St. Louis Blues’ Coach Ken Hitchcock Needs to Leave Lines Alone

With the return of Jaden Schwartz St. Louis Blues coach needs to give the lines time to mesh with each other.

It has become routine practice for the St. Louis Blues to juggle their lines at the slightest hint of trouble. Seemingly never giving their forwards a chance to generate any kind of chemistry with one another. With the return of Jaden Schwartz Hitch needs to give the top line of Paul Stastny, Vladimir Tarasenko, and Schwartz time to work out the kinks instead of bailing on them before giving them a chance.

It is a well known fact that most NHL teams substitute players every once and awhile to generate offense in the closing seconds of a game or throw out a purely defensive line to secure a lead. The Blues however take this to another whole level.

In fact, it has become a foregone conclusion that who ever a player starts the game with it will not be who they finish with. That was all fine and well when half the roster was injured and no one knew who was coming to practice much less dressing for the game. That was then, this is now.

Schwartz is set to make his return against the Florida Panthers. Hallelujah and amen. The St Louis Blues desperately need his energy and skill. It has been a massive problem trying to fill his shoes on the top line without sacrificing the production of another. Although it will be a big boost to his team’s morale just having him back, it’s certain that it will take him some time to get back up to speed. Let alone be the offensive threat he was last year.

Hopefully the coaching staff will expedite his initiation back into the offense by allowing him to spend most of his time on the same line. If by some miracle this were to happen, they might as well leave all the other lines in tact as well. Giving the rest of the team a chance to sync up with their line mates before the exhausting grind of the playoffs begins.

More from Bleedin' Blue

This is not too say if certain lines are not clicking together a change can not be made. However, why not wait until a practice day to make that change. Throwing the change in mid-game just seems counter productive.

The guys spend a third of the period just trying to remember which players to hop over the boards with, another third trying to predict what the other two are going to do, and the last third actually being productive. By the time the period is over it’s time to switch again because they weren’t generating any offense.

Yes, these are professional athletes who should be able to play with every other player on the team and be able to adapt to maximize production. However they are still human beings, not robots, and human beings tend to gravitate toward certain other humans.

That’s only natural. It is the job of the coaching staff to figure out which players work best together and build your lines around that, allowing the players’ talent to shine through. Of course there will be match up problems. But allow your players to try and work through that together, not divide and separate them.

Next: Blues' Offense Fails Against Winnipeg Jets

Right now the Blues are eleven points headed of Nashville for third place in the central. While we don’t want to give away points, St Louis can afford to gamble a little and allow guys to work things out on the ice. After 56 games of mediocrity, I don’t believe they have much to lose.