Blues to Flyers: Here, Lemme Take That Palin Curse off Your Hands

As you may recall, Republican Vice-Presidential mannequin Sarah Palin performed the ceremonial puck-drop at the Philadelphia Flyers' home opener. The Flyers then went on to cough up four goals in the first period against the Rangers, lost that game, and then lost their next five games, in the process becoming the last winless team in the NHL a season after reaching the conference finals.

The possibility of a "Palin Curse" was broached by lefty watchdog Keith Olbermann on MSNBC the other night, and tonight the theory gained some considerable traction.

The St. Louis Blues retained Palin to perform the same ceremonial act before their game tonight against the bottom-feeding Los Angeles Kings, and not only are they currently trailing 2-0 after two periods to a team that hasn't had credible goaltending since the last time the Phillies were in a World Series, but starting goaltender Manny Legacy tripped coming onto the ice before the ceremony and injured his knee.

(It's now 3-0 early in the third.)

Kings broadcasters Bob Miller and Jim Fox have speculated that the condition of the ice in preparation for Palin's red carpet may have contributed to the freak accident, but I've heard nothing beyond said speculation at this point. Nonetheless, it's a freak injury on the night of Palin's fête in St. Louis, compounded by a probable loss to a lousy team -- all on the same night the Flyers finally get off their improbable schneid.

Palin curse, says I. Look for the Blues' early success to recede in a hurry and their sizzling power play to collapse.

Postscriptum: The Blues are now gooning it up something fierce, perhaps to impress Bristol.

Post-postscriptum: Now 4-0 Kings. I'm not live-blogging this, I swear, but I'm sitting here eating dinner with the game on TV and the computer's just sitting there.

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