St. Louis Blues: Paul Stastny Learning What Brett Hull Learned Under Ken Hitchcock
By Todd Panula
Paul Stastny has always been a good offensive player, despite what many Blues fans think. Like Brett Hull before him though, he’s learning to win big, you have to play both ways.
Paul Stastny came into the league and many thought he was going to be an offensive dynamo. That never was going to be his game though. If you compared him to more famous Blues, you’d think more in the vein of Adam Oates or Doug Gilmour.
As his career has gone on, especially now with the St. Louis Blues, he’s learning to play much more like Brett Hull.
Now, before everyone says that’s an insane thought, it’s his overall game we’re talking about at this point of his career compared to a simliar point in Hull’s.
Hull entered the league and though he wasn’t well known like Wayne Gretzky, set it on fire from a goal scoring aspect. He was scoring goals like he was born to do it and during his time with the Blues he would put 100 points up in a season for fun. He wasn’t winning though. Not the big prize anyway.
Enter Ken Hitchcock. Hitch had only been a head coach in the NHL for two full seasons (two and a half overall) by the time he paired up with Hull with the Dallas Stars. Despite his relative inexperience, he convinced one of the best players in the league to tweak his style.
Hitchcock basically went to Hull and said scoring goals was all well and good, but if he wanted to win a Stanley Cup he needed to play a full 200 foot game and focus more on the defensive aspects as well. The proof is in the pudding.
Nobody is going to say Hull was a Selke Award candidate, but he changed his game enough to be a factor all over the ice. His point totals went down drastically – some of that due to only playing in 60 games due to injury – but he was still a major factor in the Stars winning the Stanley Cup in 1999 and going to the finals the season after that.
The same can be said of Stastny now and even Alexander Steen too. Both players were mostly scorers earlier in their careers. Their teams looked to them for point production either by goals or setting something up. While they flourished in statistical aspects, they weren’t winning the big prize.
Now, they’re both playing the way Hitchcock asked Hull to play. Fans have gone somewhat bonkers about Stastny’s lack of scoring and to an extent the same with Steen. Many say they’re too streaky or not living up to contracts given. In actuality, they’re spending their energy on the other side of the ice.
Steen and Stastny are playing a two way game the way their coach wants them to. They’re playing defense and doing a fine job at it.
As mentioned before, Hull was scoring like it was his business with the Blues. When he went to Dallas, it wasn’t as necessary. They had Mike Modano, Joe Nieuwendyk, Jere Lehtinen and a young Jamie Langenbrunner to pick up the slack.
When Stastny got to Colorado, it was when they were transitioning away from the old stars like Sakic and Forsberg, so he was expected to focus on offense. Now that the Blues can roll out four lines and the scoring falls more to the likes of Robby Fabbri, Vladimir Tarasenko or Jaden Schwartz, Stastny can focus more on what will help the team at this point and that’s defensive structure.
For the first time in his career, Stastny is focusing more on the defensive side as opposed to just scoring. He’s gone from never having double digits in hitting in the playoffs to 31 checks through two rounds. He’s also got a career high of 11 takeaways.
That doesn’t just boil down to playing more games in the postseason, it boils down to effort. Both he and Steen are putting in the effort.
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They’re winning battles along the boards, they’re checking some of the best players in the game today and they’re sacrificing their bodies for the team.
That’s what it takes to win. Of course you’re going to need people focused on certain areas. Nobody expects Tarasenko to be throwing body checks (though he will hit people) and playing on the penalty kill.
You do expect your big players to do everything necessary to win. Stastny and Steen are doing that.
The funny thing is they are still producing too. Stastny had 49 regular season points and has three goals, nine points and has been clicking at a high rate with his current linemates in the playoffs. Steen had 52 regular season points eight playoff points heading into the conference finals. Compare those with Hull who had 58 regular season points and 15 in the playoffs when he won his first championship.
It’s not flashy and it doesn’t show up on the score sheet. There is a section of the crowd that can’t be convinced Stastny is living up to his contract because they don’t see tangible numbers up to their expectations.
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In the end though, he’s playing to win. He’s doing what it takes to win. In this moment and time, what it takes to win is for them to play the entire rink and do as much to take out the other players as they do to score on them.
It’s a grueling way to play way Hitchcock wants and not everyone is up to it. Stastny and Steen have been as well as others more known for that kind of play. If they keep it up, they might be lifting something over their head in a few weeks because of their sacrifice, just like Hull did.