The St. Louis Blues were Stanley Cup favorites after acquiring Ryan Miller and Steve Ott from the Buffalo Sabres just prior to the NHL trade deadline.

They end up losing in six games to the defending Stanley Cup champions. The Chicago Blackhawks had a clear advantage in this series. They have been there, they have the pedigree of winning two Cups in four years. They have more offensive depth than any other team in the league. The Blues failed to keep up with the offense of the Hawks, and that was their eventual demise.

Now there are plenty of reasons why the Blues lost to the Hawks in this first round series, and I'll be pointing quite a few of them out here. There are no excuses. The Hawks deserved to win this series, and here is why.



OFFENSE

The St. Louis Blues, a "score by committee" team for the last three seasons obviously has it's flaws. What have that done for the Blues? Three straight playoff eliminations in the first two rounds. Back-to-back eliminations in the first round.

When you look at the Chicago Blackhawks, their offensive depth, is undoubtedly the best in the league. Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Patrick Sharp, Marian Hossa, Andrew Shaw, Brian Bickell, etc. They may not all be super stars, but the first four could easily all hit a point a game in a season.

The Blues have strong offensive players, but no real game breaker, except for maybe Vladimir Tarasenko. Jaden Schwartz, David Backes, Alexander Steen and T.J. Oshie are all very good players, but again, no game breakers. They were outplayed the majority of the series.

When Doug Armstrong acquired Ryan Miller and Steve Ott, I said that he needs to be aiming for a guy like Thomas Vanek or Matt Mouslon. The team has some decent offensive players, but don't have enough to keep up with the Hawks, and obviously, it showed.

COACHING

Yet again, Ken Hitchcock was completely out coached in this series. So many questionable decisions made in this series in which you have to just scratch your head and wonder why?

In game six, the biggest question has to be why in the world was Adam Cracknell watching the game from the press box, and Derek Roy was playing? Derek Roy has been the biggest flop of all of Armstrong's free agent acquisitions. He was brought in to be the second line center. Spent the majority of the season bouncing from third line, to press box. He was average at best, and completely atrocious as worst.

When you have the fourth line of Chris Porter, Maxim Lapierre, and Adam Cracknell absolutely dominating the Hawks the majority of their shifts, why would you break it up? I wish I knew, but only Hitchcock knows the answer.

Why didn't Hitchcock even attempt to fix the broken power play? When your power play is struggling as bad as the Blues was struggling, why do you continuously hold optional practices and refuse to spend time working on the biggest hole of their play? Game six was evident of their need to fix the power play. Six straight power play for the Blues in the game, and they couldn't score. If they could score one or two on the power play, game six could have ended entirely different.

Three straight seasons of being out coached, and refusing to fix the biggest problems, could spell the end of Ken Hitchcock's tenure as a St. Louis Blues coach.


GOALTENDING

Doug Armstrong went all in this season, dealing goaltender Jaroslav Halak, forward Chris Stewart, prospect William Carrier, and a handful of draft picks for goaltender Ryan Miller and forward Steve Ott.

Miller was supposed to be the goalie that could carry the Blues to the Stanley Cup. How did that end? Allowing 20 goals in just six games in the playoffs. Finishing the post season with a 3.33 goals against average, isn't going to win a Stanley Cup, much less a series.

Meanwhile Corey Crawford held a 1.98 goals against average in the series. No doubt he out-dueled Miller in the series.

Many people were calling for Brian Elliott to start game five and game six. That wasn't going to happen. Miller was brought in to be the guy, and he was going to be the guy, win or lose. Unfortunately it took losing the series to realize that Ryan Miller was not the guy to win a Cup for the Blues.

Miller held the Blues in a handful of the games in this series, however he didn't steal any games for the Blues. He allowed quite a few soft goals in the series as well, which you just cannot do facing a team like Chicago.

In game six, he collapsed in the third period, ruining any chances for the Blues to come back in the game.

It's looking more and more likely that Ryan Miller will NOT be resigned by the Blues. It could be the beginning of the Jake Allen era in St. Louis. Allen has been a highly touted prospect since being drafted by the Blues. He had a very good junior career, and has proven himself to be an AHL all-star while playing for the Peoria Riverman and the Chicago Wolves.

We were able to see what Allen could do in the NHL last season, and he basically saved the Blues season when he was called upon. It's looking like he could very well be the starter for the Blues next season.





I will say congratulations to the Chicago Blackhawks. There is no doubt that you battled your hearts out and deserved this win. When it came down it, the Hawks were the better team in game six. Good luck moving forward in the playoffs.


The St. Louis Blues are out, and there are going to have to be changes made by the Blues this off-season. I'll have another blog tomorrow regarding some of the changes that need to be made.

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