from Norm Sanders of the News-Democrat,

Asked what he might have done 10 years ago following a pair of lopsided home defeats like the St. Louis Blues suffered through this week, coach Ken Hitchcock showed how he has evolved.

"We probably would have done different things today," Hitchcock said Friday after putting the team through an informative video session highlighting the good, bad and the ugly from a 6-1 loss to Nashville on Tuesday and Thursday's 5-1 loss to Detroit. "But you learn. You learn over time that it's not the end of the world. If you treat it like the end of the world .... my job is to get them out of the ditch.

"You don't get them out of the ditch with a bunch of criticism and a bunch of conflict. My job is to get them back up and running and feeling good about themselves. As much as you want them to learn from the mistakes, they've got to see the good stuff, too."

As a result, there was no "bag skate" Friday where a hockey coach skates a team into the ground as punishment for misdeeds.

Instead, Hitchcock relied on video and the pride of a wounded team that began the season 6-1 before losing its last three games while being outscored 16-5.

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