Posted by Dan Cafiero.
St.Louis is looking to make the playoffs for just the 2nd time since 2004
The St. Louis Blues were once known as the most mediocre team in hockey. They are the owners of a remarkable streak of 25 consecutive post-season appearances from 1980-2004, the third longest streak in the history of the National Hockey League. However, the only thing they were ever able to win was the President’s Trophy for having the league’s best record. Since that streak ended in 2004, they have only returned to the playoffs once. In 2009, the Vancouver Canucks swept them in a quick quarterfinals series.
At the start of this season, it didn’t look like they would be reaching the playoffs anytime soon. The Blues were coming off a disappointing 2011 campaign, finishing 4th in the Central Division and failed to qualify for the playoffs. Head coach, Davis Payne, was not getting the results he or the franchise wanted, starting 8-7-0, so GM Doug Armstrong decided to make some changes. Armstrong hired Ken Hitchcock to replace Payne behind the bench, and boy was it ever the right decision. Hitchcock, a former Stanley Cup winning coach, is now 27-8-7 since taking over and has the Blues sitting comfortably in the Western Conference standings. After Detroit’s 22nd consecutive win at home on Friday night over Nashville, the Blues now trail the Wings by 5 points for the Central Division lead and first place in the Western Conference.
The early season struggles for the Blues were directly related to poor goaltending. They thought they had a franchise goaltender in Jaroslav Halak who was entering his second season with St.Louis. He couldn’t stop a beach ball in the first month of the season, luckily for him; some guy named Brian Elliot came along to bail him out. Elliot signed a one-year deal with the Blues the day Free Agency opened on July 1st, 2011. He ended up having an outstanding first half of the season, earning himself a trip to Ottawa for the All-Star game. He is 19-5-2 this season with a league-leading 1.61 goals against average and .940 save percentage, only Henrik Lundqvist has a better save percentage. It is now February and the Blues have the greatest problem a team can have, two ridiculous goaltenders. Hitchcock took over on November 6th and since then, Halak has won 15 games for the Blues while losing just 4 in regulation and 5 in extra time.
Call him what you want, but the man is a savior for this franchise and has my vote for the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year. He has the record (555-361-88-74) and a Stanley Cup ring to prove he can win in the National Hockey League. He brought the Dallas Stars to two consecutive Stanley Cup Finals in 1999, beating the Buffalo Sabres and losing to the New Jersey Devils in 2000. Thirteen years later, at the age of 60, the Blues are hoping he has enough left in the tank to bring some hardware back to St.Louis.
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