{"id":605974,"date":"2017-01-08T19:44:27","date_gmt":"2017-01-09T00:44:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/?p=605974"},"modified":"2017-01-08T19:44:27","modified_gmt":"2017-01-09T00:44:27","slug":"hitchcock-plans-to-keep-yakupov-with-steen-and-stastny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/hitchcock-plans-to-keep-yakupov-with-steen-and-stastny\/","title":{"rendered":"Hitchcock plans to keep Yakupov with Steen and Stastny"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Blues fans have been begging Ken Hitchcock to free Nail Yakupov for a majority of the season. Yakupov, who the Blues acquired near the start of the season, hasn&#8217;t seen too much playing time and has been placed on the lower lines where the chances for success are relatively low for a player of his style. Meanwhile, other players (looking at you, Jori Lehtera) have been allowed to keep a spot in the lineup and on a top line despite dismal results.<\/p>\n<p>Following the Blues&#8217; win against the Dallas Stars, Hitchcock spoke about Yakupov who skated through that game with Paul Stastny and Alexander Steen.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Hitch said he liked the way Yakupov played with Steen and Stastny and will keep that line together. Jaskin was a healthy scratch. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/stlblues?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#stlblues<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Lou Korac (@lkorac10) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/lkorac10\/status\/817953497412997120?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 8, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The trio of Yakupov, Steen and Stastny looked pretty good against the Stars. Yakupov&#8217;s speed came in handy numerous times and he came extremely close to springing both Steen and Stastny for some high quality chances. One included a nifty hoisted pass which almost caught the Stars in a 2-on-o hole.<\/p>\n<p>The Blues <em>have<\/em> to give Yakupov a realistic chance. They&#8217;ve used him sparingly and most of those opportunities have been on lines where he didn&#8217;t fit. If that sounds familiar, that&#8217;s exactly what the Blues did with Ty Rattie. <a href=\"http:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/frozen-notes\/ty-rattie-is-a-classic-case-of-a-mishandled-but-overhyped-prospect\/\">Rattie was overhyped<\/a>, but the Blues really didn&#8217;t handle the situation well. So far, history has mostly repeated itself in the case of Yakupov who is actually a more exciting talent than Rattie.<\/p>\n<p>Hitchcock tends to change his mind pretty often, so it&#8217;ll be interesting to see just how long Yakupov keeps a spot in the lineup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Blues fans have been begging Ken Hitchcock to free Nail Yakupov for a majority of the season. Yakupov, who the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":605979,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312679],"tags":[49840717,124688],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.2 (Yoast SEO v22.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Hitchcock plans to keep Yakupov with Steen and Stastny - The Sports Daily<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/hitchcock-plans-to-keep-yakupov-with-steen-and-stastny\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hitchcock plans to keep Yakupov with Steen and Stastny\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/hitchcock-plans-to-keep-yakupov-with-steen-and-stastny\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Sports Daily\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-01-09T00:44:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/625172262.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"594\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"380\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Alan Draper\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@sportsdailytsd\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@sportsdailytsd\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Alan Draper\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/hitchcock-plans-to-keep-yakupov-with-steen-and-stastny\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/hitchcock-plans-to-keep-yakupov-with-steen-and-stastny\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Alan Draper\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/#\/schema\/person\/2c8aadde2571800d0de74323730df7b5\"},\"headline\":\"Hitchcock plans to keep Yakupov with Steen and Stastny\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-01-09T00:44:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-01-09T00:44:27+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/hitchcock-plans-to-keep-yakupov-with-steen-and-stastny\/\"},\"wordCount\":273,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/hitchcock-plans-to-keep-yakupov-with-steen-and-stastny\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/625172262.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Nail Yakupov\",\"St Louis Blues\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Blues\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2017\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/hitchcock-plans-to-keep-yakupov-with-steen-and-stastny\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/thesportsdaily.com\/news\/hitchcock-plans-to-keep-yakupov-with-steen-and-stastny\/\",\"name\":\"Hitchcock plans to keep Yakupov with Steen and Stastny - 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NOVEMBER 22: Paul Stastny #26 of the St. Louis Blues celebrates his goal against the Boston Bruins with teammate Nail Yakupov #64 during the second period at TD Garden on November 22, 2016 in Boston, Massachusetts. 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NOVEMBER 22: Paul Stastny #26 of the St. Louis Blues celebrates his goal against the Boston Bruins with teammate Nail Yakupov #64 during the second period at TD Garden on November 22, 2016 in Boston, Massachusetts. 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