If you know anything about the St. Louis Blues, you know that a good season is something that doesn’t come around very often. In the team’s 45 year history, the Blues have won zero Stanley Cups, only one Presidents’ Trophy (Best record in the NHL), and 7 division championships.
However, this season seems to be promising for the Blues. Under new head coach, Ken Hitchcock, the blues are in a fierce battle to finish first in the Central Division.
“The new head coach is turning the team around,” sophomore Peter Beaugard said.
The Blues have been splitting time in goal between Slovakian Jaroslav Halak and Canadian Brian Elliott. Halak has twenty-one starts and Elliott has twenty.
While Halak was purchased by the Blues on July 6, 2010 for $15 million, Elliott is often seen as the best choice for the Blues with a 94% save percentage and 1.62 goals against average.
The players seem to be flowing together this year. The fans say that there seems to be several “key players”.
“The key players for the Blues this season are Brian Elliott and Alexander Steen,” Beaugard said.
The record for the Blues since the takeover of Ken Hitchcock as head coach has seen a very positive trend.
“The new head coach and the 30 second line changes have been working very well,” sophomore Dylan Heavin said.
“I do see a possibility of the Stanley Cup and at least a playoffs appearance,” Heavin said.
Captain David Backes is leading the team in points with 13 goals and 16 assists, T.J. Oshie has 13 goals and 15 assists, and Alexander Steen has 13 goals and 11 assists.
“The captain, David Backes, T.J. Oshie, Barrett Jackman, [Alex] Pietrangelo, and [Chris] Stewart are key players for the Blues,” Heavin said.
The last time the Blues made it to the playoffs (1999-2000 season), they were the number one seed, won the Presidents’ Trophy, and had a record of 59 wins, 19 losses in regulation time, 11 ties, and 1 loss in overtime.
In the first round, the Blues lost to the San Jose Sharks. The Sharks were the 8th seed, which is the last placed seed. The Sharks beat the Blues in the series four games to three. This was considered a huge upset as St. Louis was the top seeded team with the best record in the NHL, while the Sharks were the 8th seeded team and had the second worst record out of the 16 teams in the playoffs.
There are still plenty of games left in the season to attend, and tickets aren’t nearly as expensive as tickets can be for sports such as football, baseball, etc. It would be a great idea and a great cause to rally behind the Blues and try to make history happen by bringing the Stanley Cup to St. Louis for the first time in the history of the National Hockey League.
