NHL Trade Deadline Spiced With Elliott, Hitchcock Dispute

Today is all about the NHL trade deadline. Unless your starting goaltender gets into a screaming match with your head coach.

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The NHL trade deadline is already packed with interesting moments and tension. Usually it’s about contenders getting better or this season the Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel sweepstakes. St. Louis Blues goaltender Brian Elliott and head coach Ken Hitchcock added a little extra drama to the conversation and may have provided some rocket fuel for additional NHL trade deadline speculation.

Elliott seemed to have last night off as Jake Allen got the start against the Vancouver Canucks. However Allen was pulled after yielding four goals and Elliott went in for the third period. Except it was just for over six minutes. After Nick Bonino scored the fifth Canucks goal, Allen was back in the game and Elliott was none to pleased about it.

Big scene at the Blues bench.. Elliott just pulled himself, and Hitchcock grabbed him.. Elliott knocks Hitch's hand away and storms off..
— Blake Price (@justBlakePrice) March 2, 2015

So Hitchcock played a little musical goaltenders and Elliott didn’t like the tune. Can’t say I blame him. Asking your goaltender to go into a game cold is an injury risk but common in the game. To come back out of the game after a mere six minutes plays more on the mindset and it’s reasonable for Elliott to react the way he did. And Elliott wasn’t the only goaltender challenged by it.

Allen says he has no idea why he went back into the game. He said he was mentally drained by the situation. #stlblues
— Jeremy Rutherford (@jprutherford) March 2, 2015

Players won’t always see eye to eye and that’s normal but it’s exceedingly rare to have something like this spill out into public view. For his part Hitchcock tried to diffuse the situation quickly after the game.

Hitch says he pulled Elliott after game went to 5-2: "I was thinking, "All I've gotta do is get him hurt.'" #stlblues
— Jeremy Rutherford (@jprutherford) March 2, 2015

It’s a reasonable explanation which you can read more about here but it also begs this question: If you worry about Elliott getting hurt, why not just leave him on the bench and let Jake Allen fight through the game? And why wouldn’t you be worried about Allen on the bench tightening up only go to back into the game and risk injury himself?

It’s not as if St. Louis needed to risk an injury to either goaltender for an extra point. The Blues trail the Nashville Predators by four points for the top spot in the Central Division and are nine points clear of the Winnipeg Jets, the top wild card team. The Blues are safely in the playoffs and need not risk what has been a very good goaltending tandem to injury or otherwise.

All of this against the backdrop of the NHL trade deadline. None of this means that Elliott is suddenly on the trading block, nor does it mean that he should be. But with 3pm today approaching quickly the situation has added a little more drama to the day. Not that the NHL trade deadline needs any more drama. Now instead of looking to add a defensemen the Blues are putting out a small fire. Hopefully for a team that could come out of the Western Conference, it’s only a small fire and doesn’t need major changes to the goaltending situation.

Next: Buffalo Sabres Front Office Tension

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