St. Louis Blues "Recklessness" Returns

The St. Louis Blues pulled off an impressive victory on Saturday, outplaying and outshooting the Columbus Blue Jackets on way to a 3-1 victory. Throughout the game, the St. Louis Blues forwards capitalized on speed and skill, playing off the rush to generate quality scoring chances.

For St. Louis Blues coach Ken Hitchcock, a traditionalist and defensive coach, playing a more “reckless” style represents a paradigm shift in his coaching philosophy.

Well, something had to change.

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Last year, facing a podium as empty as his playoff hopes, coach Ken Hitchcock claimed that it was time to adapt a more “reckless” play style, which purported to be a modern approach to offensive hockey, one that could keep the Blues competitive against the Blackhawks and Wild and Kings of the NHL in a seven game series.
In layman’s terms, “recklessness” consisted of two things for a Hitchcock team: playing off the rush and activated defensemen.

In this system, forwards skate into the opponent’s zone and attempt to out-maneuver the opposing defensemen head-on, setting up more dynamic chances off of rebounds and the quickly opening passing lanes.

In such a system, offensively gifted defenseman like Shattenkirk and Parayko would jump into the attack, further pressing the opponent and forcing mistakes. If that isn’t possible, defensemen can hang back to prevent breakaways and odd-man rushes.

Fundamentally, a team which sports players like David Backes and TJ Oshie on its first line can’t do this night in and night out. With slower, less skilled players, Hitchcock relied on “dump and chase” hockey, where forwards chip the puck in past defensemen and then crash in behind the net, circling and battling the defense until everyone gets tired. Then, once a good passing lane appears, open fire.

This is all well and good when you’ve got Vladimir Sobotka as your 2nd line center and Barrett Jackman is your 2nd pairing lefty defenseman. But if you are contemplating David Backes on your third line and a shot like Colton Parayko’s ends up on the third pairing, any coach in his right mind would go all-in to capitalize on his team’s strengths.

Besides, this strategy is optional. Against a physical team, the Blues may revert back to dump and chase to keep forwards from getting mauled at the blue line. And by no means does every line have to play this way…someone like Kyle Brodziak may still dump in the puck, rather than trying to play with a finesse his personal game lacks.

Out of the gate, the Blues reaped the benefits of such an aggressive strategy. Through the first six games, the Blues were averaging 3.5 goals a game while activating their defense and playing off the rush.

Then, we became far more risk-avoidant. Immediately after Jaden Schwartz suffered a severe lower-body injury, the resilient Blues reverted back to a grinding style reminiscent of years past, ostensibly due to the lack of skill in bottom lines.

Next: Odd Man Out

Now that talented lineup stalwarts have begun to return, a second try at a more aggressive play style has yielded positive results in St. Louis.

While a grevious defensive lapse and a hungry team downed the Blues in Pittsburgh, Paul Stastny’s return heralded the rise of “recklessness” again, which pressured the Penguins enough to force Overtime. And throughout the third period of the game last night, forwards like Tarasenko and the speedy Scottie Upshall sorely tested a weak Columbus defense, and the results were positive for the Note.

Though Hitchcock has been resistant to change, his gradual turnaround spells a more modern strategy in an increasingly competitive western conference, necessary for both the preservation of his job and the Blues’ success on the ice.

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