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
game hockey pay prepared price start team toronto win
We weren't prepared to pay the price to win the hockey game at the start and when you give a team like Toronto a sniff, they're going to make you pay a price.
attitude desperate follow game heavy instead plow start state team toronto wrong
We had the wrong attitude to start the game. They play a heavy game, they play an old NHL game and we wanted to play around the game instead of plow through it. When you give a team that's in a desperate state like Toronto some hope, they're going to follow through.
against beginning concern critical game goal good great lose penalties period played poor power second special teams three took
First of all we took some poor penalties at the beginning of the second period to let them in the game. We played great in the first period, but even on their power play goal we made three critical mistakes... There are two things that really concern me right now. Against the good teams we lose the special teams game and when you can't kill a penalty, that's a big concern.
battle board fought minutes ottawa played talks team
We did a lot of better things; we played the same way for 60 minutes that we did for 45 minutes in Carolina. We played good. We fought really hard. Ottawa is a team that everyone talks about their speed, but to me it's about their competitiveness. Every board battle is critical.
beat composed composure near puck team
We got beat by a much better team tonight, a team that was much more composed with the puck than we were. We didn't have near the composure they did.
beat dealing eight eliminate fire giving level natural people players power reaction seven team
You are just dealing with an unbelievable level of fire when you're giving a team like that six, seven or eight power plays. You're not going to beat that team. You have to eliminate the reaching-in penalties. I know it's a natural reaction for most players but we've got to have the people that are doing it, not do it.
allowing both everybody focus football good scoring spend teams time trying
We put a lot of focus on not allowing scoring chances, but (also) spend a lot of time trying to use everybody offensively. Both our teams were very, very good offensively in junior. To win, you have to play defense, just like in basketball, football and baseball. But we would like to win 6-0, not 6-5.
almost catch team
We have to try to catch them. We are a team that is getting better almost daily.
edge looking speak teams
We don't do it. That's not to say that other teams don't. We don't speak about it. Some teams do it because they're looking for every competitive edge they can find.
build management misses opportunity team
Management misses an opportunity to build a team greatly.
discipline guess lost team
I guess I need to apologize. I know better than that. I kind of lost discipline the way our team did in the game.
dig playing reckless team trying
No. You had one team playing reckless and one team trying to get away with playing careful. We didn't get away with it. We had to dig in.
brings covering entertainment game grassroots matter playing playoffs team value
I find the entertainment value of the playoffs is out the door. It's all about competition. This, to me, brings it back to grassroots where it's one team playing another team and it doesn't matter who's covering the game or who's watching.
team
When you play a team like this, it's the first team to crack, and it was us tonight.