The Minnesota Wild are moving on to the next round while the St. Louis Blues are heading to their cottages early for the third straight year.
In the knockout game, Wild heart and soul Zach Parise potted two goals and was a general pain in the ass for the Blues. Parise shocked Jake Allen and the Blues with his first period shorthanded goal. Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock decided to stick with Allen rather than yanking him. Just twenty eight second after Parise’s bad angle goal, Justin Fontaine scored another bad goal and Hitch would have to pull the youngster in lieu of the more experienced vet Brian Elliott. By then, it was too late, the damage was done. How bad does Hitchcock look for say that he would stick with the kid during an NBC in-game TV interview only to scrap heap the kid 28 seconds later? That is the kind of decision that gets NHL head coaches fired. Someone needed to remind Hitch that this was Game 6, not a road game in early October.
At the winning end of the rink, Vezina candidate Devan Dubnyk stopped 30 shots as the Minnesota Wild eliminated the St. Louis by the count of 4-1 in Game 6.
Minnesota advance to Round 2 where they will face the Chicago Blackhawks for the spring in a row. With the third time be the charm for the Wild
T.J. Oshie made it a game when he scored a weird angle goal to make it 2-1 with one second remaining in the second period. Parise inflicted the kill shot when he scored his second of Game 6 just 1:01 into the final period.
The playoff plague continues for the Blues who won their division this season only to get squashed in round one. This Blues team was constructed to withstand adversity and to be the last team standing in mid-June. Paul Stastny was a high priced UFA who was brought in to add offense to an already excellent offensive team. I didn't see one good play by Stastny in the first round ouster to the Wild.
Did you know that since the 2001-02 season, the Blue Notes have earned their way out of the first round only one time in 2012? One imagines that Hitchcock will be called to the carpet for this most recent playoff collapse. The Blues have gone out in the first round three seasons in a row. The silver lining is that the Wild knocked out the Blues this time around. The LA Kings were the culprits the past two seasons.
The Blues are never a bridesmaid and never a bride.
Who are they? What is their identity?
Why can't their all star caliber team score goals in critical playoff games? The Blues scorers have only scored 38 goals in 18 playoff games the past 3 seasons. That's 2.11 goals per game. That ain't gonna get it done unless your goalies shutout your opponents every game, Hitch.
Goaltending undermined the Blues in Game 6. That said, goal tending isn't the only reason why the Blues got tossed in the first round.
In terms of their goal tending, the Blues allowed 13 goals in 6 games vs. the Wild,. That's 2.16 goals per game.
I'm expecting that Blues ownership and management will be conducting their annual top-down evaluation of the Blues roster. They are a regular season juggernaut and a postseason failure. Why? The players play the games and the coaches coach. How come the Blues light the world on fire between October and April then die just before the calendar flips over to May?
Hitchcock is now 10-17 in the postseason with the St. Louis Blues. He is 76-72 lifetime.
I think its time for management to shake up the roster. Captain David Backes, T.J. Oshie, Alex Steen, Patrik Berglund, and Kevin Shattennkirk continue to be a part of the postseason problem. Are they capable of being a part of the solution? Perhaps a major trade will do the Blues good.
The Blues are facing a serious salary cap issue next season. They already have $57 million in cap space committed for the 2015-16 season. They have a few UFAs in Olli Jokinen and Marcel Goc who will likely not be re-signed. However, they will have to back up the Brinks truck for their young RFAs. Vlad Tarasenko, Jake Allen and Robert Bortuzzo are pending RFAs and are going to be looking to cash in on long term contracts. None of the above will be thrilled with two year bridge deals. It will not surprise me at all if a couple of NHL teams gang up on the Blues and submit offer sheets on Tarasenko and Allen. If they match the offer sheets, say in the $6 million per season range, it will gobble up their remaining cap space. GM Doug Armstrong will be having more than his fair share of sleepless nights in the two months to come leading up to the NHL Draft. Tim Murray of the Buffalo Sabres own the Blues' first round draft choice in the Connor McDavid draft. Maybe Armstrong will trade Oshie or Backes to Buffalo in exchange for their 2015 first rounder Nikita Zadorov and Mikhail Grigorenko.
Hey, you never know.
Perhaps the Blues will be bouncing Hitchcock so that they can make a hard run at free agent to be Mike Babcock. Blue GM Doug Armstrong is very close with Babcock from their years together on the Team Canada Olympic staffs.
If Hitchcock is punted from St. Louis, he won't be unemployed for very long. The Edmonton Oilers are n desperate need of a tactician/teacher of Hitch's ilk who can get the young Oilers guns to buy into a structured defensive system. Hitchcock has worked very closely on Team Canada squads with new Oilers CEO Bob Nicholson and new President of Hockey Operations Peter Chiarelli.
The Buffalo Sabres, San Jose Sharks, Toronto Maple Leafs and Philadelphia Flyers are also looking for a new head coach. The Arizona Coyotes and Boston Bruins may also be making head coaching changes in the near future.
Todd McLellan is also looking for work. As is Ted Nolan, Craig Berube, and Peter Horacek. We will be learning in the days to come if Dave Tippett and Claude Julien will be getting pink slipped from their current NHL teams.
Thanks, Blue TV