Hitchcock Formal Announcement?

[BuLLeT1291]

Via Nick Kypreos @RealKyper

"Sound like @StLouisBlues run was enough for Armstrong to bring back Ken Hitchcock. Formal announcement could come as early as this week"

I didn't think we would hear anything until after the playoffs were over at the very earliest.

Click to read more...

 

[Total Bender]

Vlad's gonna be pissed. Not really a Kypreos fan but he's probably pretty reliable right?

 

[WalterSobchak]

 

[BuLLeT1291]

Vlad's gonna be pissed. Not really a Kypreos fan but he's probably pretty reliable right?

First reply to his tweet was "wonder how that affects Tarasenko" LOL

 

[BuLLeT1291]

Vlad's gonna be pissed. Not really a Kypreos fan but he's probably pretty reliable right?

From what I have gathered yes.

 

[BlueDream]

Well Friedman quoted him and said it might be tomorrow, so it sounds like this is legit.

I just can't be excited anymore. When is it finally time for a change? Armstrong has gotta be one of the five dumbest GMs in the league. I swear he's just going to let Hitchcock do whatever he wants until he's 70.

 

[Daley Tarasenkshow]

Not sure why everyone is so mad. He led this team to the conference finals. I understand how he may have lost the locker room but he has the chance to win it back. He better communicate with Tarasenko this offseason.

 

[Total Bender]

One of the 5 dumbest GMs assembled a team that went to the conference finals? Is it luck?

 

[Majorityof1]

Maybe he is bringing him back as an executive, not as a coach. 1 year contract to be Assistant Director of Buy-In

 

[TruBlu]

I have mixed feelings on it. On the one hand, we made it to the wcf. You can't really say his system doesn't work. On the other hand, this is the first time we haven't seen them get dropped in the first round. I think we rise or fall based on the player moves we make this off season.

 

[BlueDream]

The Blues make it to the 3rd round one time after 4 awful failures and now Hitchcock and Armstrong are the reason they made it there. Love it.

 

[Total Bender]

The Blues make it to the 3rd round one time after 4 awful failures and now Hitchcock and Armstrong are the reason they made it there. Love it.

Were you watching during the Brewer era? It could be a lot worse I assure you. I think people are underestimating how dificult it is to be competitive in this league let alone win the cup. This team didn't coach and manage itself to the conference finals.

Who do you want to replace hitchcock?

 

[Chojin]

I have mixed feelings on it. On the one hand, we made it to the wcf. You can't really say his system doesn't work. On the other hand, this is the first time we haven't seen them get dropped in the first round. I think we rise or fall based on the player moves we make this off season.

Yes, you absolutely can say that his system doesn't work, just like you could say that Roy's system didn't work when they won the central division. Anyone with a hot goalie can win over the short term.

 

[Majorityof1]

Not sure why everyone is so mad. He led this team to the conference finals. I understand how he may have lost the locker room but he has the chance to win it back. He better communicate with Tarasenko this offseason.

He has had chances to win them back. Chance after chance. He just loses them again.

One of the 5 dumbest GMs assembled a team that went to the conference finals? Is it luck?

Let's look at who Armstrong brought in and how they helped us that run.

Elliott - Was brought in as a backup and Armstrong and Hitchcock have tried to replace him at every opportunity
Stasny - Even a blind monkey who lived his whole life in the jungle and never heard of hockey could have targeted Stastny that off-season
Brouwer - Was it Brouwer that drove that line or was it Stastny/Fabbri? Brouwer cost us with a lot of dumb penalties.
Lehtera - Didn't do much
Gunnarsson - Solid but not spectacular
Bortuzzo - We lost almost every game he played
Jbo - Was awful
Shatty - Was awful
Ott - barely played and was awful
Paajarvi - Played a few games and gave some energy but no points
Brodziak - Was good, and had one great game, but a role player
Upshall - Was scratched a lot, but decent on Pk when he played.

The rest of the team was drafted by the Blues or already on the team and Doug Armstrong didn't do much to get them. The ones he did get are mostly the scrubs of our team. The only real contributors are Elliott who he did luck into, Stastny and Brouwer.

Despite this ONE good run, we still have won only 3 playoff series the entire time Hitch has been here despite being THE best regular season team over that time period. And we barely won the two we did win this year.

 

[542365]

Eh, whatever. We could certainly do worse. At least we know for certain we're making the playoffs next year. I am definitely ready for some fresh blood behind the bench(as I'm sure the players are as well) but I honestly don't think anyone out there makes us any better. Give him one more run at it now that Chicago and LA are no longer the superpowers of the conference. It's really any one of 5 teams at least that could win the West next year, and we are certainly one of them. Definitely could be a lot worse.

 

[BuLLeT1291]

Yes, you absolutely can say that his system doesn't work, just like you could say that Roy's system didn't work when they won the central division. Anyone with a hot goalie can win over the short term.

So your saying the reason the blues made it to the WCF is because Elliot got hot?

 

[TruBlu]

Were you watching during the Brewer era? It could be a lot worse I assure you. I think people are underestimating how dificult it is to be competitive in this league let alone win the cup. This team didn't coach and manage itself to the conference finals.

Who do you want to replace hitchcock?

That is probably the biggest reason why we won't see a change. There has to be a proven replacement to make a change like that after a team makes it to the WCF. If you don't up your showing the following year, you can kiss your GM job goodbye.

 

[542365]

The Blues make it to the 3rd round one time after 4 awful failures and now Hitchcock and Armstrong are the reason they made it there. Love it.

Well when they were taken out in the first round he was assigned all the blame, why is it not fair to give them some credit when they make a decent run?

 

[RORbacon]

So your saying the reason the blues made it to the WCF is because Elliot got hot?

Yes.

 

[rumrokh]

I'd rather see what somebody else can do at this point, but I also like Hitch, so it wouldn't be that bad.

I'm more concerned with what it could mean about the roster. Seems like it could go one of two ways: 1. Armstrong is confident he won't be able to keep either one of Brouwer or Backes and doesn't like the trade landscape for Shatty, so he's clinging to Hitchcock as protection against roster uncertainty. Or, 2. Armstrong sees the lineup as the issue, which means there's going to be a decent amount of movement.

If Armstrong re-ups Backes for too much, let's Brouwer sign with another team for an affordable price, hangs onto Shattenkirk or deals him for a poor return, and then doesn't do a lot else, that's when I think keeping Hitchcock looks really bad.

 

[TruBlu]

Well when they were taken out in the first round he was assigned all the blame, why is it not fair to give them some credit when they make a decent run?

Exactly. Can't play it both ways. Not only did we make it to the WCF, but we made it past the top two teams (not counting us) in the Central (toughest division in NHL) to make it there. Hitch was a part of that whether you like it or not. Have to make it to the post season to have a shot at the cup. I feel confident Hitch gets us there.

 

[Burynai]

The Blues make it to the 3rd round one time after 4 awful failures and now Hitchcock and Armstrong are the reason they made it there. Love it.

How many times have they made the 3rd round in your lifetime?

 

[Chojin]

So your saying the reason the blues made it to the WCF is because Elliot got hot?

Yes, isn't that obvious? We had 47.4% of shooting attempts, 49.3% of the goals, and only 45.5% of the scoring chances these playoffs at even strength. Elliott's play in the first two series was the only thing that saved us.

 

[Burynai]

He has had chances to win them back. Chance after chance. He just loses them again.




Let's look at who Armstrong brought in and how they helped us that run.

Elliott - Was brought in as a backup and Armstrong and Hitchcock have tried to replace him at every opportunity
Stasny - Even a blind monkey who lived his whole life in the jungle and never heard of hockey could have targeted Stastny that off-season
Brouwer - Was it Brouwer that drove that line or was it Stastny/Fabbri? Brouwer cost us with a lot of dumb penalties.
Lehtera - Didn't do much
Gunnarsson - Solid but not spectacular
Bortuzzo - We lost almost every game he played
Jbo - Was awful
Shatty - Was awful
Ott - barely played and was awful
Paajarvi - Played a few games and gave some energy but no points
Brodziak - Was good, and had one great game, but a role player
Upshall - Was scratched a lot, but decent on Pk when he played.

The rest of the team was drafted by the Blues or already on the team and Doug Armstrong didn't do much to get them. The ones he did get are mostly the scrubs of our team. The only real contributors are Elliott who he did luck into, Stastny and Brouwer.

Despite this ONE good run, we still have won only 3 playoff series the entire time Hitch has been here despite being THE best regular season team over that time period. And we barely won the two we did win this year.

Yes because the draws (other then the Wild) were pretty tough draws. These weren't scrub teams we were playing in the 1st round like the 90s. Nevertheless, I've seen two 3rd rounds as a fan. We took out the Stanley Cup Champions and the 1st place Stars. People are too quick to get out the pitchforks. I'm sure people were the same with Quenneville. Look how that turned out.

 

[Stopsight]

bit disappointed because I'd like to see what a different coaching style could do with the blues' roster but it is far from a death sentence to bring hitch back again.