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Preseason preparations
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Obviously these are cupcake games, but the St. Louis Blues wrapped up their preseason with commanding wins over the Dallas Stars 5-0 and Linkoping HC 6-0 over the past week.
The latter was an exhibition in Sweden against a team from the Swedish Elite League (largely considered the best league in the world not named the NHL).
The game was a warmup before the Blues take the ice Friday against the Detroit Red Wings in the 09-10 season opener in Stockholm.
While you can take these results with a grain of salt, the Blues look to be skating in top form before the opener.
Paul Kariya, returning from hip surgery, notched two goals during the Swedish exhibition game and the Blues got another solid performance between the pipes.
This time it was a trio of goaltenders who got the "W." Starter Chris Mason looks to picking up where he left off from the 2008-09 regular season and newcomer Ty Conklin has been a solid choice as a backup for the season. Expected Peoria starter Ben Bishop got the call in the third period to preserve the shut out.
Outside of the Linkoping exhibition, Mason has recorded a goals-against of 1.00 and a save percentage of .961 in four preseason games for the Blues. If Mason comes anywhere near the performance he turned in last year, the Blues will be in very good shape.
If he does slip at times, Conklin will be there to pick up the slack. With a 1.83 GAA and .938 save percentage, judging by the preseason stats, the Blues are sitting pretty.
However, the Red Wings might provide some stiffer competition and only time will tell if the Blues are prepped for the tough Central Division.
