Ken Hitchcock
Ken Hitchcock
Kenneth S. Hitchcock, nicknamed "Hitch", is an NHL hockey coach and pro scout, currently coaching the St. Louis Blues. He has also served as head coach of the NHL's Dallas Stars, Philadelphia Flyers, and Columbus Blue Jackets. He coached the Stars to a Stanley Cup victory in 1999...
ProfessionCoach
Date of Birth17 December 1951
CityEdmonton, Canada
fact good labeled role skill
What is sneaking up is the fact he's got skill and is being labeled as a role player. But his skill is excellent. He does some good things with the puck.
couple decisions eventually people players plays power skilled tired
You give skilled players that many power plays and eventually you are going to get some people tired and that is what happened. We made a couple of tired decisions at the end.
allowed aside coach ego flourish found friend good great guys loyal man pat people respect role skills wonderful worked
I found him to be a good friend and a great competitor, and one of the most loyal guys I worked with and for. He has wonderful people skills and he allowed everyone to flourish in his respective role ... he put his ego aside to allow that. I respect Pat Quinn the coach and Pat Quinn the man much more.
competent develop everybody extra feeling gets good level opportunity players pressure proper skating skill special terrific
He's real impressive. His skill level and his skating level are incredible. I think that he's a special player, but I don't think there is much extra pressure on him right now. I think right now he's able to find his own level because we are competent back there. We have good players back there so he's going to be able to develop at the proper pace. But when you have a player who is that strong, everybody gets excited. And I think we are all feeling like this is a terrific opportunity for him and the franchise.
changes club depth focused side skilled
I know our club was really focused on that with the changes we made to our roster. Our depth is more on the skilled side than it was on the role-playing side.
great match matter skill work
In the NHL, it doesn't matter with the standings. Especially this team, they are over .500 at home. And they have a great work ethic. If we don't match their work ethic, how is our skill going to take over?
best carries game good heart line player skill speaks volumes
That's who he is. That's the way he plays. He's got a really big heart, good skill level, but it's his heart and his competitiveness that he carries with him. What's interesting for me is, the game was on the line and he was the best player on the ice. That speaks volumes for a 20-year-old player.
against beat players raises skill unique wearing
I don't think he raises his game. He's one of those unique players who can beat you with skill but also with tenacity. It's wearing to go against a player like that. It's unnerving. You think you've got him, but he out-competes you.
discussion intense july losing response sure team time winning
The only thing I know is that we've always responded to losing in a really intense fashion. The response to winning has been our problem. I'm not sure why; that's probably a discussion for July or August. But it's been the M.O. of our team for a long time now.
goes help side steps today took work wrong
When you haven't won, it isn't going to be a masterpiece when you try to get the thing back. We took some steps today but we have work to do. You get on the wrong side of things and it's not one thing that goes wrong, it's a lot. We made some steps today to really help ourselves.
eight energy hard nine penalties players power rhythm seven
When you have as many penalties as we've got going on right now, it's really hard to keep a rhythm on power play. We try to play as many units as we can, because if we're going to get seven or eight or nine power plays, it's hard to keep that energy because players get tired.
battles gauge good heaviest team
When you look at a team like Ottawa, to me that's a good gauge on your team and individuals. They still have the heaviest team in battles and competitiveness.
emotion emotions ready
We were tentative, but once we got angry, we got some emotion and we were ready to go.
build defense eric games great guys join offensive saw six top
We saw 12-14 games where we had our top six guys back there. Our defense on the back end was awesome. When we were healthy, we had a great group. We could defend, we could join the rush, we could be offensive and we could do anything. Getting Joni and Eric back will give us something to build on after the break.