said he had a statement to make:

“Get your notepads out here,” Murray said to the media. “You take a look at that Calgary series with Chicago and you’ve got the controversial goal with (Miikka) Kiprusoff. You’ve got the Mike Cammalleri incident . . . are you writing this? . . . you look at Boston-Montreal and you’ve got the scrum at the end of the game and the face wipe and a bit of a controversy there. You go to Pittsburgh and you’ve got the situation with (Daniel) Carcillo at the end of the hockey game. I have to apologize because all we’re giving you guys here is ‘Snow-gate.’”

That would be a shot at the media that chased the story yesterday about Andy McDonald and David Perron stopping in front of Vancouver goalie Roberto Luongo in Game 1 Wednesday and sending ice shavings into his mask. As we always do, the media took the jab in stride.

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Vancouver coach Alain Vigneault was also in a jolly mood today. Vigneault, some Blues’ fans may remember, played 42 games with the Blue Note in 1981-82 and ‘82-83.

“Forty-two of the best NHL games you’ve ever seen in your life,” Vigneault said. “Bernie (Federko) was there . . . he can attest to that.”

You won’t find Vigneault’s name in the team’s record books, however. He had two goals and seven points in those 42 games. After his playing career was over, Vigneault also did some work for the Blues as a scout.

“The only thing I can say is obviously their scouting has improved,” Vigneault said. “They drafted me and now they’re drafting these great young players.”

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Blues VP of hockey operations Al MacInnis had some high praise for defenseman Barret Jackman in a Canadian newspaper today.

“When you look at what this guy did, he’s had a great, great season for us,” MacInnis said. “People think of Barret as an old-school, stay-at-home tough guys, but I’ll tell you, he can move the puck, and you saw that a little bit in Game 1. When Brewer went down, he joins with rookie (Roman Polak) and together they’re out against the others team’s top line night after night after night. I now the stats (minus-17) aren’t all that impressive, but he’s had a great year for us.”

Jackman played 22:49 in Game 1 and was a minus-1 with three shots and two blocked shots.

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Defenseman Carlo Colaiacovo is OK after running head-first into the goal post Wednesday in Game 1. It looked extremely painful, but Colaiacovo popped up quickly and didn’t miss a beat.

“When Carlo hit the net, you could hear the bench groan,” Murray said. “I said, ‘Guys, you’re groaning about the old Carlo. He’s going to get up.’”

When Colaiacovo was in Toronto, he had a reputation of being injury prone. In fact, Maple Leafs coach Ron Wilson said Colaiacovo’s injuries were a result of him not being in shape.

After showing the replay of the incident on canadian TV, the famous Don Cherry quipped: “It looks like he’s in pretty good shape now.”

Said Colaiacovo: “I heard that. It was funny. For the last couple of weeks, I heard he’s been saying some good things about me. It’s nice to hear.”

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Happy 27th birthday to Blues forward Brad Boyes today! Also, Cam Janssen celebrated his 25th birthday last Wednesday.

JR