Blues coach Hitchcock has a few tricks up his sleeve

This playoff series between the Wild and Blues, previously defined by Wild dominance or even laughter, is now at least momentarily the province of Ken Hitchcock's stone-faced manipulations.

With a thorough whipping of the league's hottest team on Wednesday night at Xcel Energy Center, the Blues provided a reminder of what they can be and who Hitchcock has been — an excellent hockey club and a championship coach.

As Wednesday edged toward Thursday, the only man ever to coach the franchise formerly known as the North Stars to a Stanley Cup title took the podium in the basement of Xcel Energy Center.

Two days previously he had barely uttered a complete sentence before bolting the postgame news conference. He spent Tuesday blowing smoke up the Wild's breezers, using words the way chefs use meat tenderizer. Late Wednesday night, he looked like Patton, issuing a mission statement that sounded more like a threat than a promise.

"It looks like we've joined the tournament now and we're dialed in," Hitchcock said. "We've got home ice back, we're dialed into our game. We're going to be hard to play against when we're dialed in like this. Not fun to play against."

Hitchcock started the series by pretending he didn't know who he was going to play in goal. This is an old Hitch-ism.

After his team's bullying tactics failed in Game 3, he effusively praised the Wild. Why? To bolster the perception that the Wild has the superior team, and to anger his own players.

What did his team, which won the division, need to compete with the Wild? "Messier, Gretzky, I'll take an Anderson," he said. "Kurri's fine."

The result, in hindsight, was predictable: The Blues played their best game Wednesday while the Wild played as if it had just returned from a wine tasting excursion in Napa.

Hitchcock is dangerous because he is proven — ranking fourth in NHL history with 708 victories — and has nothing to lose. He's on the last year of his contract. If he doesn't beat the Wild, he's unlikely to return. That's one of the many melodramas playing in the background of what could become an epic series.

After four split games and a full week of Hitchcock's verbal massages, the series begins anew Friday night in St. Louis.

"Playoffs aren't great just because you win," Yeo said. "You have to prove you can get through those difficult times."

In the tennis match of coaching wits and subtle motivations, Yeo had to respond. Thursday, addressing Hitchcock's characterization of the Wild as the favorite, Yeo volleyed.

"I think it's more emotion with him," Yeo said. "There's still pressure on that team over there. The way things have gone for them the last few years, the word 'redemption' is coming into play for them.

"Obviously it's a very motivated group over there. I do think that they think that they're much better than us, and it's our job to prove that we're up to that level."

Yeo on Friday, like Hitchcock on Wednesday, will have to help his players transform embarrassment into productive anger.

He should be very cautious if, while in St. Louis, he's walking down the street and a guy who looks like Hitchcock asks him to pick a card, any card.