Blues fire Hitchcock; Yeo is head coach no-longer-in-waiting
ST. LOUIS -- The Blues abruptly fired coach Ken Hitchcock on Tuesday night, cutting short the veteran's final season in St. Louis and putting coach-in-waiting Mike Yeo in charge of the underperforming team months earlier than planned.
General manager Doug Armstrong announced the change one day after the Blues' fifth loss in six games.
"We don't lose with pride," an emotional Armstrong said at a news conference. "I don't think that we've given our best effort, and Ken, ultimately, he's paying the price with all our failures, starting with mine."
The 65-year-old Hitchcock was in his sixth season as Blues coach. They went 248-124-41 and made the playoffs in each of his five seasons, reaching the Western Conference final last spring. But St. Louis went just 5-8 in January and at 24-21-5 was mired in eighth place in the Western Conference entering the day.
"We've let our group become independent contractors," said Armstrong, who informed Hitchcock of his decision Tuesday night after a 5-3 loss to the Winnipeg Jets. "It's a losing brand of hockey, and Ken's paying the price for it."
Hitchcock took the fall for the Blues' underachieving season, which had a lot to do with goaltending struggles. Goalies Jake Allen, Carter Hutton and Pheonix Copley have combined for an .887 save percentage, the worst team mark in the NHL.
Yeo said Allen is the team's goaltender for now and the future. He said he doesn't expect to make wholesale personnel changes right away, beginning with the Blues' game Thursday against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
"We all have to dig much, much deeper than what we have," Yeo said. "Effort is going to be something that is talked about day in and day out."
Calling the change a "rebirth," Armstrong fought back tears while calling Hitchcock a future Hall of Famer and his "best friend." Yeo said he felt terrible replacing Hitchcock at midseason but that he accepted the responsibility of turning the season around.
Armstrong said Hitchcock took the news hard.
"He was defiant to the end," Armstrong said. "There was no 'kumbaya' last night. He was angry."
Armstrong said Hitchcock moved the Blues franchise "light years forward" in his five-plus years.
Goaltending coach Jim Corsi was also fired, and his duties will be handled by assistant GM and future Hall of Fame goaltender Martin Brodeur and Ty Conklin, the team's goalie development coach.
Hitchcock has coached 20 NHL seasons with the Dallas Stars, Philadelphia Flyers, Columbus Blue Jackets and Blues. He won the Stanley Cup with Dallas in 1999, and his 781 career regular-season victories are fourth all-time, one shy of Hockey Hall of Fame coach Al Arbour for third. Hitchcock has said he's interested in continuing to coach elsewhere after this season.
A look at new @StLouisBlues coach Mike Yeo by the numbers #stlblues pic.twitter.com/qObDEuxdrg
