After yet another disappointing loss, Blues coach Ken Hitchcock had a press conference about what went wrong and what the team needs to do to fix things. The usual quotes were presented, but Hitchcock had one startling comment which deserves some discussion.
While talking about possession and how the Blues failed to retain the puck, Hitchcock seemed to completely fail to understand how things in the NHL work.
Hitch (1/2): "This is a league, the more you check, the more you have the puck. The more you stay on the hunt, (CONT) #stlblues
— Lou Korac (@lkorac10) December 11, 2015
Hitch (2/2): "… the more you play on your toes, the more you close gaps, the more you have the puck." #stlblues
— Lou Korac (@lkorac10) December 11, 2015
The first Tweet is where Hitchcock presents some puzzling logic. Checking has no correlation to puck possession. In fact, it’s the exact opposite. If your team is checking, you do not have the puck. That’s why following the “Hits” stat is misleading as teams usually lead the category when they don’t have as much possession. To say that the Blues need to check more to have more of the puck is like saying they need to shoot less to score more goals.
Fans who want the Blues to show Hitchcock the door will bash him over his comments and rightfully so. He likely meant that the Blues need to check more to get the puck back after losing it, but it won’t be taken that way. The team needs to do better when they actually have the puck (why is everyone making Carl Gunnarsson style passes all of a sudden?) and that will make the issue about winning the puck back less of an issue.
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