Brian Elliott Named NHL's Second Star Of The Week

It's often been said that Brian Elliott plays better when the fire of competition has been lit under his ass. Last season, he had Jaroslav Halak pushing him, and when Halak went down, Elliott knew that the fate of the Blues season rested on his shoulders. Of course, that helped Halak and Elliott win the Jennings Trophy last year for the fewest goals allowed by a NHL team. This season? Yeah, not going to win that Jennings.

After a pretty ok start for Elliott, the wheels came off, his GAA ballooned to over 3.50, and no shot was too squishy soft to go in. The fanbase collectively sighed in resigned defeat when Halak tweaked his groin again at the end of last week's game against the Minnesota Wild, and then they cringed when Elliott let in his first goal. It was also his only. In his last three games, Elliott has allowed four goals and has won every game, bringing his record up to 6-6-1. His GAA is down to a 3.14 (woo?) and his save percentage is up to .879. Generally this is terrible, and it's going to be -- the Blues don't allow that many shots on net. But his play the last three games could be enough to make fans forget his awful start.

The NHL's named him the number two star of the week, thanks to his 1.45 GAA and .952 SV% in his last three games. Number one was, of course, Alex Ovechkin. Number three? The King himself, Henrik Lundqvist.

Do you feel more comfortable now with Elliott in net since Halak's down, or did the goalie's start give you a case of the heebie jeebies that needs more than three games to recover from?