Blues Fire Davis Payne...Hire Ken Hitchcock

[Oz-iz-God]

Is there a possibility that Blue mgmt simply didn't like the attitude the players were developing and wanted to pull the trigger now to ensure that they didn't have to possibly fire a 'hot' coach in the event the Blues were able to string together a nice homestand?

Think about it - 5 games is a pretty sizable stretch of the season; a couple of weeks anyway. Maybe the front office decided that Payne was giving the players too much rope and they were starting to get a little too lax in their effort (creating potentially disastrous long term development issues). If they give Payne the homestand and the Blues go 4-1 in that period (all it takes is a hot goalie), they could end up in a situation where they have no choice but to keep Payne around because you just can't fire the man when they're playing like that.

Suddenly he buys himself another 5 games and now you're 10 games further along and the players are still getting too much rope, etc...; Besides, the nature of the Blues last year (and apparently this year) is to play streaky hockey. Rather than get caught up in the endless cycle of up and down streaks saving his ass, they decided to just can Payne and bring in Hitch during a time where he's most likely to succeed - the homestand.

The timing is surprising, but not entirely absurd. In all, I like Payne a lot, but this team just wasn't progressing and I think it was fair to make a change.

[ohio BLUES]

Are you trying to say Blues fans here are slow??

Not necessarily slow, but Ken Hitchcock-paced.

[ohio BLUES]

I liked what I heard in the press conference today, but I reserve my skepticism. Talk to me when the wins start piling up.

[dmiles2186]

I was thinking about it over lunch today, a few years ago, right before the Blackhawks made their jump, they fired Savard a few games into the season and hired Coach Q. Similar tactic? I'm not saying the Blues will end up in the Western Conf finals or anything, but that move was equally questioned and it's turned out okay.

[Leedog]

Didn't they kinda drag their feet a bit when they fired Murray and lose out on the replacement they wanted? Tortorella? Maybe they were afraid of that happening again. Once is bad, twice is inexcusable. I never liked the firing of AM because I hate letting the inmates run the asylum. Doesn't seem like it worked, so let someone get on these guys a bit.

[Leedog]

BTW, I wonder if there was ever a time when the Blues, Cardinals, and Rams (or Big Red) all changed coaches with a month or so of each other. After yesterdays shabockle (neon Dionne word) in the desert, can Spags be far behind?

[cprice12]

Hitchcock says Halak will be in goal on Tuesday vs. Chicago.

Hitchcock on how long it will take to fix the PP: "One practice. We'll get that fixed quick".

Hitchcock not changing any of the coaching staff. He is comfortable with all of them.

At the very least...this whole thing will be interesting to watch unfold.

I hope it works out.

[fargoblues]

OK. 24-hour rule is over. Got to admit, I'm still not good with this.

Hiring Fat Bastard to run the Blues is tone-deaf at best. I do support the Blues, but between the creation of Louie, and now this horseshit, I'm getting to my limit. The only win in this situation is for anyone who can deliver a bucket of wings to the Blues bench in 20 minutes or less.





That is all.

[theohall]

Are you sure the Blues didn't hire WWE Manager Paul Bearer?

[philco_3]

Are you sure the Blues didn't hire WWE Manager Paul Bearer?

IF thats the case, then we should play the Undertaker, cause he would go undefeated.

[WaukeeBlues]

I was thinking about it over lunch today, a few years ago, right before the Blackhawks made their jump, they fired Savard a few games into the season and hired Coach Q. Similar tactic? I'm not saying the Blues will end up in the Western Conf finals or anything, but that move was equally questioned and it's turned out okay.

I think Patrick Kane cried too. Or more importantly... whichever

[ViPeRx007]

I think people need to chill and just see what happens. I have no real reason to dislike Hitchcock, he hasn't personally wronged me in any way and I don't care how he's coached in the past; I'm talking the good and the bad because I don't really care if he led the Blue Jackets to the playoffs or the Stars to the cup. I want to see him do those things with the Blues. If the team does worse with him at the helm then I'll hate him ( ), but until then he's got a clean slate in my book. I'm excited with the fresh outlook he seemed to have. He kept mentioning his time off and adapting his style to the faster-paced game of today, he talked a good talk. We'll see how it translates but I'm not going to bury a guy before he's even coached a single game for this team.

I have to say though, if the team really does do worse, at what point do you stop blaming the coaches and start thinking about retooling your roster? Given Army's comments during the press conference it sounded like this was next, and rightfully so, even if that is an absolutely frightening thought as a fan...

[STLADOGG]

Are you sure the Blues didn't hire WWE Manager Paul Bearer?

IF thats the case, then we should play the Undertaker, cause he would go undefeated.

Awesome.

[glen a richter]

I wonder what impact, if any, this will have on Tarasenko coming over.

[theohall]

I heard the Tarasenko question before in an unrelated way. We won't see him anyway until next season. So, if the Blues make the playoffs now, I would think he would be more encouraged to join the team then. It is much easier to accept leaving a comfort zone if you know you are going to a winning team.

[STLADOGG]

I think Nikitin will be a big factor, so he has someone to look up to/ talk to/ and learn from.

[DaDitka]

Despite all the bashing of Hitchcock and young players, Pang pointed out how he developed Morrow with the Stars, Carter and Richards both got their starts under him in Philly, and Nash was entering his fourth year when Hitchcock came to town and he had the best year of his career in Hitch's second season there.

Yes, he's been hard on lazy kids that don;t want to play both ways, but furthermore .....he said himself that he's learnt a lot in his time off about handling today players.

Like him or not, he's clearly more qualified coming in then any of our last three head coaches and resume demands respect and trust from the locker room.

[northwest dave]

The Blues definitely have a win now attitude which is refreshing. I suppose this means the end of the "rebuilding"...it's playoffs are bust.

I'm not a fan of the FatMan, but if he knocks some skulls and this team wins, I will sing him praises. I thought they would give it one more year, but the pressure is on now.

[theohall]

The Blues definitely have a win now attitude which is refreshing. I suppose this means the end of the "rebuilding"...it's playoffs are bust.

I'm not a fan of the FatMan, but if he knocks some skulls and this team wins, I will sing him praises. I thought they would give it one more year, but the pressure is on now.

Considering the number of 1st round draft picks playing defense for this team - with none of them being rookies - plus the experienced group of forwards, they had better have a win now attitude or the "rebuild" didn't work.

[kodos]

New coach, new owner... now it's time to pump some cash into the team and we should have a team that's actually fun to follow again.

It's almost hard to fathom.

We'll have to go from being disappointed at how bad they suck at everything to going back to complaining about how they always lose in the playoffs. It will be just like old times!