After Shutout of Penguins, Will Blues’ Carter Hutton Get Another Shot Thursday?

Carter Hutton shut out the Penguins Tuesday. Will he get another shot Thursday in Minnesota, or will he give way to Jake Allen as scheduled?

In a rather unexpected turn of events, the St. Louis Blues ended a three-game losing streak during which they had given up 18 goals by turning to Carter Hutton against the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday night. Hutton, who came into the game with an .892 save percentage and 2.80 GAA, shut out the Penguins and won his third road game this month.

Shockingly, during a month where the Blues have fallen apart and accumulated a 5-6 overall record, the Blues have now set a season-high for road wins in a month as Hutton has stepped up in net. Struggles aside, that’s a very major and necessary step forward for a Blues team that’s had difficulty away from Scottrade Center this season.

With all that said, it’d seem that Hutton would have a lot of momentum going into Thursday’s game in Minnesota. If the Blues stick to their plan, however, Hutton will be watching from the press box as they take on the division-leading Wild, as the team said Monday that Jake Allen would return in Minnesota with Pheonix Copley backing him up.

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While Hutton’s numbers for the season indicate that a break wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world for him, the Blues need to pursue any morsel of momentum that they can possibly find right now, so it’s difficult to understand how they could turn away from him against one of their most fearsome opponents, especially if he isn’t going to be in line to relieve the struggling Allen if he needs to be pulled as he has been in his past three starts and four of his past six.

On the surface, a simple compromise seems rather easy: the Blues can send down Copley and save some cap space, sticking to their plan to start Allen again while having Hutton in reserve as his backup. Could they take that plan one step further, though, and give Hutton the start against the Wild? According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch‘s Jeremy Rutherford, coach Ken Hitchcock hasn’t ruled it out:

While it’s possible that it could further damage Allen’s confidence to tell him he’s coming back and then postpone his return, it seems as if it would be more harmful for him to come back on the road against the best team in the Western Conference and be more or less thrown to the wolves. With as bad as Allen has looked this month, it can’t hurt to give him more time to reset, and if the Blues can keep him out against the Wild, he’ll be able to spend 11 days away from game action and be set up to return against a Winnipeg Jets team that theoretically should be beatable at home.

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After all, if Allen is shaken that easily by a small alteration in plans, he probably doesn’t have the mental strength necessary to be a number one goaltender in the NHL anyway. Thus, the Blues do the logical thing and go with the guy who shut out the defending Stanley Cup champions on Tuesday night, even if it means delaying the return of their long-term starter for one more game.