Getty Images An injury to Paul Stastny.
A bacterial infection that made its way through the team.
And now David Backes might be injured.
Yes, it’s been a challenging start to the season for the St. Louis Blues, who despite it all, managed to improve their record to 4-3-1 with an overtime victory in Dallas on Tuesday.
But after eight games, coach Ken Hitchcock isn’t quite sure what he’s got to work with, or where things will go.
“We have no idea what type of team we have,” Hitchcock told ESPN.com.
“This might be one of those years where we’re just going to have to scramble to stay afloat. You don’t know. We didn’t have any adversity last year until the last two weeks and then we just got bombed with it. But this one is different. We’ve had nothing but an unsettled roster both at practice and games since the second game of the season.”
Last week, Hitchcock expressed frustration after a 4-1 loss at home to Vancouver.
“We’ve given up more odd-man rushes in six hockey games than we did in two months last year,” he said. “And you can’t win like that. This is a wake-up call. The alarm bell’s going off. You can’t have half the group buying in, and the other half not. This is a real good eye-opener for us.”
Since then, the Blues have beaten Chicago and Dallas. They host Anaheim Thursday and Colorado Saturday.
-
- savior72 - Oct 29, 2014 at 4:22 PM
-
You have a team that’ll make the playoffs then get bounced in the first round. There, now you know.
-
- stevedurbano - Oct 29, 2014 at 4:46 PM
-
Without proof otherwise I must agree.
-
- Paper Lions - Oct 29, 2014 at 8:20 PM
-
Yes, but HOW will they get bounced? With they go up 2-0 or 3-1 and then lose 3 or 4 straight or will they just be swept? I know I’m looking forward to finding out.
-
- hanspard - Oct 29, 2014 at 11:26 PM
-
The upside is that with Stastny out we’ve gotten to see what Lehtara has got, and it turns out he’s got a lot. So does Tarasenko. I never thought Oshie deserved the hype he’s gotten, but Tarasenko is the guy. This is a guy on his way to being a top 5 goal scorer in the league. Dude is legit.
Sign up for Fantasy hockey
