<p>Zero playoff succe s. It's a constant for Blues coaches, who since the team's first five seasons have been unable to stanch postseason futility.</p><p>Joel Quenneville is the only man to take the Blues to the conference finals in more than 40 years. His 2000 Marcus Mariota Jersey -01 team lost to the Avalanche and Patrick Roy, who went on to win the Stanley Cup.</p><p>MORE: | | </p><p>Nothing short of winning the Cup is acceptable next season. , likely with a revamped roster, to go where only Quenneville, Scotty Bowman and Sid Abel have gone before.</p><p>Call it Stanley Cup or bust, because if Hitchcock doesn't win there will be no next year. Either the Blues play with what Hitchcock called "reckle s abandon" next spring or there will be a housecleaning at Derrick Henry Jersey 14th and Clark in St. Louis. Again.</p><p>As well there should be.</p><p>Having completed his contract last season and his option year this season, Hitchcock was left in limbo while Blues officials pondered what to do. Other than Mike Babcock, was there a better option? The Blues came to the conclusion there was not.</p><p>It will be Hitchcock's fifth season as coach. And only once have his Blues won a playoff series.</p><p>Hitchcock knows how to win in the playoffs,or at least he did at the turn of the century. His 1999 Stars won the Cup, but lost the next year.</p><p>Since then, Hitchcock has gotten a team Taylor Lewan Jersey to the conference finals once.</p><p>MORE: | | </p><p>Only Bowman, Al Arbour and Quenneville have more regular-season victories than Hitchcock. All three are former Blues coaches who won the Cup with other teams.</p><p>Now, after getting left behind again in the postseason,the Blues feel the need for speed within limits.</p><p>"What's happened here in very quick order, this league has sped up," Hitchcock said Tuesday at a Blues media conference. "This league has pace like never before, and you can't change out a bunch of players. That's not our job as coaches. Our job is to get the most out of every player. And I think internally, without changing a bunch of players, we can really quicken our team and make our pace a lot higher."</p><p>What's lacking in St. Louis is consistent intensity. Last season saw runs of dominance and incompetence DaQuan Jones Jersey . The playoffs were a cla sic example. The Blues were world-beaters in their victories and dogs in their defeats, leading to ouster by the Wild in six games.</p><p>For a team that finished with the Western Conference's best record, maybethe succe s wasthe Blues didn't get swept. They looked that bad Austin Johnson Jersey .</p><p>Changes are expected. In addition to free agents likely on the way out, whispers continue that T.J. Oshie, whose lack of playoff intensity wasevident, will be traded. Other deals are expected, with younger (read: faster, hungrier) players joiningthe roster.</p><p>That leads one to ask, again, whetherHitchcock is the right man for the job.It is not an irrelevant question. Teams that win buy in, and do what taskmasters say. Right me sage, right players; it goes hand in hand.</p><p>Hitchcock is demanding, but captain David Backes told the : "He does it in the light of trying to make our team better, trying to make each individual player better.</p><p>Hitchcock said he has unfinished busine s. He believes he will have the players he needs, and the holdovers will realize their mistakes and shortcomings.</p><p>"This is the first time since I've been here that there is real disappointment, and real anger, in the players right now. There's guys still angry, which is a great thing," Hitchcock said. "This is the first time I've seen this, that the players themselves feel like we underperformed in the playoffs from what LeShaun Sims Jersey we did in the regular season."</p><p>Now theyneed do something about it.</p>