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Hitch has ‘no idea what type of team’ the Blues are

Ken Hitchcock

Head coach Ken Hitchcock of the St. Louis Blues leads his team against the Colorado Avalanche at the Pepsi Center on February 20, 2013 in Denver, Colorado. The Avalanche defeated the Blues 1-0 in overtime. (February 19, 2013 - Source: Doug Pensinger/Getty Images North America)

An injury to Paul Stastny.

A bacterial infection that made its way through the team.

And now David Backes might be injured.

Yes, it’s been a challenging start to the season for the St. Louis Blues, who despite it all, managed to improve their record to 4-3-1 with an overtime victory in Dallas on Tuesday.

But after eight games, coach Ken Hitchcock isn’t quite sure what he’s got to work with, or where things will go.

“We have no idea what type of team we have,” Hitchcock told ESPN.com.

“This might be one of those years where we’re just going to have to scramble to stay afloat. You don’t know. We didn’t have any adversity last year until the last two weeks and then we just got bombed with it. But this one is different. We’ve had nothing but an unsettled roster both at practice and games since the second game of the season.”

Last week, Hitchcock expressed frustration after a 4-1 loss at home to Vancouver.

“We’ve given up more odd-man rushes in six hockey games than we did in two months last year,” he said. “And you can’t win like that. This is a wake-up call. The alarm bell’s going off. You can’t have half the group buying in, and the other half not. This is a real good eye-opener for us.”

Since then, the Blues have beaten Chicago and Dallas. They host Anaheim Thursday and Colorado Saturday.