One final season before Ken Hitchcock retires to get St. Louis back the Stanley Cup. Great to see you on this Tuesday here at APEX Hockey Betting. Today we turn our attention out west to a coaching legend who is set to ride off into the sunset. His team got very close last year before bowing out to the San Jose Sharks in the Conference Finals. Now Hitchcock’s last stand comes as the team is infusing elements of youth into this long in the tooth team. Let us see the state of the franchise in St. Louis in this edition of APEX Hockey News.
NHL News
Free agency took big bites out of production and some experience for St. Louis. Boston and Calgary raided this team of two of their most valuable players. Let us look at the numbers that will no longer be here.
- Over 1,300 combined games
- 340 goals in the regular season
- veteran leadership of Troy Brouwer and David Backes
One almost would panic that the team is going younger but that might be the case only in chronological years. The team this year is adapting a play for next year strategy that involves the smaller lineups they are forced to use now.
Mike Yeo in the Wings
St. Louis could not wait to get the man for the future but at the same time could not be seen pushing their elder statesman out the door. Mike Yeo formerly of the Minnesota Wild signed on for some big money to be an assistant this year with the understanding that it would be his team when Hitchcock retires next year. This could very well be seen as going undersized like the team that Yeo coached for years in the Wild. Ken would more handle the personalities while Yeo started to exert his influence in practice and game situations.
Grand ambition and possibly a blueprint for the future for other teams. Not many have the high regard that Hitchcock does. It speaks to his humility and role in leadership that he would be on board with this. A calculated gamble that could work not only with a deep Stanley Cup run in 2016 but for years to come after Ken Hitchcock is gone from the game. Good fortune in your sporting ventures today and we will see you next time here at APEX Hockey.
