Ken Hitchcock fired as coach of Blues

[Boris13c]

Ken Hitchcock fired as coach of Blues

Ken Hitchcock was fired as coach of the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday and replaced by associate coach Mike Yeo.

Hitchcock was 248-123-41 in six seasons with St. Louis. He was 20-27 in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Blues finished first or second in the Central Division in each of Hitchcock's five full seasons, but they lost 5-3 to the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday and are fourth in the division with 53 points (24-21-5).

After coaching the Blues to the Western Conference Final last season, he signed a one-year contract on May 31, 2016, and announced the 2016-17 season would be his last. Yeo was hired as associate coach June 13, 2016, and was scheduled to take over as coach next season.

Hitchcock, 64, is 781-473-111 with 88 ties in 20 seasons with the Dallas Stars, Philadelphia Flyers, Columbus Blue Jackets and Blues. He's fourth all-time in the NHL in coaching victories, behind Scotty Bowman (1,244), Joel Quenneville (831) and Al Arbour (782). His 1,453 games coached are fifth.

He won the Stanley Cup as coach of the Stars in 1999 and made the Cup Final in 2000, losing to the New Jersey Devils in six games. His teams made the playoffs 13 times in 14 full seasons.

[UOK]

Blues kind of needed this. They're in a Cup window right now and they've badly underperformed. I don't think Yeo will take them any further than Hitchcock, but whatever.

[Boris13c]

it kind of surprised me because Hitchcock already said this was his last season, and the fact he does have pedigree

then again maybe they thought he was going through the motions in his last season which is why the team is doing likewise?

[Otis Day]

Their front office sucks. his coaching doesn't really match the talent they have. He is pretty strictly a D guy. He has been misusing Tarasenko big time IMO.