Brian Elliott to Calgary for 35th pick & Cond 2018 3rd Rd

[Oaklandblue]

Hitch's "system" did zero favors for our goaltending last season.
The defense was underachieving on most nights (in their own zone) and our offense was non existent the first half of the season.
Our goaltending won us games early on. Without Elliott and Allen, we don't finish near the conference lead.
To say that Hitch's system is what fueled our good goaltending numbers last year isn't accurate at all in my opinion.

Especially because they weren't playing Hitchcock's "system" of the prior seasons which stifled offense by not allowing forwards to take chances or defenseman not named Pietrangelo or Shattenkirk to join the rush.

Last season, all defenseman had greenlights to join the rush, the 3rd man high in the offensive zone wasn't required to position himself defensively, but instead set up in scoring positions or to support give and gos off the cycle, and defenseman were allowed to take chances along the blueline, instead of automatically backing off when turnovers happened. None of the above was part of Hitchcock's "system" prior to 2015-16. The above were the changes made to try and take advantage of the offensive talent the team has at forward while relying on the defenseman to handle things without forward support. The result was the goalies having to play outstanding all year - BOTH goalies - which both did. Elliott had a bad start to the season and Allen took over as the starter and played very well for quite awhile with Elliott getting spot starts, until Allen was injured in January and no one was complaining about Allen during that stretch. Allen was among league leaders in SV% during that stretch. Hell, Allen finished 10th in the league in SV% based on 40 Games Played minimum. Does anyone believe Elliott by himself was the reason the Blues allowed the 5th fewest goals against in 2015-16? Should they have gotten more for Elliott? Yes, I think Armstrong could have done better and should have dealt him out of conference if he was going to get as little as he did.

Anyway, in seasons before 2015-16, goalies were helped immensely by Hitchcock's system. The Blues were in the top 5 in fewest shots allowed every season under Hitchcock until 2015-2016 when the shots allowed went from 3rd in the league (2014-15) to 15th (2015-16). So, Hitchcock's "system" didn't do squat for the goalies in 2015-16. That's just a ludicrous claim and is basing goalie performance based on how the Blues played prior to 2015-16 while ignoring the changes that were evident in 2015-16.

Are we talking regular season or playoffs? Because we play a lot of trash teams in the regular season and I'd like to see what the numbers are if they're weighted against teams of our equal or better. I think if we look at those numbers and game, we'll discover that Hitch's system isn't as good as we think it is. While it does limit scoring chances, it also takes a physical toll on our guys and limits their scoring chances due to the system. All an opponent has to do in a situation with that is tire us out and then run roughshod on us. So is that system as good as we really think it is?

[theohall]

Following that logic the Chicago Blackhawks, playing the same schedule, aren't any good either.