St. Louis Blues rule Jaroslav Halak out for opening 2 Games against Los Angeles Kings -NHL Update
Brian Elliott will continue filling in for the St. Louis Blues as the team ruled out veteran goaltender, Jaroslav Halak, for the opening two games of the 2012 National Hockey League (NHL) Stanley Cup Western Conference Playoff Semi-Final series against Los
Angeles Kings.
"Jaro's not going to be around for the first two games, and then we'll see from there," Blues head coach, Ken Hitchcock, said.
Elliott played extremely well for St. Louis in majority of the first-round games for St. Louis against San Jose Sharks as the Blues took the series by a dominating 4-1 margin. Los Angeles is not as easy as anyone might think since they eliminated last year’s
Stanley Cup finalists, the Vancouver Canucks, 4-1 right from the first-round.
"When you beat the President's Trophy winner, you become the No. 1 seed, and I think everybody knows that," Hitchcock, said. "We've just got to be on top of our game. If we're on top of our game it's going to be a great series."
Halak went out with an undisclosed lower-body injury during Game 2 against San Jose Sharks after he collided with teammate, defenseman Barret Jackman. It has been reported by some sources that the goalie has a sprained left ankle, but nothing official has
been said by the team as of yet.
"I think both team defenses are pretty strong, we're back there and we'll have to make a few saves here and there," Elliott said. "It's going to come down to small breakdowns, small decisions with the puck that might cost you."
Elliott will have to continue playing as the best NHL goalie as he led the stats during the 2011-2012 regular season with a 1.56 goals-against average along with nine shutouts.
What Ken Hitchcock has always expected of Elliott has been pretty clear from day one when Halak was selected to be the opening goalie against San Jose. Luckily, the coach had them rotating throughout to keep both fresh and updated with the playoffs.
Now when the time comes to take over fulltime, Elliott seems to be more ready than ever in leading his team to a Stanley Cup one game at a time.
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