Wild ready to take on revitalized Blues squad

SATURDAY'S STORY LINE: When the Wild and Blues first met on Nov. 5, the Blues were a team in the midst of tumultuous times. They were off to a slow start and the loss to the Wild was the last straw forSt. Louis'management. The day after the loss head coach Davis Payne was fired and Ken Hitchcock took over.

When Payne was fired the Blues sat in 13th place in the Western conference. Since then, St. Louis has gone 19-5-6 and catapulted tofourth place in the Western conference.

Veteran forward Jamie Langenbrunner signed with the Blues as a free agent on July 6, 2011, the 17-year NHL veteran felt the team was struggling with who they were at the start of the season.

"We were a young team fighting itself and fighting with an identity," said Langenbrunner.

When Hitchcock took over, he gave the Blues an identity and the players began to believe.

"He has brought an identity. It is going to be a hard-working, defensive-minded team and guys have bought into that," added Langenbrunner.

Hitchcock has a wealth of NHL experience, having coached over 1,000 NHL games.He won the Stanley Cup in 1999 as head coach of the Dallas Stars and has 552 career wins. With experience comes confidence.

"He was able to instill confidence," Langenbrunner noted. "The experience that he brings, he has that confidence and he has put that into us. Confidence is important for everybody. When you play with confidence you play that much better and you believe you are going to win." LUNDIN BACK IN: Mike Lundin, who has been a healthy scratchnine of the last10 games, will be back in the lineup. Greg Zanon will be a healthy scratch.

HE SAID IT: "I am happy for him. He is a guy that has worked very hard for this opportunity and cares very much, so I am happy for him. Having said that, for us it was disappointing because for us he was still in our plans. We were hoping that he could go down there and get things going and be back with us soon, but, that being said, it is a good opportunity for him and we are happy for him."-- Yeo on Colton Gillies, who was waived Friday and picked up by Columbus.

Source: http://network.yardbarker.com/nhl/article_external/wild_ready_to_take_on_revitalized_blues_squad/9345233

Miami Heat Oklahoma City Thunder