Written by Greg Wyshynski at YahooSports.com
Ken Hitchcock was fired on Wednesday morning by the St. Louis Blues, and it was really the only logical button to press for GM Doug Armstrong as he attempts to salvage a season that’s slipping away.
Hitchcock’s calling cards as Blues coach: The gritty defensive prowess of his teams and annual regular-season success.
The defense this season has been embarrassingly bad, leading to a 3.12 goals-against average for No. 28 in the NHL. The Blues have a minus-16 goal differential. In the first five years under Hitchcock, the team had a goals-against average of 3.12.
Much of that is insufficient goaltending – which is why goalie coach Jim Corsi was turfed as well – as the Blues team save percentage is last in the NHL at .887 even though they’re allowing the fourth-fewest shots per game (27.6). But some of it is also team defense. Something had to change.
The regular-season success had suddenly changed as well. Their points percentage in 50 games was .530. The Blues hadn’t finished lower than a .625 (in the 48-game lockout season of 2012-13) under Hitchcock. Fear of seeing that regular-season success erode was a constant lifeline for Hitchcock, even as his talented teams floundered in the postseason. No longer.
Plus, Armstrong was in the enviable position of having the team’s next head coach – not interim, not short-term replacement, but head coach – already on the bench in Mike Yeo.He was hired as the next head coach when Hitchcock decided to return for the 2016-17 and declared (at least at the time) that it would be his last in the NHL.
“I feel really confident that the team and the franchise is going to be in great shape with Mike at the helm,” said Hitchcock at the time, also using the word “stewardship” to describe his role.
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