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The St. Louis Blues have been nothing short of awesome under Ken Hitchcock. It’s scary to think how good they might be doing had they not had that slow start before Hitch arrived. St. Louis currently sits very comfortably in 4th place in the West, five points back of the Red Wings for the division and conference leads with one game in hand. They also sit 5 points up on the 5th place Predators. It’s a nice spot to be in for the Blues, who really looked awful out of the gate. The team interestingly enough is now chasing the modern day record for goals allowed in a single season, currently held by the 2003-04 Devils, with 164 goals against. Ahh what a record. Back to the dead puck era.

Under Hitchock, the Blues have gone 30-8-7 … a phenomenal record. During that time, they have scored 2.57 goals per game, middle of the pack, but have given up just a paltry 1.78 goals against. That’s the key to the Blues game by far. Above, the Devils finished the year with an even 2.00 goals against record over the 82 game schedule. St. Louis has currently allowed 117 goals against through 59 games. That leaves them then with 23 games to go and they can only allow 47 goals to tie the record. That’s a pace of 2.04 goals against per game. No problem right under the Hitchcock system that’s allowed just 80 goals through 45 games. The Blues on definitely on pace to set a new record for stinginess in a single season. They are just getting better too … in 10 February games, they have allowed just 15 goals against. An amazing pace.

Have to think that if Hitchcock had been in place all year, the Blues could well be leading the league in the standings right now. It’s amazing what he’s done to get his young team to buy into his system. That and of course the awesome play by Elliott and now Halak. Halak stumbled out of the gates but he has recovered big time and now has his GAA to 1.97. Elliott of course has a ridiculous GAA of 1.56, but he has faced the ‘easier’ teams lately. It’s going to be a lot of fun to see how the Blues finish up. Pretty nice having either goalie in your Fantasy pools this year.

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