Jackets Fire Ken Hitchcock
by Mike MacLean on Feb 3, 2010 5:21 PM EST
25 comments
After much speculation, head coach Ken Hitchcock has been relieved of his head coaching duties. Claude Noel will take over as interim head coach. The writing has been on the wall for the last month or more, with the team taking a massive step backwards this season.
With the old adage being "you can't fire 23 players", you knew something had to give. Hitch's message wasn't being delivered, and the result was the team was in shambles on the ice. There was no semblance of structure, no commitment to a plan. It was painfully obvious. The question now becomes whether or not the players tuned him out, or if it was just a matter of the organization coming to the realization that his style wasn't conducive to the young, skilled players the team possesses. I think it's the latter.
The Jackets are the youngest team in the NHL. You need to have strong character players to filter the coach's message, otherwise the players (especially the younger ones) can get down on themselves and play scared. I hate to say it, but the loss of Mike Peca was huge for the locker room. He was the brash veteran who could change the tune of the coach's rants and turn it into a message the younger players can work with. Rick Nash, the Captain, isn't the sort of character that can do that. In time, he'll make a phenomenal captain. That said, he is still young himself. The trade to bring in Chris Clark was too little, too late, you can't just bring in a guy half way through the season and expect him to step to the forefront and lead a team.
It all boils down to the fact that the team is too young and immature to practice what a demanding coach like Hitch preaches. The leadership was lacking in the locker room, and because of that the players were not playing the style he laid out for them.
On a personal level I have a ton of respect and admiration for Hitch. He has done things for me personally, which I won't get into in this space- and I will always remember him for taking the rag tag Columbus organization, giving it some credibility, and taking it to the playoffs for the first time.
Good luck to you Hitch, and thanks for everything.
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Maybe because I’ve been out of the loop for a bit, but this came as a surprise to me. I agree with all the points you made, especially about the youth and lack of an elder statesman (though you’d think Clark could fit that roll eventually).
Personally, I hope they get someone with a more high flying offensive style (like Blysma or Boudreau). Even if they don’t win, it’s much more fun to watch a 5-4 loss than a 3-0 one.
This is a weird feeling. The players did not play well on most nights, but then I often got into a tussle with myself. If our offensive top 6 forwards capable of playing Hitch’s system. We simply didn’t have enough of the rugged players. We’ve drafted skill skill skill and we have a gritty coach. It’s not the best longterm fit.
I think we will get the best out of this. Brassard, Voracek, and Nash have all been brought in with a defensive mindset and hopefully we will find a coach that allows them to unleash their offense.
I’m honestly sad, but I can’t see this team in its current form playing Hitch hockey at a Cup Contending level.
Now the issue is retooling the defense and getting one friggin top pair player. I’d deal anyone one of our dmen outside of Russell. Commodore is untradeable.
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agree 100%
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by Andrew Tolliver on Feb 4, 2010 8:59 AM EST up reply actions
I think you guys made
a mistake I’m a stars fan and i think the franchise wasn’t the same once Hitch got fired.
Different Teams need different coaching
The Dallas team that won the Cup in the 98-99 season featured essentially all notable players in the 27-40 age range (with the one exception of Jamie Langenbrunner, but even he wasn’t a huge producer). This Columbus team has a core that ranges from 20-28, and they’re the guys we want to build on.
Hitch is a coach known best for his defensive talent and the ability to lead mature, veteran players. That kind of system doesn’t mesh with CBJ. Yes, we got to the playoffs on the strength of great goaltending and excellent general play. You would have thought that, essentially keeping the same D and getting a year older, our team would have kept up the good play, perhaps falling back a bit.
This kind of fall, especially on D is just mortifying. This (yet again) speaks to the disconnect between team maturity/age and the ability of Hitch to get such an age group to buy into his system. You know things are bad when Hitch can’t get D to work.
I realize that Hitch has a great resume, but he just doesn’t mesh with this team. Maybe if they were given a few years to mature, they’d fit Hitch, but right now he is not at all a good choice. This move is not a mistake – it’s a logical choice that should have been made about a month ago.
Howson best show his worth by moving players listed below:
Pahlsson, Commodore, Huselius, Methot, Hejda
I’m not sure this can happen in a couple of these cases. You may be surprised I put Hejda there, but he’s getting up in age, he’s had a terrible set back this year and is not what we will need for transition offense IMO. What he has been this year is a dime a dozen.
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no
it would be VERY dumb to move huselius hejda and commodore
reason being is that huselius hasnt been on a line where he can show off his talent like last year because rick nash has been slacking and statistics show it
commodore is a GREAT player he started off all wrong with his workouts before the season he was our top defenseman last year and he will be again next season since this season is pretty much over this summer he will be doing a better workout and he will come back stong
hejda is a very good player who, when paired with commodore, can do alot of damage he too hasnt been paired with anyone who can show his talent…he has a few goals tho which is good for him
i do agree that we should trade pahlsson and methot and i also believe we should bring up danny fritsche
Agree to disagree. I would love to be able to re-spend this 10 million dollars. Yes, 10 million dollars.
Huselius will likely play better in a more offensively free system, but he’s overpaid as of today.
Hejda is the one you could argue, but I’m not going to get nostalgic about 08-09 Hejda. 09-10 Hejda has been poor. He gets a pass because he’s been consistent before and frankly people are playing worse. I entertain a trade to see what value I could get, but the main issue is that we need a top pair guy and Commodore (untradeable), Tyutin, and Klesla will be 3 of those players… we need another player. We’ve already committed to Klesla who is similar to Hejda.
We need a Dan Boyle-type of player… not Dan Boyle, but someone like that.
The Cannon -- A Columbus Blue Jackets Blog
yes i agree
a dan boyle type player would be nice i know alot of people say that klesla and tyutin have the same style of play but personally i dont see it. klesla hustles to every puck and rarely has a turnover tyutin is giving turnovers out like free candy im not happy with tyutins style of play i wouldnt mind seeing him traded i think maybe ray whitney would fit in with us again and then the impossible could happen and tyler wright could make a come back…
haha
My two cents
I am not going to say that I am sad to see Hitch leaving us. I will say that I’m sad for him. He is a seemingly great guy with an impressive resume and I’m sure he will land on his feet. I have to agree with the other comments, he just wasn’t the right fit for this team. You can make the case that he was not provided with the right type of players for his system and you would be correct. The problem is that these guys on the roster now and that we have in waiting don’t fit the bill. Good luck to Ken Hitchcock on his future endeavors.
Now on to the fix… I agree that we need to make some personnel changes. Commodore has got to go, he’s slow and more often than not he is out of position. Really watch him this season, he doesn’t move his feet and gets beaten by average forwards on bad teams. Perhaps this has something to do with the injuries that he has sustained but he’s not the Commodore of last year and he’s not getting younger. I don’t know about Hejda, I don’t have strong feelings about him either way. He seems to play better when Rusty is healthy and some of the pressure is taken off of his defensive pair.
Huselius and Methot could be moved and we would possibly get something of value out of one if not both of them. Huselius isn’t scoring but we know the he is capable of scoring goals in bunches. Methot is a decent blueliner and put on a pair with a veteran D man he can show his worth.
I think it’s more likely that we will see Raffi dealt, not that I want that to happen. Most nights he is our hardest working forward and that has not gone unnoticed on this weak 2010 version of our team. I also wouldn’t be sad to see Pahlsson go as I thought it was a mistake to sign him and not Manny. Should have gone the other way.
With all of that being said I am still a fan and love my team. It has just been frustrating this season and I’m hoping we can bounce back and at least compete again.
I don't understand why people want Raffi delt
Maybe its because I think you need a grind it out line like when we put him Scrappy doo and the Boller on the same line. But to Hitch I think he is a good coach who will end up somewhere that has a veteran ladden team, but that was not what he had in Columbus to work with so now we have to figure out where to go from here.
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by WVPiratesfan on Feb 3, 2010 10:37 PM EST up reply actions
I don't...
I just think he is on the wish list of several teams.
i dont think we have a chance at resigning him
i love the guy but…. if he can be dealt then he needs to be dealt
GIVE ME A BLUE JACKETS TEAM WORTH ROOTING FOR
I disagree
Raffi loves playing in Columbus. He’s one of few guys I’ve heard say they like it here. The deal he’s going to want is somewhere around $2.5-$3 million, 3-4 years. I think Howson can afford to pay him in that range for 3 years.
Worst case, he has a reasonable contract that can be moved later on if necessary. Until then, he’s a tough player that is very effective on the ice.
Its not out of the realm of possibility. If he’s not traded, he’s getting a new deal. Howson won’t just let him go.
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by Andrew Tolliver on Feb 4, 2010 9:12 AM EST up reply actions
I don't either
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by Andrew Tolliver on Feb 4, 2010 9:00 AM EST up reply actions
I Agree... but...
Raffi is generally outperforming his normal averages this year. This is seen in an even more surprising light compared to the past three seasons. I would absolutely love to keep him. He’s a great member of the team and has a great combo of grinding and scoring this year.
Sadly, he’s an unrestricted free agent after this year, and given his stats this year, we’d need to shell out a decent amount to hold onto him. We’ve shown reluctance (organizationally) to spend too much more than our current roster payroll (likely to do with the business woes right now).
If we can’t get him back, it’s best to get something for him. Essentially, it comes down to whether we can keep him or not. If we can, hooray. If not, we need to trade. Recall: Something > Nothing.
Also, in that picture
It looks like Umberger is slamming some Subway in between shifts.
GIVE ME A BLUE JACKETS TEAM WORTH ROOTING FOR
I wouldn’t trade Huselius until we see what kind of product Noel is preaching. Hell, he may open things up and Juice will thrive. Ditto for Jake and Brass. Assuming Raffi is gone (get value when you can…) I would put Juice on a line with Brass and Jake and see what happens. Umby can play with Nasher and Vermmy. Clark, Pahlsson and Freddy can play on the third line (unless Freddy is traded of course) and that leaves Dors, MurrDogg and Boller for the fourth line. This forward group can win.
The issue is with the D, obviously. As Clint said earlier, trade everybody but Russell. I would be inclined to add Stralman as well, because he brings necessary offense. Commie won’t be going anywhere, so move the parts out to shore up the D. Sign a guy like Zidlicky. Sign Hamhuis. Sure it’s going to cost money, but trim the roster to make it work.
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