St. Louis Blues Rumors: Four Coaching Prospects

If the St. Louis Blues fail to win the first round yet again, we could see Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock bid farewell to the team into which he has sunk four years of his life and professional career, since he was named head coach in November of 2011.

In three seasons under Hitchcock, named one of the most defensibly-responsible coaches in the league, the St. Louis Blues have seen one second-round exit and two first-round exits. His most successful was his first year coaching the Blues when they took first place in the central division and won their first-round matchup against the San José Sharks, only to lose to the L.A. Kings in four.

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Hitchcock won the Jack Adam Award, naming him NHL coach of the year, for his first season on the St. Louis Blues bench. He turned a team around that had missed the postseason in five out of the six previous years and coached them not only to a playoffs berth but to the first place in the central division.

But while the Blues have done significantly better under Hitchcock, they haven’t done Stanley Cup better. For a team that has been described as monstrous in depth and after Vladimir Tarasenko came in second in the league in goals and fourth in points overall, their postseason meltdowns in Games 1 and 3 is a huge disappointment.

That may make all the difference in management’s eyes.

Writers around the hockey blogosphere have brought Hitchcock’s name up time and again when speculating on head coach movement during the postseason, alongside Mike Babcock and Todd McLellan, who, as we found out yesterday, has “mutually agreed to part ways” with the San José Sharks.

Hitchcock hasn’t had an easy go of it this year with his team, who he expressed frustration with when asked by NHL writer Lou Korak about their defensive pinching, which was leading to a number of odd-man rushes for opposing teams. Hitch responded with, “I don’t know. That’s probably a question you should ask in the room because those directions aren’t coming from us.”

There’s been friction on both sides of the relationship, with T.J. Oshie giving us the latest insight into the Blues’ frustration with Hitchcock’s coaching process. This article from Hildymac at St. Louis Blues Game Time notes a nuanced approach from Oshie in March after his attack of the flu, and he reiterated that sentiment later, telling media, “there’s a lot of information going around, guys are getting a little indecisive.”

Former Blues defenseman Ian Cole first talked about the “information overload” in December to Post-Dispatch Blues beat writer, Jeremy Rutherford.

"“They’ve said a lot of things that I agree with,” he said, “(and) they’ve said a lot of things that you know … I think that you as a player are told so much that trying to remember every single thing that they’ve said and apply it … sometimes I start to overthink what’s going on in every given little tiny situation because I’ve been told so much. So, I think being able to pick through and take the general points and try to apply those in the smartest way possible is what you’ve got to do.”"

That certainly doesn’t speak to a player who understands the role their head coach wants them to play, and Cole’s performance in St. Louis was relatively average.

However, Cole has since found an offensive momentum with his new team, the Pittsburgh Penguins, as Jason Mackey reports for the Pittsburgh Tribune. Cole did not display such momentum under Hitchcock, a defense-first coach. While the Pittsburgh Penguins appear to be experiencing a meltdown like no other, Cole’s improved Corsi and time on ice at least speaks to the system in Pittsburgh working for him.

And that’s the crux of the issue: sometimes minds don’t mesh. Hitchcock may pull a great regular-season performance out of his team but their playoffs experience has been lacking.

If management decides to “mutually part ways” with Hitchcock, who would the Blues turn to to pick up the slack?

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