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Hitchcock won’t announce starting Blues goalie until Thursday

halak elliott

Anyone wondering which goalie will start for the Blues Thursday against San Jose will have to wait until Thursday, reports Jeremy Rutherford of the Post-Dispatch.

St. Louis coach Ken Hitchcock wouldn’t say today whether it will be Jaroslav Halak or Brian Elliott between the pipes for Game 1.

Both goalies make strong cases.

From the Post-Dispatch:

The tandem won the Jennings Trophy for allowing the fewest goals against in the NHL this season (165). The duo’s 1.89 goals-against average this season was the lowest GAA in the NHL since the Original Six expanded in 1967-68.

Halak finished 26-12-7 with a 1.97 GAA and a .926 save-percentage. He also had six shutouts. Elliott, meanwhile, set the NHL post-expansion record with a 1.56 GAA to go along with a league-best .940 save-percentage. He had nine shutouts.

If I had to guess (and this is nothing but a guess), I’d say it’ll be Halak, if only because of what he did in the playoffs two years ago with the Habs.

Elliott, on the other hand, has just four playoff games on his resume – all in 2010 – and only one of the four was particularly good.

In fact, the same time Halak was shutting down the Caps, Elliott was getting ventilated by the Penguins.

Obviously Elliott’s come a long way since then, but how else are you supposed to choose between those two?