DENVER • Ken Hitchcock has received significant praise for the Blues' recent success, but the coach says that the club becoming one of the NHL's elite teams won't depend on what impact he has.
Recently, Hitchcock posted this quote on the board in the locker room at the Blues' practice facility: "Players can push themselves harder than any coach can," credited to former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Joe Montana.
The novelty of coaches using motivational lines to inspire their teams has been around for ages, and overuse of the practice can cause players to tune it out. But this was the first time Hitchcock posted such a quote, after more than a month on the job, and the message was clearly understood.
The Blues must empower themselves if they want to be Stanley Cup contenders.
"That quote, for me, that's the right quote ... because we can take them to a certain level, but all the good teams have the internal push inside to go along with the coaches' push," Hitchcock said. "When you look at all the top teams, I've coached (some of those players) at the World (Championships), the Olympics, and I know how hard they push their groups. If we can get an internal push to go along with what the coaches are doing, then we can be very competitive."
As the Blues get set to play in Colorado tonight, they only have to think back to Sunday's game to understand the importance of being their own boss in certain situations.
The club trailed Columbus 3-2 by the second intermission, and the players took it upon themselves to say what needed to be addressed in the locker room. They returned for the third period and scored four goals in a 6-4 victory over the Blue Jackets.
"Like 'Hitch' was saying, he can only do so much, and the last game was the best example of that," Blues defenseman Alex Pietrangelo said. "After the second period, we knew that what we were showing wasn't good enough. When we're not to that standard, we want to push each other to get there. We're going into every game now expecting to win ... if we don't get two points, we're disappointed."
The Blues will be looking for two points tonight in a city in which they are 0-4-1 in their last five trips, including a 3-2 shootout loss to the Avalanche on Dec. 2.
But captain David Backes shrugged off that trend Tuesday, saying, "That stuff is for the media and fans. We're more concentrated on how they've been playing, how we're playing, if they've made any changes and what kind of changes we can make to counteract that. We'll see how it pans out."
Once walkovers on home ice, opening the season with record of 4-9, Colorado has won six consecutive games and has a winning record (10-9) at Pepsi Center for the first time this season. The Avs won four of the six games by one goal and another by two goals after scoring an empty-netter in the final minute.
"It's a one-goal league and they're finding ways to win," Hitchcock said, who compared Colorado's 3-2 shootout victory over Philadelphia on Monday to the Avs' 3-2 shootout win over the Blues recently. "When Philly played their game, they played well. Then Philly came off the game and Colorado really went at it. The same thing happened to us in the third period. We were really good for two periods, came off it a little bit in the third and they were dialing it up and coming at us in waves.
"We talked about that (Tuesday). We have our game and they have their game and we have to make sure that we dictate. The minute you stop dictating against them, you're going to be in trouble."
After their shootout loss in Denver, the Blues returned home and fell 5-2 to Chicago on Dec. 3. It marked the team's fourth two-game skid of the season, but the Blues have not let a losing streak reach three games.
A year ago at this time, despite a 9-1-2 start, the team had two losing streaks of five games and another of three.
Since the loss to the Blackhawks, the Blues are 5-0-1 and sitting in fifth place in the Western Conference with 42 points. But they want to keep pushing themselves — harder than any coach.
"We're not getting complacent," Backes said. "We know that we've had some good success but we also realize that we're not even to the halfway point yet. This is a time, 30 games in, when teams really establish themselves and we've got to be one of those teams that says there aren't going to be no funks. We're going to play well consistently and we'll get our points on a regular basis."
