Jeremy Rutherford: Rain, rain go away. Well at least it'll be a good night inside the Scotty!

MikeS: JR,

Would you please elaborate if you can on the decision to send Armstrong down to make room for King? It seems with this group already up here there are enough guys that can be 'tough' and drop the gloves if needed. Armstrong seems to be the better scorer of the two so why the Blues' lovefest with guys like King and Janssen? Don't the Blues need more playmakers rather than pugilists?

Thanks as always for your work and time!

Jeremy Rutherford: This was a very tough decision for the organization. I know there are some that wanted Armstrong to stay. What it comes down to is this: If the Blues would have put King or Janssen on waivers, they probably would have lost them. The team didn't want to take that risk. They didn't want to lose Armstrong, but it was worth the risk.

I like Armstrong, but he too would've had a tough time cracking the current lineup.

Scott L: Hey JR,

When I was watching the Blues this past weekend, I noticed that a large portion of the Blues goals were on the Power Play. My input is that if we did not score those PP goals, we may have not have won both games. That concerns me a little bit as we go into the hockey season and brings to my question. How do you think the Blues are going to be able to create some more goals on the 5 on 5 and on the penalty kill where that might have been one of the places we lacked a lot of last year? Vancouver shut down our power play last year in the playoffs and we lacked those kind of goals which is probably why we got swept by them. Thoughts?

Jeremy Rutherford: That's a real good observation, Scott. The Blues scored nine goals in Sweden and four of them were on the power play. That means five 5 on 5 goals, which isn't bad for two games. I realize Detroit's goaltending was suspect, but goals are goals.

The truth is, the Blues' 5 on 5 play is going to be watched carefully all season. They were near the bottom of the NHL in that category last year. Erik Johnson is supposed to help that with his puck-moving ability, and Carlo Colaiacovo should be a contributor too. The bottom line is, it has to be better.

hockeybob: Hey Jeremy,

A few of us were wondering if the nights that the Blues wear their 3rd jerseys are already set? And if so, are they posted somewhere?

Also, I noticed that the Blues seemed to 'give up the blue line' instead of standing up the opposing players at or just before they enter the offensive zone. Is that an Andy Murray design? Or maybe it's determined by who they are playing at the time. Can you expound on that please???

Thanx,

HockeyBob

Jeremy Rutherford:
I'm sure they are set, but I don't have the dates. If I find out, I'll let you know.

Regarding your second question, I'm not sure if you mean the first two games, or if you mean the past couple of seasons. The Red Wings are so good with the puck and so good with their entries, it would be very difficult to stand up to them at the blue line.

If you're talking about the past couple of years, the Blues haven't had the personnel to be real aggressive or even physical at the blue line. Really, they've had to use a patchwork lineup to have six defensemen on the ice.

That's my take anyway. I'll have to ask Andy Murray and assistant Brad Shaw about their philosophy on the topic.

Ryan: Hey JR.

Any chance Pietrangelo plays in the home opener Thursday night?

Jeremy Rutherford:
No. Andy Murray said yesterday that somebody needs to play their way out of the lineup before he can put Pietrangelo in. With that said, Murray was very complimentary of Pietrangelo, saying that he's done everything possible to get into the lineup.