Joel Quenneville became head coach for the St. Louis Blues midway through the 1996-97 season after Mike Keenan was fired. Quenneville led the Blues to 307 victories, with seven straight Stanley Cup Playoff berths, and the Presidents’ Trophy in 1999-2000. He won the Jack Adams Trophy as the coach of the year in 2000. Quenneville later coached at Colorado before taking the job in Chicago where he has won two Stanley Cups and his 700th game last night.
Q’s Blackhawks handed the Blues their first regulation loss against a division opponent this season, a 4-0 final at United Center in Chicago. The Blues are now 20-1-2 against Central Division foes.
Chicago went 2-for-3 on the power play, and the Blues failed on three power plays of their own as goalie Corey Crawford picked up his second shutout of the season. The Blackhawks got traffic in front of the net and made it a tough night for Blues goalie Ryan Miller.
Miller was 7-0-1 with the Blues and stopped 180 of 193 shots, for a .933 save percentage. Last night, In this game, he allowed four goals on 27 shots before being replaced in the third period by backup Brian Elliott.
“They played hard and were in a groove from playing Tuesday night. We didn’t respond real well. Lesson learned,” Blues captain David Backes said. “We beat them three times this year. They were hungry, looking for revenge, and brought it up to a level and we needed to match it and we didn’t. The result is on the scoreboard.”
