Blues' Hitchcock won't name No. 1 goalie in training camp

St. Louis Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock says he won't name a No. 1 goaltender in training camp, he'll let the play of Brian Elliott and Jake Allen decide who ultimately claims the starting job.

"When the season starts, we're going to let whoever takes the job evolve," Hitchcock told Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

"So we're not going to anoint anybody. We're just going to let it evolve and hopefully somebody grabs it. I don't know that we want to get into where we're creating the sharing. We want the play of the goalies to determine who gets more, who gets less."

Allen got the bulk of the work in the Blues' first-round playoff series against the Minnesota Wild in the spring, appearing in all six games.

However, Elliott played nine more games than Allen during the regular season, posting a better goals-against average (2.26 to Allen's 2.28) and save percentage (.917 to Allen's .913).

"Obviously if both guys play great, then both guys play," Hitchcock said.

The head coach hopes the netminders determine their roles by the end of the regular season's first month.

"But if one guy steps out and plays a little bit better, then he'll get more games than the other guy. Anointing someone with the way it finished (last season) isn't realistic and I'm not going to go and anoint someone out of training camp either. I'm going to hope that by the time we finish October, somebody's going to grab this thing."