A bout of the Blues

ST. LOUIS -- No offense to the Carolina Hurricanes, but just a few hours after joining them in a trade former St. Louis Blues forward Doug Weight was plotting how he might boomerang back to his old team by next season.

Right now, the fire sale is in full swing for the Blues, formerly a model of consistency with 25 consecutive playoff appearances but presently saddled with the NHL's worst record. For the first time in decades, they're selling off talent instead of stockpiling for the postseason with Weight and Mike Sillinger getting shipped out in a 24-hour period.

This follows the preseason trade of star defenseman Chris Pronger, and the trade deadline is more than a month away. The remaining veterans are left to wonder who'll be next.

"I'm sure there will be more changes," captain Dallas Drake said.

Claiming a loss of $40 million in the season before the lockout, team owners Bill and Nancy Laurie put the franchise on the market last summer and then gutted the roster to facilitate a sale that could be finalized as soon as this week. The favorite, for the second time during the process, is a group headed by former NBA executive Dave Checketts.

Thus, Weight's ambivalence about going from worst to first in the trade to the Hurricanes, who have the best record in the NHL, for prospects and draft picks. Sure, he'll love playing on a Stanley Cup contender but he hates uprooting his family and has nothing but positive things to say about the Blues organization.

"It stinks," he said of being traded, "but I'm excited."

Then again, he'll be an unrestricted free agent after this season and said the Hurricanes did not mention a longterm contract. Before leaving town he said he'd love to return to the Blues once the bonfire has burned out and new owners interested in building a contender are in charge.

"I'm not afraid to say I love St. Louis," Weight said. "It's a place that's dear to me and it's a place where I'd love to end up. Who knows? Before you turn around I could be back here.

"There's not a place I want to win a Stanley Cup more than here."

In the meantime, the team has nothing to look forward to. With only 32 points and a roster filled with no-names due to the cost-cutting, they long ago conceded the end of a playoff run that dated to the 1979-80 season.

"As tough as this process is, this is what has to be done when a franchise gets to this fork in the road," team president Mark Sauer said. "It's a brutal period we're going through, but the perspective from the potential buyers is very much a forward-looking one."

Sauer said there are "three or four" interested parties, and all approve of the team's budget strategy.

"They have all agreed with this direction," Sauer said. "There is unanimity amongst those parties and ourselves that this is the direction to take."

On Monday night, the team responded to the latest trade with an inspired 3-2 shootout victory over the Calgary Flames. Big games from the likes of Lee Stempniak and Jay McClement, two of the minor leaguers they called up to replace the departed players, spelled the difference.

"This was a terrific win," coach Mike Kitchen said. "To go through what we've gone through, the guys really pulled together."

More often, the team is simply outgunned. It's a situation that's testing the patience of the ever-loyal fan base who used to fill the Savvis Center on a nightly basis but now appears increasingly alienated. There were rows upon rows of empty seats at the Flames game, the norm for this season, along with an inflated announced attendance of 13,310 based on tickets sold.

In the long term, the team believes, the Blues will be better for it. Most of the playoff appearances in professional sports' longest run were short and sweet, punctuating mediocre seasons.

They paid for it with lower draft picks, which kept them firmly stuck in the middle of the NHL. Their appearance in the 2001 Western Conference finals was the first time since 1986 that they made it past the second round.

Among the bounty for Weight is the Hurricanes' first-round pick in this spring's Entry Draft, which will help the team rebuild from the ashes.

"Sometimes when you go 25 years making the playoffs, you're accepting mediocrity," general manager Larry Pleau said. "If you look at anybody that's ever won the Stanley Cup in the last 15-20 years, they've gone through something like this before they got there.

"Our goal is still the same and we're taking some tough, tough steps right now."

Players seem to understand it's the cold, hard business side of the game.

"That's part of it as you get older, and unrestricted," Drake said. "No offense, I'd trade all of us, too."

Fans who showed up for Monday's loss to the Flames seemed to understand the tough love.

"It upsets me a little bit, but frankly we've always been good enough just to get to the playoffs and not go anywhere from there," said Matt Greaves, 24, of Ellisville, who was wearing a blank Blues jersey and matching pants. "Hopefully, this will shake some things up."

Pleau said fans will soon be rewarded.

"What I would tell them is stick with us," Pleau said. "This franchise is going to get healthy again."