Five Questions: Hitchcock on special teams, goalies

NHL.com's Q&A feature called "Five Questions With …" runs every Tuesday. We talk to key figures in the game and ask them questions to gain insight into their lives, careers and the latest news.

The latest edition features St. Louis Blues coach Ken Hitchcock:

NEW YORK -- The St. Louis Blues carry a five-game winning streak into Prudential Center on Tuesday because they're finding ways to win the hard way despite a below-par penalty kill and injuries to some key forwards.

"That's what it's about," Blues captain David Backes said. "Plugging holes and getting guys to step up with bigger responsibilities. We're gutting it out and getting back to our roots in how we play and how we have success, and that's playing in their end, mucking and grinding, and finding ways to get dirty goals."

The Blues are playing without Paul Stastny (shoulder) and T.J. Oshie (concussion), and their typically stingy penalty kill is giving up one goal on approximately every four chances (75.6 percent, 25th in the NHL).

St. Louis, in fact, has allowed at least one power-play goal in eight of 11 games.

The Blues have gotten shootout wins in their past two games after blowing third-period leads. The biggest reason is emerging star Vladimir Tarasenko, who has six goals in the past four games, including a highlight-reel goal in the second period of a 4-3 shootout win Monday against the New York Rangers.

All the while Blues coach Ken Hitchcock is trying to stay composed, to keep from ripping all of his hair out. He might have thought about it Monday when the Blues played what Hitchcock called the worst period of their season in the first, countered it with an excellent second period, and then finished by playing an entertaining but loose third and overtime.

Prior to the game Hitchcock gave a rundown of some of his thoughts on his team in an interview with NHL.com, focusing on his magic number for special teams, goaltending, and the style he wants the Blues to play.

Here are Five Questions with … Ken Hitchcock:

Earlier [Monday] when you were talking to the media here you said to be good on special teams you want the percentages on the power play and penalty kill to add up to 105. Why 105? And why has the Blues penalty kill this season been problematic?

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"The old number used to 100, but 100 doesn't get you in the top-10 now in the League, especially because the PK numbers are so high. To me 105 is a goal, that if your number reaches there you're winning that game within the game. So that's the goal every 10 games to get to that 105 number. That means special teams are helping you, not hurting you. When the 5-on-5 play is even, either your PK is helping you win the game or your power play is helping you win it. When you get close to that number, you're going to win the special teams game in most games.

(Note: The Blues number through 11 games is 97.0 largely because of the PK.)

"I think our PK right now has less to do with personnel and more to do with we have to make a larger investment in all the details that we were so good at," Hitchcock continued. "We've had a really slow start on the investment side of things. I think we're starting to figure out how important it is. For whatever reason you have to get [ticked] off to make that bigger investment in killing penalties, and that's what is happening now. The game against Colorado really got our attention because we had the game in control and gave it up twice killing penalties. I think it's got everybody's attention so now is the time to really focus on the details."

Once again the Blues are among the best teams in the League at limiting shots against (25.8 per game, third in the NHL), and goalies Brian Elliott and Jake Allen have excellent numbers despite neither having a history of being a long-term No. 1 goalie in the NHL. Are they a product of the system, or is it unfair to categorize them that way?

"Well I think both guys have played really well this year, and we've given up a lot of quality shots. But we're a different team since we've had these injuries and the sicknesses because we've drawn everything in. I think long-term we know we've gotta go back and play the way we did when we were healthy, so it's going to be a little more open. Right now we've gone back to the old way out of necessity, not because it's what anybody wanted to do. The players felt familiar playing this way and we drew it back in just knowing that the firepower was not there, but we're not going to stay unhealthy forever, hopefully, so they're still going to have to make quality saves.

"But what we were doing at the start of the year was really unfair to the goalies because we weren't giving up a lot of shots on goal, but a lot of the shots were from odd-man rushes. That was really unfair to judge the goalies. If we give up scoring chances that [the opposition] have to earn, I think our guys are as a tandem are as good as anybody. But it doesn't matter who you are, if you're giving up breakaways, 2-on-1s and 3-on-2s, you're not going to get a good relationship with your goalie."

There is a fine line there between wanting to open it up more and also playing true to what has worked. Is opening it up more part of a philosophy of yours to stay current with the League?

"It's not so much open up. What we want to do is we want to demand more off the rush. We want our players to do more off the rush. In other words, if we gain the blue line, even if it's six inches, we want them making a play and we're willing to live with the risk of playing that way. But when we lost everybody we had to move a line back, so we had to say, 'Read the red line, not the blue line.' So in other words if you have the red line but you know you can't get the blue line, let's put it in. Let's be smart and let's manage the lines. When we were fully healthy we managed the lines pretty well, but we tried to play the same way when guys went out and we didn't do a good job managing the lines so we became just a track meet the wrong way. We weren't going to win a lot of games, especially close games, playing that way."

For you to want your players to attack, to make plays inches after gaining the blue line, is that a philosophy gained from watching the rest of the League or is it a philosophy gained from having different personnel, skilled personnel like Stastny and Tarasenko?

Vladimir Tarasenko

Right Wing - STL

GOALS: 7 | ASST: 6 | PTS: 13
SOG: 49 | +/-: 8

Was that a direct response to losing to the Chicago Blackhawks and Los Angeles Kings in the Stanley Cup Playoffs the past two years after gaining 2-0 leads in each series?

"When you play your best hockey, like we did the year before in L.A. in the last four games, and then we did the same thing [last season against Chicago] except for the third period in Game 6, and you don't win, you've gotta take a hard look in the mirror. Some of it is personnel related and some of it is just attitude related. You've gotta accept that ownership. You've gotta demand more from yourself. You can't change out everybody so you've gotta demand more from yourself. It's the everyday demands that you place. We expect every player on our team when there is a chance to make a play to make a play, and we also except that when it's time to check you've gotta check. That's what winning teams do. I think the difference in the Chicago series for me is when we had them on the run we let our foot off the gas a little bit and it allowed some of their key players to become major players as the series went on."

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