Ken Hitchcock, the comeback ‘old fart’ for St. Louis Blues

Patience was a virtue for Ken Hitchcock’s Dallas Stars teams.

Those teams played defense like few have in the last 20 years in the NHL. In 1997, they were third in goals against. In 1998, they were second. In 1999, they won the Stanley Cup with an NHL-best goals-against average. They were third in the NHL in that category the following season, when they won the Western Conference.

Defense has been the hallmark of Hitchcock’s greatest teams. Which is why hearing the 64-year-old coach preaching scoring and skating with the St. Louis Blues in the 2016 postseason is always a little jarring.

“I don’t think much [about my philosophy] has changed. I had a bunch of old farts there in Dallas. I had no choice. They were a bunch of old guys, so we counterattacked,” he said.

“What we had in Dallas was a high level of hockey IQ. We could wait it out. We had patience.”

Patience is indeed a virtue in hockey. And it's patience that’s paid off for Hitchcock and the Blues, who are one win away from the Western Conference Final as they take on the Stars at home on Monday night.

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Even if that patience was mandated when another Stanley Cup-winning coach decided not to choose the Blues.

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Outside of the T.J. Oshie for Troy Brouwer swap, this is very much the same team that crapped out in the first round against the Minnesota Wild last season – from the goal crease to behind the bench.

That Hitchcock would be back for another postseason run was anything but certain, and he knew it. GM Doug Armstrong flirted hard with free agent coach Mike Babcock, before Babcock opted for the Toronto Maple Leafs’ sacks of money.

Hitchcock himself had to figure out what he wanted, too: After three straight first-round playoff exits, he was on the fence about returning. But as the Babcock discussions continued, he continued showing up at the Blues’ practice facility. He continued to watch game film, plan for next season. He slowly decided he’d like another crack at it. And when Babcock declined, the Blues decided a fifth year of Hitchcock would be the best option.

Keep in mind that Hitchcock had a four-year expiration date with the Philadelphia Flyers and Columbus Blue Jackets before the Blues’ gig, and many assumed it had happened again in St. Louis. The playoff disappointments in St. Louis were, in part, due to his hard-driving and demanding style in the regular season. There was much speculation that Hitchcock shouldn’t return no matter what Babcock decided.

But he did, and it’s paid off in a potentially spectacular way.

Has he changed as a coach? Only in the sense that he says his tactics fit the personnel with the Blues.

“The game’s changed now. You can’t play the game on three-quarter ice. You have to play on your toes. The only way you can play defense is occupying the offensive zone. You can’t play defense counterattacking or backing up. You can’t play like that. There’s no hold-ups anymore,” he said.

“The teams in Dallas and even in Philadelphia, we trusted the fact that we could wait you to the 55th minute and beat you. But you can’t play like that anymore. You gotta go for it. We’re not going to add a bunch of goofy risks, but we’ve got skating people. The game’s a skating game.”

Through 12 games in the playoffs, the Blues only have three forwards with a positive Corsi-percentage at 5-on-5: Vladimir Tarasenko, Joni Lehtera and Jaden Schwartz. The rigidity of Hitchcock’s system has been put on blast by critics, but in the case of his top line, there’s no question that the possession advantage has been series-altering, as the Blues opted to go with their top line against those of the Chicago Blackhawks and Stars.

“We’ve used our best players against the other team’s best players, and we’ve been able to even that out,” he said.

Especially in that series against the Blackhawks. Which might be the turning point for Hitchcock's tenure with the Blues.

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For a team to succeed in the playoffs, there need to be a series of things that break the right way. Blues fans know this. Dear god, do they know this.

So as we watch this run from them, we see goaltending from Brian Elliott that’s not just competent but game-stealing. We see secondary scoring when the Blues have needed it – Dmitrij Jaskin, people. And, most of all, we see a horizon cleared of both of their postseason tormentors, the Los Angeles Kings and the Blackhawks, the latter by their own hands.

“I think just the pressure of playing is going to be a lifted burden on three or four guys here, and I think you're going to see guys that maybe struggled with some of the burden of last series emerge as good players for us this series because they're just going to be able to play hockey,” said Hitchcock before Game 1 against the Stars. “I'm thinking of some guys, and I'm sure as hell not going to tell you. But I think there's some guys that had a tough time with that stress and pressure. They felt responsible and now it's all gone. We can just coach and play.”

Read that last one again: Coach and play.

Hitchcock has never lacked for intensity. The pressure of expectations on his Blues teams in the playoffs – not only in finishing with over 100 points for three straight seasons, but in having failed to appear in a Stanley Cup Final since 1970 as a franchise – was enormous.

To see those roadblocks cleared had done wonders for the Blues, but also one assumes for their coach. So when a practice-time taskmaster allows his team to leave the ice after 10 minutes – as Hitchcock did before Game 6 on Monday morning – it reveals an ease that isn’t always associated with a crusty old (Civil War reenacting) drill sergeant. “Our zip at our pregame skate was crisp. Our execution was high. And so I cut if off at 10 minutes,” he said.

Hitchcock hasn’t appeared in a conference final since 2004 with the Philadelphia Flyers, who lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning in seven games. His Flyers forced that Game 7 with an overtime win, riding the emotion of Keith Primeau’s season-saving performance in regulation and then winning on Simon Gagne’s goal deep into the first extra frame.

“When you’re getting eliminated, you’re building on the emotional part of it,” Hitchcock said of this Game 6 between the Blues and Stars. “When you’re trying to eliminate [a team], you’re trying to get rid of any fear.”

Fear has caused many teams to overreact, to push the plunger and blow it all up. In St. Louis, patience won over fear for one final season. Failure would have meant it was complacency. Success means that it’s persistence. And in a postseason filled with redemption arcs – that old war horse David Backes, the underappreciated Brian Elliott – seeing Hitchcock one win away from the conference final is chief among them.

"When you have stress and pressure, it becomes a big burden," said Hitchcock, "and once the stress is over, now you're just dealing with the pressure of winning hockey games."

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Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.

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