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The St. Louis Blues are making the most of their week off between Friday night games in Charleston, SC. As reported by Jeremy Rutherford at the Post,
progress is being made.
All of the warm and fuzzies are fine to cuddle up with on cold nights during an extended break when the news cycle, like the schedule, is in a lull, but turning these types of stories in to moral victories are a thing of the past. Good to know, but not really worth celebrating. The franchise has finally progressed past that point.
I’ll spare you from a rendition of Kumbaya. Proof that the time was well spent will be seen on the ice soon enough.
Starting on October 25th in Vancouver the Blues kick off a taxing stretch of road games in tough to win in barns spanning all corners of North America. From there it’s on to Nashville the next day before making a quick stop at home to take on Winnipeg and close out their first month. Two days later it’s on to Florida to take on the Panthers and Lightning in a back to back set. In total, five games in nine days with the first three coming in four days against a consistent playoff club and two division opponents.
The Olympic break creates the need for such a condesned schedule not just in the first few weeks of the season, but throughout the duration. This trip presents an early test that will set the tone to follow for some time. One of concern or optimism based on the results… or even worse, an inability to tell based on outcomes that don’t yield clear cut strengths and weaknesses.
Ken Hitchcock does deserve a positive note in his kudos box. Before heading out to South Carolina he asked his coaching staff to provide five areas that should be covered in practice. Definetly something those of us with a business world background can get behind. Identification of pain points from subject matter experts to build a plan of action and then acting on it. It’s as if the hockey ops side is taking ideas from Bruce Affleck’s playbook. Case in point would be the focus of difficult drills at the end of a skate. An attempt to simulate the fatigue of a game and the activates that are required to succeed in those situations. Brilliant on so many levels… physical, mental, managerial, etc.
Another development is the shaking up of the forward lines.
Chris Stewart has changed places with Vladimir Tarasenko to join Patrik Berglund and Jaden Schwartz. Brenden Morrow flips with Magnus Paajarvi to join the fourth line. The result:
Steen – Backes – Oshie
Paajarvi – Roy – Tarasenko
Schwartz – Berglund – Stewart
Morrow – Sobotka – Reaves
Obviously Hitch isn’t going to fix what isn’t broken by breaking up his top line. Slotting Morrow on an energy line mitigates risks his lack of foot speed creates on a skill line and emphasizes his physical tendencies on the energy line. The shift in the middle two trios says a lot:
-- Derek Roy has more value to the club than just helping Stewart.
-- Roy was brought in to coax more goal production from all wingers he is paried with.
-- Putting Tarasenko with Roy and Paajarvi creates a line that will be a nightmare for opposing defenses to handle off the rush. Speed kills and adding world class skill like what those three posses and it will do it even faster. It also makes good on comments made over the summer about pushing to score more off the rush.
-- Stewart with Schwartz and Berglund will force the big winger to use his body the way it should be. Working the puck low in the zone off the cycle to create scoring opportunities. Further, Berglund has earned a level of trust with the coaching staff that he can handle tougher assignments. Maybe more so than the veteran Roy. This should, or hopefully, lead to more minutes for Stewart.
The right things have been said and the right changes have been made for the right reasons. We’ll see if that leads to the right actions being taken.
St Louis Blues Blogger • 
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