Ken Hitchcock recently spoke with Dan Rosen and he addressed a variety of topics. He spoke about Paul Stastny, Vladimir Sobotka, Steve Ott and the team’s goaltending duo of Brian Elliott and Jake Allen. As you might imagine, Hitchcock had some interesting things to say.
Here’s a collection of some of his most interesting quotes, via NHL.com.
On Stastny’s potential line partners:
“We have an opportunity to play Paul with the two kids, [Vladimir] Tarasenko and [Jaden] Schwartz. We have an opportunity to play him with a line with [Alexander] Steen and [David] Backes or Steen and [T.J.] Oshie.”
Both of those groups are pretty appealing. You can’t really go wrong with either trio.
On Steve Ott in the playoffs:
“But I think the coaching staff here is really grateful that Doug [Armstrong] kept a relationship with Steve Ott because Ott was arguably our best forward in the playoff series against Chicago.”
Best forward? Not a chance. Ott played hard, but Vladimir Tarasenko and Jaden Schwartz are the two obvious choices.
On Ott filling in for Sobotka:
“We’re going to miss Soby in certain elements of our game, but I think Steve is going to be able to balance that. We’re going to be fine.”
The Blues will be fine, but Hitchcock may be getting a little bit too carried away with Ott. He’ll perform well in his role, but his offensive upside doesn’t compare to Sobotka’s.
On Brian Elliott and Jake Allen:
“I look at Brian as No. 1. Whether Jake is a 1A or a 2, we’re going to find that out, but right now Brian is No. 1 and our hope is Jake is 1A.”
No real surprise there, but some fans may be a bit surprised to hear how direct Hitchcock is in assigning Elliott the number one roll. He certainly has earned it, but it will be interesting to see how long things remain as a #1/#2 before transitioning (hopefully) to #1/#1a.
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