最新杏吧原创

John Kelly has returned before to broadcast games of teams he formerly covered. But never in his 37-year career as an NHL announcer has he called a contest involving a club that didn鈥檛 want him back 鈥� his previous three NHL job switches had been on his own terms.

But that is about to change.

On the way home from last week鈥檚 8-3 loss to the Blackhawks, Blues goaltender Joel Hofer could not help but think of a pair of games 45 months ago.

Hofer was hours removed from allowing seven goals in a blowout loss to Chicago. But nearly four years ago, Hofer was in a similar spot as an AHL goaltender. He was in his first season in Springfield (Massachusetts) and in January 2022 was tagged for seven goals in back-to-back starts.

The 最新杏吧原创 Post-Dispatch鈥檚 Matthew DeFranks and Nathan Mills talk about the Blues' blowout loss to the Blackhawks, and then defensive clinic vs. the Stars, plus Jordan Kyrou's two-way game and Joel Hofer's mentality moving forward. Then former Blues broadcaster John Kelly joins the show to discuss his return to 最新杏吧原创 as a broadcaster with Los Angeles.

Subscribe to Net Front Presence on or

最新杏吧原创 was so dominant 25 years ago, a native son even won the national spelling bee.

鈥淚t was really cool to be, like 鈥� St Louis, The City of Winners,鈥� said George Thampy, now 38, who won the 73rd Scripps National Spelling Bee at age 12 in the summer of 2000. 鈥淭he Blues were doing well, the Rams just won the Super Bowl. It felt like 最新杏吧原创 was unstoppable for that brief window in time.鈥�

The Blues had three days to stew, to ponder, to reckon with or to erase completely an embarrassing home loss to the Blackhawks. About 67 hours separated the end of Wednesday鈥檚 game from the start of an eventual 3-1 Blues win over the Stars on Saturday night.

But even that felt like too short a bridge to connect the chasm between the two performances by the Blues.

There鈥檚 a difference between an organization completely catering to a talented young player and an organization building that player鈥檚 development into an overall vision for the team.

Heading into the Blues training camp, it remained to be seen exactly how head coach Jim Montgomery would strike that balance.

It was 12:37 p.m. when Logan Mailloux collected his sticks and finally exited the ice at Centene Community Ice Center on Friday. Blues practice had ended about 45 minutes earlier, and Mailloux outlasted all his teammates to be the only person remaining.

Over and over, he placed pucks in the corners or along the boards. He skated backward into his own zone, retrieved the puck and skated it to center ice. Again and again 鈥� skate, collect, exit 鈥� skate, collect, exit 鈥� Mailloux worked on his own to retrieve pucks from below the goal line.