After Tuesday's game, up next is a game Thursday against the Anaheim Ducks.
"I was shooting for tomorrow. It doesn't look like it's going to be a possibility," he said. "We want to see how it goes today and see how it responds in the morning and try it out in the morning skate and see if it feels any better. Saturday would have been optimistic. I think a good morning skate, I'll be able to feel it and see if I'm ready."
Goalie Brian Elliott missed practice with what Hitchcock said was the flu, which he said a few other players have had. "We're hopeful he's back tomorrow," Hitchcock said.
Ryan Reaves left practice early after taking a puck off his leg but Hitchcock had no doubt he'd be back on Tuesday.
JAKE'S TURN
Jake Allen will start in goal on Tuesday.
While Hitchcock has said the decision on who will be the No. 1 goalie is still a few weeks away, Allen has some catching up to do. He has a 3.02 goals-against average, an .899 save percentage and a 1-2 record, though the case can be made that he's gotten tougher games than Elliott has.
"He's been OK," Hitchcock said. "I think we're expecting better. He's expecting better and we'll probably get better. We're playing every second day now starting tomorrow, so both of those guys will get good tests against good teams. He's had some tough assignments and I'm sure he'd be the first to confess he could play a little bit better. It's still early in the year and we hope to get it."
More on this Tuesday.
ON THE DOT
The Blues got clobbered on faceoffs in the first period against New York on Saturday, winning just five of 20. But they turned it around after that, taking 21 of 35 the rest of the way.
"For the third game in a row ... " Hitchcock said of the first-period disparity. "For whatever reason, we're not engaged in the 50-50 pucks so we're losing a lot of 50-50s. The scramble faceoffs we lose. Then in the second and third we get a little bit angry or the coach gets a little bit angry and we start winning them all. We've have three games in a row where we've been poor in the first period and excellent in the second and third. We addressed that. We're going to see if we get better there."
WHO'S WHERE?
With Scottie Upshall, who came down with something nasty right before Saturday's game ("I've played through a lot of moments," he said, "but it was ugly. I felt like death."), back on the ice for practice as well as Fabbri, the Blues got a look at the lines they may be using going forward, at least in the short term.
The top line of Steen-Lehtera-Tarasenko stayed the same, as did the fourth line of Ott-Brodziak-Reaves. In between, David Backes was centering Upshall and Dmitrij Jaskin and Scott Gomez was centering Fabbri and Troy Brouwer. Ty Rattie was the spare.
So you've got:
Steen-Lehtera-Tarasenko
Jaskin-Backes-Upshall
Fabbri-Gomez-Brouwer
Ott-Brodziak-Reaves
Shattenkirk was skating with Carl Gunnarsson, but with Shattenkirk not going, not sure how that will affect things on the back end. Gunnarsson, by the way, beat Allen twice in a shootout drill at the end of practice. Gunnarsson said it was unlikely he would figure in the Blues' shootout plans anytime soon.
"I was shooting for tomorrow. It doesn't look like it's going to be a possibility," he said. "We want to see how it goes today and see how it responds in the morning and try it out in the morning skate and see if it feels any better. Saturday would have been optimistic. I think a good morning skate, I'll be able to feel it and see if I'm ready."
Goalie Brian Elliott missed practice with what Hitchcock said was the flu, which he said a few other players have had. "We're hopeful he's back tomorrow," Hitchcock said.
Ryan Reaves left practice early after taking a puck off his leg but Hitchcock had no doubt he'd be back on Tuesday.
JAKE'S TURN
Jake Allen will start in goal on Tuesday.
While Hitchcock has said the decision on who will be the No. 1 goalie is still a few weeks away, Allen has some catching up to do. He has a 3.02 goals-against average, an .899 save percentage and a 1-2 record, though the case can be made that he's gotten tougher games than Elliott has.
"He's been OK," Hitchcock said. "I think we're expecting better. He's expecting better and we'll probably get better. We're playing every second day now starting tomorrow, so both of those guys will get good tests against good teams. He's had some tough assignments and I'm sure he'd be the first to confess he could play a little bit better. It's still early in the year and we hope to get it."
More on this Tuesday.
ON THE DOT
The Blues got clobbered on faceoffs in the first period against New York on Saturday, winning just five of 20. But they turned it around after that, taking 21 of 35 the rest of the way.
"For the third game in a row ... " Hitchcock said of the first-period disparity. "For whatever reason, we're not engaged in the 50-50 pucks so we're losing a lot of 50-50s. The scramble faceoffs we lose. Then in the second and third we get a little bit angry or the coach gets a little bit angry and we start winning them all. We've have three games in a row where we've been poor in the first period and excellent in the second and third. We addressed that. We're going to see if we get better there."
WHO'S WHERE?
With Scottie Upshall, who came down with something nasty right before Saturday's game ("I've played through a lot of moments," he said, "but it was ugly. I felt like death."), back on the ice for practice as well as Fabbri, the Blues got a look at the lines they may be using going forward, at least in the short term.
The top line of Steen-Lehtera-Tarasenko stayed the same, as did the fourth line of Ott-Brodziak-Reaves. In between, David Backes was centering Upshall and Dmitrij Jaskin and Scott Gomez was centering Fabbri and Troy Brouwer. Ty Rattie was the spare.
So you've got:
Steen-Lehtera-Tarasenko
Jaskin-Backes-Upshall
Fabbri-Gomez-Brouwer
Ott-Brodziak-Reaves
Shattenkirk was skating with Carl Gunnarsson, but with Shattenkirk not going, not sure how that will affect things on the back end. Gunnarsson, by the way, beat Allen twice in a shootout drill at the end of practice. Gunnarsson said it was unlikely he would figure in the Blues' shootout plans anytime soon.
