Ducks at Blues
THE STORY: There have already been four coaching changes in the NHL this season. Two of the "fresh" faces will match wits Thursday when the St. Louis Blues host the Anaheim Ducks, but they are hardly strangers to standing behind the bench. Ken Hitchcock, who guided Dallas to the Stanley Cup in 1999, has led the Blues to a 9-2-3 mark since taking over for Davis Payne. Bruce Boudreau was fired by Washington on Nov. 28 and hired two days later to replace Randy Carlyle in Anaheim. Boudreau inherited a team with a penchant for blowing multi-goal leads and has seen it happen in his first three games. The Ducks, though, have won two of their last four games after a 1-10-3 stretch buried them deep in the Pacific Division. The Blues are coming off a 3-2 victory over Detroit on Tuesday, and have demonstrated they will be much stronger in the defensive end.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, Prime Ticket (Anaheim), FS Midwest (St. Louis)
ABOUT THE DUCKS (8-14-5): In an effort to get more scoring throughout the lineup, Bobby Ryan was moved down to the second line. He responded with two goals in Anaheim’s 3-2 victory over Los Angeles on Tuesday, Boudreau’s first win with the Ducks. Defenseman Francois Beauchemin is fifth in the NHL in ice time at 26:22. Jonas Hiller is 6-2-0 with a 3.24 goals-against average and a .893 save percentage in his career against St. Louis. Anaheim will play seven of its next eight games on the road.
ABOUT THE BLUES (15-9-3): St. Louis has taken Hitchcock’s defense-first philosophy to heart, allowing 22 goals in 14 contests after yielding 35 in its first 13 games. The Blues’ power play, last in the NHL at 10.5 percent, erupted for its first two-goal game of the season Tuesday. St. Louis goaltenders Jaroslav Halak and Brian Elliott are a combined 1-3-0 against the Ducks. The Blues have split the first two contests on their five-game homestand.
OVERTIME:
1. The home team is 24-7-1 in the last 32 meetings.
2. The Ducks have won two straight meetings, including 4-2 in the season series opener Oct. 16 in Anaheim when Ryan scored twice.