St. Louis Blues: Charity Game in St. Louis to Benefit Hurricane Sandy Victims

Fear not Blues fans, there will be hockey in St. Louis this season. It may not be NHL-sanctioned, but it will feature NHL-level talent.

Cam Janssen, a former member of the St. Louis Blues and current New Jersey Devil, will be holding a charity game in St. Louis to benefit the victims of Hurricane Sandy. This game will take place at the Hardees IcePlex in Chesterfield, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis.

Janssen has teamed up with other professional players to form "Cam Janssen Fights Sandy; Hockey Helps Rebuild" charity, which will be the organization hosting the event.

For St. Louis, this is great news. The city has been in a lull since the Cardinals were eliminated from the MLB playoffs. The Rams are a mediocre team at best, which caused many fans to turn to the Blues last season. With the current lockout, fans are not getting their fix of hockey, and this event would fulfill their desire to see NHL-level hockey, at a price that is lower than a normal regular-season ticket. 

Secondly, both Janssen and the city of St. Louis knows this will work. The Chicago Blackhawks did a similar charity game, and the money raised went to the McDonald House of Chicago land. The game saw cornerstone Blackhawks such as Patrick Kane, Andrew Ladd, Jonathan Toews, and Patrick Sharp. The World team beat the Chicago team 16-15, while raising $323,000 for the McDonald House. 

The game was seen as essentially a city-specific All-Star game; an inter-squad scrimmage. The fans of St. Louis would love to see an identical game having witnessed cornerstone players like T.J. Oshie, Patrik Berglund, David Backes, and David Perron grow up in the organization.

The fans have just as much of a connection to the team as the players do to each other, and it would be a great way to get the team back together. 

With the current CBA negotiations, fans are cautiously optimistic about a deal getting done. By having a charity game that would bring current and alumni Blues players together would be great, and if a deal gets don't before puck drop on November 17th, it could turn out to be the team's first practice of the 2012-2013 season.