Hitchcock Fired.

[glen a richter]

There's so much more wrong with this team than just Hitch. I can't envision Yeo overseeing some sort of massive turnaround. And yes, Army has to be relieved of his duties. Any one of us would make a better gm. Loyalty is fine until it becomes evident that loyalty is detrimental to forward progress.

[WaukeeBlues]

There's so much more wrong with this team than just Hitch. I can't envision Yeo overseeing some sort of massive turnaround. And yes, Army has to be relieved of his duties. Any one of us would make a better gm. Loyalty is fine until it becomes evident that loyalty is detrimental to forward progress.

On NHL 17 I'm shredding it as the Blues GM. It's not hard.

[gaijin]

Greg Wyshynski at Puck Daddy puts the ultimate blame on Armstrong as well:

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/doug-armst ... 38468.html

My favorite part:

Armstrong’s solution is to have Martin Brodeur – the all-time great and an Allen backer – and Ty Conklin act as “goalie advisers” to get him going this season. At this moment, they could both un-retire and immediately improve the position.

[Kerfuffle]

The West overall is much weaker this year - except for Minnesota, which I'm not convinced can win in the playoffs yet. I think this may be the year the Caps finally break through and win it but I'm not counting out the Pens on a repeat.

[cardsfan04]

I'm not ready to fire Army yet. He has made some mistakes for sure. But, he's been here since 2008. JD started the rebuild in 2006, but Army was a big part of turning the team into a contender as well. We've had a nice group of talent for 5+ years and the GM deserves a bit of credit for that.

Also, this year was expected to be a transition year. I think his job should depend on what the team transitions into, not the results of a year that nobody really expected us to go anywhere anyway.

[California Blues]

Obviously hoping the best for the new skipper. While this may not have exactly been a desperate measure, these have become desperate times. Maybe Yeo can lead the Blues back to the light.

[WaukeeBlues]

The West overall is much weaker this year - except for Minnesota, which I'm not convinced can win in the playoffs yet. I think this may be the year the Caps finally break through and win it but I'm not counting out the Pens on a repeat.

Agreed on the overall west this year. Salary cap doing its job.

Pens just have to get healthy. With everyone on board and healthy they're one of the best and deepest teams in the league.

Now Connor Sheary is out 4-6 weeks but Malkin about to return...

[theohall]

Greg Wyshynski at Puck Daddy puts the ultimate blame on Armstrong as well:

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/doug-armst ... 38468.html

My favorite part:

Armstrong’s solution is to have Martin Brodeur – the all-time great and an Allen backer – and Ty Conklin act as “goalie advisers” to get him going this season. At this moment, they could both un-retire and immediately improve the position.

Then he hasn't been watching the games, because Brodeur would be getting shelled with the way the Blues forwards are absolutely sucking defensively in about half the games they've played. This is the problem with pundits who rely on what the team's beat writers are writing without the context of what's actually happening in the games. Neither Brodeur nor Conklin would have beaten Winnipeg in the last game, because all but 1 of the goals allowed (other than the empty netter) were saveable.

FTR, Jake Allen has had some bad outings, but the team as a whole in front of him as been just as bad basically since the end of November, so let's just lay it all on the goalie, the old head coach, and the goalie coach.

[glen a richter]

You know when things really started going to hell? When JD and Jarmo jumped over to Columbus... and lo and behold look where that team is right now, even with a coach who was very much in the mold of Ken Hitchcock and still has his team sitting at 4th in the league in goals scored, 3rd in goal differential?

Army is very much to blame for everything, he's not the GM this team needs. Put the right pieces into place and most people with any degree of coaching experience at an upper level will be able to succeed. I'm not defending Hitch at all, his system isn't good for this era, and neither is Yeo's. But Army does have to shoulder a huge amount of the blame for the situation.

We're frikkin' 12th in scoring, 21st in goal differential, dead last in save percentage, I mean it's the players putting up these lousy numbers and it's Army who put many of these lousy players on the team. Hitch certainly didn't get the most out of his players this year, I'd say he actually got the least out of them, but man if Army shouldn't have been fired too...

[theohall]

You know when things really started going to hell? When JD and Jarmo jumped over to Columbus... and lo and behold look where that team is right now, even with a coach who was very much in the mold of Ken Hitchcock and still has his team sitting at 4th in the league in goals scored, 3rd in goal differential?

With the assistant coach, Brad Shaw, Armstrong refused to offer any kind of future security. Is it coincidence the disastrous defense Columbus iced last season is so much better this season with only minor changes and recognized defensive specialist as their new assistant coach?? Meanwhile, the Blues are suddenly struggling defensively??

[cardsfan04]

You know when things really started going to hell? When JD and Jarmo jumped over to Columbus... and lo and behold look where that team is right now, even with a coach who was very much in the mold of Ken Hitchcock and still has his team sitting at 4th in the league in goals scored, 3rd in goal differential?

Army is very much to blame for everything, he's not the GM this team needs. Put the right pieces into place and most people with any degree of coaching experience at an upper level will be able to succeed. I'm not defending Hitch at all, his system isn't good for this era, and neither is Yeo's. But Army does have to shoulder a huge amount of the blame for the situation.

We're frikkin' 12th in scoring, 21st in goal differential, dead last in save percentage, I mean it's the players putting up these lousy numbers and it's Army who put many of these lousy players on the team. Hitch certainly didn't get the most out of his players this year, I'd say he actually got the least out of them, but man if Army shouldn't have been fired too...

JD left in 2012 though. And we had our deepest playoff run in 30 years last year, 4 years after JD left. The team last year was assembled by Army. I'm not saying that there isn't valid criticism of Army. I agree with a lot of it, but I think some of the criticism he is getting is unjustified.

[theohall]

Building up to last year... great.

This past off-season and the idiotic coaching decisions are completely on Armstrong. Why destroy a coaching staff that got your team to the Conference Finals and bring in a coaching staff with serious question marks given their inability to lead the team from which they were fired??

[goon attack]

5-1 DOMINIATION! THIS MOVE WAS GENIUS!!!!!!

[theohall]

The Blues still have their mandatory 5-day break this month, so we'll see if anything changes after that. Don't expect to see much of a change prior.