Blues making bold moves for Game 2

ST. LOUIS -- The drama from this mornings skate came entirely from the St. Louis side, where Blues coach Ken Hitchcock turned over his roster, for three separate reasons, one more fascinating than the other two.The big one was making third-line wing Chris Stewart a healthy scratch for the first time all year in exchange for Matt DAgostini, a response not only to Stewarts intermittent work in Game 1 but over the course of an up-and-down year. Stewart was clearly surprised by the move, referring at one point to its hard to do a lot in a few minutes of playing time, but Hitchcock was not sparing in his analysis of the Stewart move.We need more from him, Hitchcock said. We need more from that position, more tenacity, more determination, more second and third effort from that position.But he went on from there to describe the decision in terms of the evolution of a career. Hes had an off year. That doesnt mean he cant come back. But if youre talking about a second-line player, you can afford to be a little patient. We expect him to come back and give more. You cant keep talking about it.Stewart, for his part, was visibly shaken by the move, even though he said he expected something might be up Friday."There's obviously more to give, he said. Also, you do need the opportunity. I didn't get the most ice time in the world last game, but it's up to me to earn it. I've got to go out there with the ice time I do get and show them that I deserve more. You look at our team and our depth, there's guys that demanded the ice time and I wasn't one of them. That's why am I where I am right now."Yeah. I thought I ended the regular season on a high note. Every game matters. So, he's going to put the best 12 guys at forward that he thinks are going to get the job done. That's a tough job to do and he has to do it. Somebody has to be the bad guy."It's a pretty bad feeling, but like I said, this is the time of year that it's no time to pout or be down on yourself. We're all professionals here, and we're all a team. It's one game at a time.""Obviously when you lose a game, there is going to be changes. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out. I kind of got the idea that if there was going to be changes, I was a possibility that I could be coming out. Not to my surprise, I was out this morning.But given his successes in Colorado as a first-liner and his struggles this year, Hitchcock chose a dramatic moment to send his message.The other changes were more tacticalB.J. Crombeen for Ryan Reaves on fourth-line wing, a bit of a surprise, and Carlo Colaiacovo for Kent Huskins as Alex Pietrangelos partner on the second defense pairing. The Blues struggled to make full sense of San Joses third-line-fourth-line exchanges, and though Reaves was effective as a disruptor, Crombeen can do many of the same things and more still. Both he and DAgostini will flank Scott Nichol on the Blues fourth line, while Jamie Langenbrunner gets bumped to the third line with Jason Arnott and Vladimir Sobotka.Ray Ratto is a columnist for CSNBayArea.com