When you roll out a blue carpet for a Republican vice presidential nominee, bad things are bound to happen. Sure enough, while Sarah Palin worked the runway without incident – and to only a light smattering of boos – to drop the ceremonial first puck for Friday's Kings-Blues tilt, the carpet tripped up St. Louis goalie Manny Legace, who toughed it out for a period before taking the rest of the night off to distribute Obama leaflets nurse an injured hip flexor.

The Associated Press reports that Legace will not start Saturday against Florida, so rookie Ben Bishop is the add if you're into spot-starting goalies in October. He stopped 15 of 17 shots in what finished as a 4-0 loss to the Kings. Matchup-wise you can do worse than a home tilt against the Panthers. Tomas Vokoun is due a night off after facing 50 shots in regulation against San Jose on Friday.

Legace only expects to miss one game, but as the Flyers have learned, Palin doesn't just blow in and out of town without leaving lingering effects. You'll want to sell high now on Andy McDonald. Before you close your laptop.

On a positive note, Palin appeared to get a kick out of the first period scrap between Cam Janssen and Sean O’Donnell. From the AP:

Palin watched the fight enthusiastically, clapping as the fight got more intense. By the time referees separated the combatants, Palin was waving an oversized foam Blues finger.

So there's no concern a McCain-Palin ticket tries to eradicate fighting from the NHL, which is good.

The Flyers, by the way, did finally win one Friday, but not until after learning center Daniel Briere will be sidelined up to a month with the dreaded sports hernia. Glen Metropolit stepped in as the pivot on Philly's No. 1 line against New Jersey, but saw very little time on the power play and was held off the scoresheet in the 6-3 win.

See below for your Palin video fix:

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Photos via Associated Press

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