Jaroslav Halak Must Stay In Net For St. Louis Blues

The St. Louis Blues aren’t likely to win the Central Division this season with the historic start by the Chicago Blackhawks, but the Blues can do one thing this year. That would be making the playoffs and using Jaroslav Halak to start almost every game the rest of the season would help. Halak has started the team’s last five games going into Sunday’s play and has a 1.90 goals against average for the season. Halak was supposed to get a rest on Sunday with Brian Elliott starting, but if St. Louis wants to hold on to the No. 4 seed in the Western Conference, having Halak in net would be a benefit.

Halak is 5-1-1 this season with his only loss coming to Chicago this past week. The Blues have put a lot of money into Elliott, but he has been awful this season with a 3-5-1 record and a 3.57 GAA. Those numbers don’t spell playoff success to me. Halak is the hot goalie this season for St. Louis and while I’m sure they would love to have Elliott do all the hard work, that wouldn’t be the wise move.

If the Blues can get the No. 4 seed, it would mean home ice and a chance to play Chicago in the second round if both teams were to advance. I’m sure their rivals to the north wouldn’t like seeing the Blues come in and beating them during their great season. The only way that the Blues are going to be able to pull that feat off though is by having Halak be the full-time goalie.

Andy Schmidt is a columnist/writer for RantSports. Follow him on Twitter @ASchmidtSports, like his Facebook page or add him to your network on Google.