Thirteen games into the Blues 2011-2012 season, with head coach Davis Payne the St. Louis Blues had a record of 6-7. Then on November 6th, 2011 the Blues management decided that their had to be a change to get the team going. At the team the Blues were pretty much dead last in the Western Conference, and needed a way to also get a shot at making the playoffs. So, GM Doug Armstrong knew someone well from his days when he was the GM for the Dallas Stars. The person was head coach Ken Hitchcock. The Blues hired Hitchcock on that day, and fired Davis Payne. Hitchcock became the Blues twenty-fourth head coach in Blues franchise history. During Hitchcock's head coaching career he's made the playoffs nine times, out of sixteen seasons coaching in the NHL. He's been fired three times (Dallas Stars, Philadelphia, and the Columbus Blue Jackets).
He lead the Dallas Stars too two stanley cups, winning one of them. Hitchcock lead the Columbus Blue Jackets to their only winning season in thw 08-09 season, and their only playoff appearance. The Blue Jackets have been in the NHL since 2000. When the Blues hired him, that made him a head coach for sixteen seasons. Ken Hitchcock has been known as a hard nosed head coach, at the time of the hiring some Blues fans weren't sure if he was the right head coach for the Blues, since he hadn't coach since the 09-010 season. But, he had been in an advisor role for the Colmbus Blue Jackets, and was scouting every team and taking notes about them; in order to prepare himself if he became an NHL head coach again. He has taught players how to become better players over his coaching career, for example one of them is former NHL and Hall of Famer, Brett Hull. Hull went to the Dallas Stars in free agency, and wasn't a team player on the Blues. Hitchcock taught him how to become a team player, which ended up helping Brett Hull go on to win some stanley cups, one of them was with the Dallas Stars and others were with the Detroit Red Wings. Also, goalies play better under Hitchcock, a lot of that is because of his coaching style. His coaching style is about defense.
Since the day Hitchcock took over, the Blues have turned their season around a lot. Under Hitchcock, the Blues are 17-5-5 as of now and their record on the season is 23-12-5 (that's combining Payne's 6-7 record at the start of the season). The Blues are now one of the top teams in the Western Conference, currently they are 5th overall in the west. The Blues have a good team, and have players who are injured right now (one is Alex Steen, who now has a concussion), another is Andy McDonald (who has been out since October 13, with a concussion). Other players are Kris Russell, Kent Huskins, and Ryan Reaves. If the Blues can get healthy down the stretch they could be a tough team to beat. Having Andy McDonald and Alex Steen back a lot will help the team, that's once they return. Russell is out for three weeks as of now, hopefully he has no setbacks. Russell has helped the Blues out, ever since the Blues traded for him. Hitchcock knew Russell from his days with the Blue Jacketts, he was Russell's first coach in the NHL.
After a slow start to the season, starting goalie Jaroslav Halak is starting to pick up his game. Halak started the season with a bad record, but as of now is 9-7-5. The Blues back up goalie, Brian Elliott has been a big story this season. Elliott looked like he was about to be out of the NHL, after having a bad season last year going 15-27-4 with three shutouts. Elliott signed a two-way deal with the Blues in the offseason to battle for the back up job with goalie Ben Bishop. Elliott ended up winning the job, even though both goalies did well in camp. The Blues went with Elliott, because he had been in the NHL longer than Bishop has. Elliott helped the Blues out a lot, while Halak was trying to find his game, as of now Elliott is 14-5 with four shutouts on the season. So, the Blues have a good goalie situation for the first time in along time. If the Blues can have a great January, then they have a great shot to make the playoffs for their first time since the 2008-2009 season. Last season, the Blues had a bad January, only winning two games and fell apart that month and ended up missing the playoffs.
That's all for now, AMF.
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