Coach Hitchcock nearly goes ‘Dennis Green’ after Blues loss to Kings

Following Tuesday night’s loss at Staples Center, St. Louis coach Ken Hitchcock was not very happy. And can you blame him?  After all, his team was up 4-1 midway though the game, yet managed to not only let the Kings crawl their way back into things, but eventually snatch the two points at stake. Following that third period meltdown, here’s what the Blues’ bench boss had to say…

– On what the Kings did in the third period: “We turned the puck over. Young guy made a few mistakes and it was in our net…We played a hell of a hockey game and then we turned the puck over and then lost a little bit of composure in the third period.”

– On the goaltending: “I’m not commenting on the goaltending.”

– On what type of setback the loss was: “It’s an investment. We did a lot of good things but we have to play better in some areas. We have to show more composure and continue to give the effort.”

– On if the Blues had a false sense of security up by three goals: “We didn’t have that. Second goal gave them the momentum. The second goal that went in gave them the momentum coming into the third period. That was the big factor.”

– On tyring to minimize their turnovers: “They checked us off the puck. We turned it over because they checked us off the puck. They’re a big team. We had them by the short ones and we let them off the hook.”

He was on the verge of repeating this epic post-game presser from Arizona Cardinals coach Dennis Green:

Additional comments from the Blues’ locker room…

Captain David Backes on the overall game – “We put our foot off the gas and you can’t do that against good teams. They took it to us; we made too many mistakes and they put it in the back of the net. We got off our game plan. We were trying to be too cute in our end when they were putting pressure on us rather than getting it out and working it down the ice like we did in the first period. The result is four unanswered in the third and another bad feeling in this locker room.”

Forward Ryan Reaves on the overall game – “Coming into the third even after they scored the first one in third, we all thought we were okay. Things started to slip when they tied it up. We started to panicking then. It kind of seems like we do a lot of that lately – hitting too much of a panic button when things start to look bad. We just have to stick to our game plan and grind away.”

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