Anyone not watching Blues hockey, since the aquisition of future hall of fame coach Ken Hitchcock, might want to start tuning in to witness the great metamorphasis of our once deadbeat hockey club. You can see it on the faces of Blues fans everywhere and in the twinkling in their eyes, hockey is making a quick comeback in St. Louis. Under new coach, and apparent hockey wizard Ken Hitchcock, our boys have found some of their natural born hockey skills and talent that had been suppressed for the last three to four years. The Blues have gone 4-0-1 under coach Hitch in the five game home stand. Racking up 9 out of a possible 10 points. The Note did not let up a goal in any of those second or third periods. The Blues had an absolutely grand time in their last five games beating no slouch teams: Chicago, Detroit, Tampa Bay, and Florida. Yes, Blues hockey once again is fun to watch, at least for the time being. The Blues are just more entertaining and compelling under coach Hitchcock. The energy level on this team right now could launch the space shuttle into orbit. It looks as if no team could beat our Blues, without some type of devine intervention, in the present condidtion we are playing now. Now, all this being said, I do stay very skeptical. I have, after all, been a Blues fan for over twenty years and have witnessed many many underachieving Blues teams and listened to player and team propaganda for many many years. Even if this team won twenty games in a row it would be hard for me to believe they were a contender for Lord Stanley's Cup. More than not, when a new head coach takes over, there is almost always a spark or jump in the teams performance. Usually this spurt of success is short lived. Only time will tell if Hitchcock and Co. will sustain the tempo of what we have seen the last five games. One thing is for sure, everthing Hitch has said thus far in his short carrer with the Blues is spot on. Weather its in the paper or television interview Hitchcock knows how to talk hockey and passes it on through his players. Lets ride this streak for as long as we can. Moving up in the standings is priority number one.
Okay, coming back down to earth is not what the Blues want to do right now. They need to ride this rocket ship out to the edges of the universe. It won't be easy tonight against the Minnesota Wild. The Blues have lost three in a row on the road and six of nine this season. Minnesota has won eight out their last ten games and have a record of 11-5-3 giving them 25 points which is tied for most in their franchise history in that span. The Wild are 5-0 when winger Dany Heatley scores a goal, and Heatley leads the team in scoring
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with five goals and 12 points. Minnesota has gone 0-11 on the power play over the last four games yet still won all of them and not to mention the Wild sport the lowest goals against average in the league (1.95). The Blues are without Chris Stewart. He is serving his 2nd of a three game suspension after checking Niklas Kronwall of the Detroit Red-Wings head first into the boards Tuesday night. Hitchcock is expected to start Jaraoslav Halak tonight who is 2-1-1 with a 1.23 GAA and . 950 save percentage in his last four starts. The
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Blues will need to continue to improve special team performance tonight. Minnesota has won five of their last six with the Blues and Wild goaltender Niklas Backstrom shut out Colorado Thursday night. Also the Blues are dealing with a few injuries at this time: (D) Carlo Colaiacovo, (D) Kent Huskins, (F) David Perron, (F) Andy McDonald, and (F) B.J. Crombeen. Tonight will be a real test of will for the Blues. It would seem on paper that the Minnesota Wild has the upper hand in tonights game. I, for one, am looking forward to seeing how the Blues will take on this hurdle. This game will give a good indication of how well Hitchcock and the Blues will perform under pressure against one of the NHLs best teams on the road. Blue's fans will not want to miss this one.