Let the Coaching Roller Coaster Begin – NHL Week 4
Sports fans know the most expendable and easily-fired coaches are in the NHL. When there’s something wrong with the way a team is performing, it always seems easier for organizations to make changes at the top instead of dumping and trading away different players. NHL coaches have shelf lives, every hockey fan knows it, and it only took a month into the season before the first coaching change was made.
For Blues fans everywhere, it was pretty clear that the team’s inconsistent play wasn’t going to get them very far in the first half of the season. Beating the defending Western Conference Champion Vancouver Canucks and losing to the Edmonton Oilers later in the week proved that something needed to change in St. Louis if the Blues are going to contend in the West and make it back into the playoffs. Davis Payne, in his third season behind the Blues’ bench, wasn’t getting his players to play a consistent, 60-minute game night in and night out, and Blues’ management wasn’t willing to wait any longer. The team relieved Payne of his coaching duties on Sunday night and hired long-time, decorated coach Ken Hitchcock as his replacement. General Manager Doug Armstrong and President John Davidson discussed their decision at length and decided, after only 13 games, that it was the right time to make a coaching change to get this team to accomplish its goals of making the Western Conference playoffs. Although Hitchcock hasn’t coached since last season, after being fired by the Columbus Blue Jackets, his confidence in his abilities to get every Blues player, veterans and young talent included, to buy into his system is something Blues fans can look forward to. There are always mixed emotions when your team makes a coaching change, whether it’s because you respected the former coach and his particular style, or because you may think the man they hired isn’t the right guy for the job; I don’t think many Blues fans, in this particular case, disagree with Hitchcock’s hiring. His credentials speak for themselves: he has coached 1,042 NHL games with Dallas, Philadelphia and Columbus, compiling a .588 winning percentage, he won the Stanley Cup with Dallas in 1999, he has coached six division title winners and broken the 100-point mark eight times and he was an Assistant Coach for Team Canada when they won the gold medal in both the 2002 and 2010 Winter Olympics. It appears that the Blues have made a smart hire in Hitchcock, and it will be interesting to watch how the players react to a new coach and style of play, more focused on the defensive aspects of the game. A fresh face behind the bench, although pretty stoic at times, may be just what this club needs to get over the hump and play a more consistent style of hockey every night. In the words of Hitchcock, “Welcome to the 200-foot game.”
Out East, the Pittsburgh Penguins have, again, separated themselves from the pack and have been one of the most consistent teams throughout the first month of the season. Even without superstar captain Sidney Crosby, the Pens have continued their hot start, compiling a 9-3-3 record, good for 21 points and the outright Eastern Conference lead (and the second most points in the NHL behind Dallas). Evgeni Malkin, Crosby’s scoring counterpart, has come back nicely from his “lower body” injury, totaling two goals and three assists in his last four games. The Pens need Malkin to stay healthy, especially while Crosby is still sidelined, because he is a point machine when he is 100%. Speaking of Sid, the NHL could be getting its star attraction back as soon as this Friday. After suffering a concussion that sidelined him for the second half of last season and the first month of this season, Crosby may make his long-awaited return in Dallas on Friday night. He has repeatedly said that he won’t return until he feels he is 100% healthy, but we all know that since he has been practicing with contact, his return is imminent. If the Pens can continue to get solid net minding from Marc-Andre Fleury and if Malkin and Crosby (when he returns) can score at will, they will be a force to be reckoned with throughout the rest of the season and into the playoffs.
Player of the Week
I knew it wouldn’t take long before he began to play like the superstar we all know him to be, which is why NHL ’12 cover-boy Steven Stamkos is my player of the week for week four. “Stammer” is currently tied for the league lead in goals (10) with Phil Kessel, and he sits in 10th place in points. One of the perennial goal scorers the past two seasons, Stamkos netted a hat trick last Friday night against Chicago, which vaulted him into the top of the league in goals scored. When he sits down low on the power play and waits for the cross-ice pass, his one-timer is a deadly shot, one that not many goalies can get over in time for. He added one of those signature one-timers in his 3-goal night on Friday, helping the Lightning with a 5-4 OT victory against the Blackhawks. Now that Stamkos has found his scoring touch, watch out for the Lightning in the East. Once this boy gets going, there’s usually no stopping him. I fully expect to see Steven Stamkos’ name in the conversation for the Hart Trophy at the end of the season, and if he scores at will like fans around the league know he can, the “Rocket Richard” and Art Ross Trophies definitely aren’t out of the question.
