Jack Adams: It's time to start talking about it

wprager wrote:St. Louis hasn't won the President's trophy yet. But playing Columbus six times a year doesn't hurt their chances.

Ha. We have Montreal and Toronto in our division. Just sayin'. Your point has some validity, but they've had to be good all the time, not just against the bottom feeders in their division.

spader wrote:

wprager wrote:St. Louis hasn't won the President's trophy yet. But playing Columbus six times a year doesn't hurt their chances.

Ha. We have Montreal and Toronto in our division. Just sayin'. Your point has some validity, but they've had to be good all the time, not just against the bottom feeders in their division.

Ottawa still has 3 games against the Habs.

Big Ev wrote:

wprager wrote:St. Louis hasn't won the President's trophy yet. But playing Columbus six times a year doesn't hurt their chances.

They play in the toughest division in the league. 4 out of 5 playoff teams.

Maybe because one of the teams is *soooo* out of the playoffs.

NEELY wrote:

Big Ev wrote:

NEELY wrote:No, that's a stretch for sure. Either way, St.Louis has had the pieces to be a top team in the league for a while now and it's not a huge stretch to say they should be competing for or winning the division they play in.

MacLean has no where near the pieces St.Louis does.

I dunno. They are relying on defence and goaltending, and hard work, for the most part. David Backes is their best player. You could argue on the flip side that they have nobody close to Spezza or Karlsson, although Pietrangelo (especially) and Shattenkrik are beasts.

Anyways, at the end of the day a trophy is just a trophy. MacLean will get the recognition regardless if he wins.

I'm just saying, Hitchcock has done a good job, he had a ton to work with though. Not 1/2 a team of rookies.

He's also got two goalies playing lights out. Of course Hitch's defensive system has a lot to do with it, as well as perhaps his choice to platoon them. But you've got to admit that Elliott is having a career season, and you probably won't see these kinds of stats from the two of them repeated.

NEELY wrote:

spader wrote:

wprager wrote:St. Louis hasn't won the President's trophy yet. But playing Columbus six times a year doesn't hurt their chances.

Ha. We have Montreal and Toronto in our division. Just sayin'. Your point has some validity, but they've had to be good all the time, not just against the bottom feeders in their division.

Ottawa still has 3 games against the Habs.

Yep, and we haven't played Toronto in a while. They *were* good early on.

wprager wrote:

NEELY wrote:

Big Ev wrote:

NEELY wrote:No, that's a stretch for sure. Either way, St.Louis has had the pieces to be a top team in the league for a while now and it's not a huge stretch to say they should be competing for or winning the division they play in.

MacLean has no where near the pieces St.Louis does.

I dunno. They are relying on defence and goaltending, and hard work, for the most part. David Backes is their best player. You could argue on the flip side that they have nobody close to Spezza or Karlsson, although Pietrangelo (especially) and Shattenkrik are beasts.

Anyways, at the end of the day a trophy is just a trophy. MacLean will get the recognition regardless if he wins.

I'm just saying, Hitchcock has done a good job, he had a ton to work with though. Not 1/2 a team of rookies.

He's also got two goalies playing lights out. Of course Hitch's defensive system has a lot to do with it, as well as perhaps his choice to platoon them. But you've got to admit that Elliott is having a career season, and you probably won't see these kinds of stats from the two of them repeated.

I believe this. They're playing really well, but I wouldn't pick either for a keeper pool.

wprager wrote:

Big Ev wrote:

wprager wrote:St. Louis hasn't won the President's trophy yet. But playing Columbus six times a year doesn't hurt their chances.

They play in the toughest division in the league. 4 out of 5 playoff teams.

Maybe because one of the teams is *soooo* out of the playoffs.

Really? So, because Columbus is so bad, they've launched the rest of the division? You can only do so much in 6 games.

What was St Louis projected as going into this season? That ought to have some bearing on the decision. Ottawa was by and large seen as a rebuilding team expected to finish as a cellar dweller. St. Louis made a coaching change early on in the season after a poor start, and certainly Hitchcock deserves credit for that, and his goalies always put up Vezina numbers even if they aren't good goalies.

MacLean has so far taken a projected lottery team to a playoff spot.

Riprock wrote:What was St Louis projected as going into this season? That ought to have some bearing on the decision. Ottawa was by and large seen as a rebuilding team expected to finish as a cellar dweller. St. Louis made a coaching change early on in the season after a poor start, and certainly Hitchcock deserves credit for that, and his goalies always put up Vezina numbers even if they aren't good goalies.

MacLean has so far taken a projected lottery team to a playoff spot.

TNH (which is never, ever wrong) predicted that they'd finish 7th in the West.

Riprock wrote:What was St Louis projected as going into this season? That ought to have some bearing on the decision. Ottawa was by and large seen as a rebuilding team expected to finish as a cellar dweller. St. Louis made a coaching change early on in the season after a poor start, and certainly Hitchcock deserves credit for that, and his goalies always put up Vezina numbers even if they aren't good goalies.

MacLean has so far taken a projected lottery team to a playoff spot.

I said they would win their division which is the true prediction.

I watch a lot of Blues games (I've always been kind of a fan). If I have to compare to Ottawa, the number of quality scoring chances against they get is really low.
I think I'd give it to Hitchcock. But both coaches really have the best style suited for their respective players.

It's hard to NOT give it Hitchcock, given that the Blues are the best team in the league, and that only happened AFTER he took over. It's very evident the impact he has had on that team. The close runner-up has gotta be MacLean, with the rest of the guys lumped in just after.

The problem with Trotz/Bylsma/Babcock is that they are so good consistently that the expectations for their teams are inflated...so when they make the playoffs, it's just like "oh, yeah, that's where they should be."