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Ken Hitchcock scrambles St. Louis lines; panic mode for Blues?

Josh Cooper
St. Louis Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock watches the action during the third period of an NHL hockey game against the Boston Bruins Friday, Feb. 20, 2015, in St. Louis. The Blues won 5-1. (AP Photo/Scott Kane)
St. Louis Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock watches the action during the third period of an NHL hockey game against the Boston Bruins Friday, Feb. 20, 2015, in St. Louis. The Blues won 5-1. (AP Photo/Scott Kane)

Ken Hitchcock is a Stanley Cup winning coach. He has been to multiple Cup Finals – and was basically a Jason Arnott Game 6 OT goal away from having the chance to play for a winner-take-all Game 7 Final in 2000.

With the Blues he has turned them into a strong, powerful machine-like regular season outfit. But has he lost his playoff mojo? And now … is he panicking with his monstrous Blues down 2-1 against Minnesota in their first round series?

St. Louis Post-Dispatch beat reporter Jeremy Rutherford tweeted out the lines from Wednesday's morning skate in advance of St. Louis’ game against Minnesota. And Hitchcock has taken a sledgehammer to the group and destroyed the Alexander Steen -Jori Lehtera-Vladimir Tarasenko trio. Well, that's a little strong-worded, but he's changed things around quite a bit.

Panic mode for Hitch? Perhaps.

Though as Rutherford tweets, the first two lines are the trios that were used for most of the season. So maybe it’s not as extreme as it looks. But what’s going on here. St. Louis Game Time brings history to the forefront on the Blues and their current grouping of players.

David Backes, Patrik Berglund, Alex Pietrangelo, Alexander Steen, T.J. Oshie, Kevin Shattenkirk, Barret Jackman and Ryan Reaves are the only guys who have been with the Blues for the duration of this Ken Hitchcock-led run. All eight players have suited up in the playoffs since 2012.

The Blues record with these players in the playoffs under Ken Hitchcock is ugly — just nine wins against 15 losses (five in 2012, four in ’13, four in ’14 and now two in ’15). They are just 2-9 in road games, including a staggering nine straight road defeats. The Blues last playoff road win came on April 19, 2012 and the goals were scored by B.J. Crombeen and Andy McDonald.

So maybe the problem is more than just Hitch and his constantly changing line combos? Is it the personnel that just ‘doesn’t know how to win?’ Who knows. But it doesn’t change the fact the Blues need a victory badly.

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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