Top Five Second Half Goals for the St. Louis Blues

Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports

5. Develop a Plan and Stick to It

As of recent, the Blues have been experimenting with some line changes. Despite the success that the groupings of Alexander Steen-David Backes–T.J. Oshie, Jaden Schwartz–Jori Lehtera–Vladimir Tarasenko, and Patrik Berglund–Paul Stastny–Dmitrij Jaskin/Joakim Lindstrom have had during the Blues’ 7-0-1 run, coach Ken Hitchcock has continued to shake things up in search of more offense.

At various points during the streak without a regulation loss, Hitchcock has swapped Lehtera and Stastny along with Schwartz and Berglund. However, neither of those switches has been responsible for a marked increase in offensive production, and both times the changes have been undone after just a few periods.

It’s alright to shake things up once in a while if the scoring efforts need a jolt, but as the Blues head into the stretch run, it would probably be best for Hitchcock to allow the lines to start building some chemistry rather than continuing to shuffle them. If he doesn’t think the current groupings will be able to get the job done, that’s fine, but as the games get more meaningful, the changes just for the sake of change need to drop off a little bit, especially while the team is experiencing such powerful offensive success.

Next: Sort Things Out with the Defensemen