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Rams:
It was a return to form for the Rams on Sunday as they ran the NFC leading Minnesota Vikings out of the Trans World Dome with an impressive 40-29 victory. Gone were the multiple turnovers and bad penalties that had hampered the Rams in recent weeks and created the losses that made Sunday's match with the Vikings a "must-win" game.
Now at 9-5 the Rams are in good shape regarding a playoff berth. Sure they have to win two tough games at Tampa Bay and New Orleans (both 9-5 as well) to make sure they get in, but anybody who saw Sunday's game knows the Rams can beat anybody at any place if they bring their "A" game to the stadium.
The Rams defense continued to show improvement Sunday against the Vikings explosive offense. Nobody is going to shut them down all together but the Rams allowed them only 21 meaningful points (the Vikings added a late cosmetic touchdown and two point conversion), not bad when you consider the weapons the Vikings have on offense.
Kurt Warner, Torry Holt, and Marshall Faulk all returned to
their form of earlier this season and all of 1999 in lifting the
Rams to victory.
Warner and Faulk were especially brilliant. Warner was razor sharp
and looked nothing like the guy who had thrown four interceptions
just a week earlier. Faulk became the first player in Rams history
to rush for four touchdowns in a game and his 135 total rushing
yards pushed in over 1,000 for the season, the sixth time in his
career he has accomplished the feat.
The Rams also brought back the "Bob 'N Weave" touchdown dance against Minnesota, ironic seeing that is was Vikings coach Dennis Green who spearheaded the offseason effort to ban such end-zone celebrations. The Rams weren't so much trying to rub it in Green's face as they were just trying to recapture the Super Bowl swagger that had left them beginning in Week 8.
On Sunday, the Rams looked every bit like a Super Bowl team. Now they must try next week and find a way to solve the Buccaneers defense which slowed them down in the NFC Championship game last January, holding the Rams high octane offense to only 13 points. The Rams went with a conservative offensive game plan in that game, but Mike Martz will have none of that this time around against Tampa Bay. Still, the Bucs do have the speed on the defensive side of the ball to give the Rams fits.
The Bucs offense is ordinary and the rapidly improving Rams defense should be able to stuff them if they play as they have the past two weeks. Shaun King is not going to keep opposing defensive backs awake at night in horror at the prospect of him lighting them up. If the Rams can muster 21-24 points and play a mistake free game, they should win. Of course, that is easier said than done.
In any event, it should be a dandy on Monday Night Football next week when these two playoff contenders collide in Florida.
Blues:
What more can be said about the Blues at this point? They clearly are the first or second best team in the NHL this season and they will continue to rack up points in the regular season, as their dismantling of a horrible Chicago Blackhawks team in two games over the weekend proved. The Hawks are just miserable defensively, and their goaltending is in the league's bottom third without question. The Blues were able to win 6-4 on Saturday night in what was no where close to one of their top performances, and they simply smoked the Hawks in Sunday's rematch at the United Center in Chicago 6-1. It's a true testament of a great team when you can not play a full 60 minutes and still come out victorious as the Blues did Saturday night at Savvis Center.
The most impressive thing about this Blues team is their depth. Wingers Tyson Nash and Scott Young miss a game this week against Anaheim. No problem. The Blues recall Daniel Corso and Pascal Rheaume from Worcester of the AHL and Corso scores the game's lone goal. Sean Hill is set to miss some time on defense with a groin injury, insert Vladimir Chebaturkin and the Blues don't miss a beat. Don't forget Marc Bergevin is still around and may finally get in a game this week since Chebaturkin struggled a bit in Chicago on Sunday night. The Blues have already won 20 of their first 27 games and goalies Roman Turek and Brent Johnson have each won 10.
Defensemen Mike Van Ryn, Jaroslav Obsut, Peter Smrek, and forwards Marty Reasoner, Ladislav Nagy, Mark Rycroft, Corso, and Rheaume are all starring at Worcester, leading the Ice Cats to the AHL's second best record.
Times are good with the Blues right now as this is truly a dominant team that could go down as one of the best regular season teams in NHL history. Hockey fans throughout St. Louis have good reason to believe that the 2001 playoffs will prove to be a much different story than years past.
Cardinals:
Mike Hampton took the Colorado Rockies offer and in the process
left the Cardinals scrambling. Having to wait to see if Hampton
accepted their seven- year, $91 million offer, the Cards had to
put everyone else on hold. That meant relief pitchers Terry Mulholland,
who signed with the Pirates, Tom Gordon, who singed with the Cubs,
and utilityman Shawon Dunston, who signed with the Giants.
GM Walt Jocketty now plans to pursue the trade route, the same route he worked so brilliantly last year. But one has to wonder how many more "three prospects for one established player" type deals the Cardinals can still make. Their farm system is thinning out because of so many such moves over the past year and now Jocketty's hands are tied a bit. Let's hope he doesn't move gifted lefthanded pitching prospect Bud Smith in any such deal. \There are still some free agents out there that could help the Redbirds, but with the way the money is being thrown around this offseason it is tough to get anyone at an affordable price.
The latest example saw the Mets sign righthanded starter Kevin Appier for $10 million a year over four years on Sunday. Appier is a nice pitcher but he has had a severe shoulder injury which cost him most of the 1998 season, and his ERA was close to five last year with Oakland.
Fans should enjoy this 2001 baseball season because it could be the last for a while with the impending labor strife that looms ahead when the current Collective Bargaining Agreement expires in October.
Ten million dollars a year for Kevin Appier? Good luck Walt.
Blues:
The Blues opened their season on Thursday night in Phoenix with a slight hiccup against the Coyotes which resulted in a 4-1 loss. In the two games since they have looked every bit like the team that won Presidents' Trophy last season, by totally dismantling the San Jose Sharks and Anaheim Mighty Ducks over the weekend.
All for lines and all six defensemen played well, as did goaltenders Brent Johnson and Roman Turek. With the possible exception of New Jersey, no team in the NHL has the kind of depth the Blues do. Third-line center Marty Reasoner would be a first or second line player on 90 % of the teams in the league. Constant expansion has watered down the league to a sickening level. Look at some of the players the Mighty Ducks ran out with regularity in their miserable performance against the Note on Sunday afternoon. Has anybody except hockey die-hards heard of Ladislav Kohn, Jonnas Ronnqvist, Mike Leclerc, Dan Blysma, Niclas Havelid, or Pavel Trnka? Why was somebody named Antti Aalto centering their second line?
The Blues have former Selke candidate Craig Conroy centering their fourth line and they had to move 1999-2000 19-goal scorer Mike Eastwood to the wing in order to accommodate him. Conroy is better than any center that was in Anaheim's lineup on Sunday. The Blues are in good shape even with second line pivot Michal Handzus sidelined for a time with a pulled abdominal muscle. They have a bunch of good players at all positions and there are more being groomed on the farm at Worcester.
It's also nice to see veterans like Scott Young and Pierre Turgeon playing as if they will be sent to the minors if they have a bad shift. Both players have played the first three games as if they were in Game 7 of a playoff series. Turgeon has looked every bit as good as he did last season before his thumb injury, and Young is determined to avoid the slow starts that have plagued his first two seasons as a Blue.
They may not be front page news right now, but the Blues time to thrill the St. Louis sports fans will come.
Bank on it.
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