Ken Hitchcock's Game 4 Coaching Wizardry Helps Blues Flip Momentum in Series

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Some coaches might have been stubborn and refused to make any serious changes, especially to a team in a conference final and only down one game in a series that was still early. Not Ken Hitchcock. 

The coach of the St. Louis Blues is not afraid to change with the times. One of the first things he did when assuming control of the Blues in 2011 was reassess his relationship strategies with younger players. He didn't think he knew enough of their world anymore, so he became a regular watcher of the Palladia Channel (now known as MTV Live) to better understand the millennial mindset. 

When his Blues were shut out a second straight game of this Western Conference Final against San Jose on Thursday, he said: "I'm going to have to change tactics, do something completely different than we've done in the first two series."

Saturday, Hitchcock changed his starting goalie, inserting Jake Allen for Brian Elliott, tinkered with his line combinations and adjusted his checking scheme some. The Blues looked like a completely different team in a 6-3 drubbing of the Sharks at SAP Center. The best-of-seven series is now even at two games apiece, with Game 5 set for Monday night at Scottrade Center.

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Asked if he felt like a "mad scientist" with all his changes, Hitchcock responded with a usual mix of humor and a little sarcasm.

"Well, I hope not, or else I'd be a golf instructor," Hitchcock said. "I mean, I don't know, I kind of think I know what I'm doing. I know this might sound a little harsh to say, but I don't really care what you did for me yesterday. I just care about what you're going to do for me today and I don't care about tomorrow. And I think the players recognize that."

Indeed, that is another change in Hitchcock's persona from his earlier years. The 64-year-old coach used to stew too long over losses and harp on players for a while on their mistakes. Now, he moves on quicker.

"I feel for some of the players who didn't get to play, but I've got to do what's best to help us win hockey games," Hitchcock said. "We had an idea of what we needed. We put those players in and we challenged them and they did the job today."

The victory might have come at some cost to the Blues, however, as captain David Backes did not play after the first period, and promising youngster Robby Fabbri left the game after a rough hit into the boards from Tommy Wingels. Hitchcock said, however, both players should be "good to go" for Game 5. It was unclear when Backes might have been hurt, but he fell hard to the ice after going on the forecheck early in the first and also collided hard with Sharks defender Brent Burns midway through the period.

The Blues offense looked completely disrupted after Game 3, with San Jose taking away practically all their time and space with the puck. But in Game 4, it was just the reverse. The Sharks, while they did have a couple of good early chances, couldn't get the puck out of their zone like they had for much of the series. Meanwhile, the Blues got in hard on the forecheck, pinned the Sharks in their end and started creating turnovers. 

This time, the Blues found ways to put pucks past Sharks goalie Martin Jones. Kyle Brodziak and Troy Brouwer scored two goals apiece, with Brodziak's second of the day, at 10:11 of the second period, proving the game-winner.

Brodziak started centering a new fourth line, with Magnus Paajarvi and Dmitrij Jaskin, and the results were so good that Hitchcock now calls it "our third line" and that he has "two third lines now." Hitchcock also moved Jori Lehtera up from his previous third-line center to a new top line with Jaden Schwartz and Vladimir Tarasenko, and the results were good. Lehtera scored at 10:11 of the first to make it 2-0.

Brodziak's first goal, a short-hander at 6:09 of the second to make it 3-0, came following a turnover. Sharks center Joe Thornton, his options limited in front of him, threw a cross-ice pass to no one in the Blues' zone. It was picked up by Schwartz, who fed Brodziak on a two-on-one for the goal. Another Brodziak goal chased Jones from the game at 10:11.

"We got away from our game. We turned pucks over and we turned it into a track meet for the first 20, 30 minutes," Wingels said. "We hung (Jones) out to dry tonight. We kept giving them odd-man rushes, so that's certainly not on Jonesie at all."

In the other net, Allen did the job. The Blues' losses in Games 2 and 3 can hardly be blamed on Elliott, as he got zero goal support. But sometimes a new face in goal can be enough of a catalyst to change things up in the room. 

Hitchcock said, "I'll let you know tomorrow," when asked if he would stick with Allen for Game 5. It seems safe to assume he won't change things up again in net, not after a big road win.

"We came here to win a hockey game. We did it, and we've got home-ice (advantage) back again," Hitchcock said. "Now we've got to bring our emotional level up. We're going to be playing in front of our fans, and they're going to be right through the roof for us."

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With two victories, the Sharks are closer than they've ever been to a Stanley Cup Final. Now with two victories themselves, the Blues are closer than they've been since 1970. 

"We didn't execute tonight and we got what we deserved," Sharks coach Pete DeBoer said. "Short memory, we'll move on to the next game. We've had one or two games like this in the playoffs already, and we've always responded the right way."

It's DeBoer's turn now to perhaps make some changes for Game 5. Or, maybe not. It figures to be interesting, though, how he responds to Hitchcock's masterful moves that helped win Game 4.

Adrian Dater covers the NHL for Bleacher Report.