Hitchcock Hits 1000-Game Mark | 
Last Wednesday, Columbus Blue Jackets head coach Ken Hitchcock became the 16th coach in the NHL to reach 1000 games. Marc Crawford also hit the mark on Oct. 30.
In his fourth season with the Blue Jackets and 14th in the NHL Hitchcock has an impressive 520-351-129 record. He is one of 13 coaches to have reached the 500-win mark, a 4-3 victory over the Maple Leafs on February 19 of last season.
Hitchcock’s first head coaching gig was for the Kamloops Blazers of the Western Hockey League. Hitchcock still remembers going to his first interview with the Blazers.
“I was so ill-prepared because when I phoned to Kamloops to go for the interview, I called from the airport, and they said, ‘Make sure you bring your résumé with you,’” explains Hitchcock during a conference call. “I started gulping. I wrote the résumé for that job on a piece of paper in pencil. They still have a copy of it.”
He spent six winning seasons with the Blazers, from ’84 to’90, before joining the Philadelphia Flyers as an assistant. After three unsuccessful seasons in Philly, Hitchcock had lost his confidence and claims he had forgotten how to be a head coach. Luckily for him the Kalamazoo Wings of the International Hockey League came calling.
“When I went to Kalamazoo, we were in an older league with a lot of really good players in it, a lot of kind of borderline NHL players,” says Hitchcock. “We had these young teams. It felt like I was coaching back in Kamloops again.”
The move to Kalamazoo for the ‘93-’94 season would prove to be beneficial for other reasons as well. The Wings were the farm team for the Dallas Stars. After just two and a half seasons in Kalamazoo Hitchcock was back in the NHL, this time as a head coach of the Dallas Stars and only three and a half seasons away from winning the Stanley Cup.
“I really got invigorated and confident coaching that group that was in Kalamazoo,” said Hitchcock. “A lot of that group ended up playing for the Stars, [Jamie] Lagenburner, [Richard] Matvichuk, [Grant] Marshall, [Marty] Turco, [Manny] Fernandez, [Brad] Lukowich. A lot of those guys ended up playing for the Stars. I got very confident being able to coach that young group there in a veteran league.”
Hitchcock was fired from Dallas 50 games in to the ‘01-’02 season. He had a winning record. The following season the Philadelphia Flyers re-hired their old assistant coach. He spent three winning seasons in Philly and eight games into his fourth season Hitchcock was fired once again. He had a 1-6-1 record. The Blue Jackets didn’t hesitate and he has been with them ever since.
To be as successful as Hitchcock has been you have to be able to adapt with the league you’re in and players you have. From the high offense of the ‘80’s to the defense first of the mid-‘90’s Hitchcock has done it all.
Now, however, it’s not what you’re selling to the players but how you sell it to them.
“Before when you had older teams, you could sell it as structured defense to create offense,” he explains. “Now the sales part of it is how fast can you play to create your offense? How fast can you create defense? How fast can you get through the neutral zone to create your offense?”
He explains that the speed of the game has really changed the way you have to coach in today’s game.
“The players want to know what they can do to get quickly into the offensive zone,” continues Hitchcock. “When you got young players, you’ve got to try to sell them in a different way now than you did, say, five, ten years ago.”
Hitchcock is in no rush to step away from the game. That being said if he loses his desire he won’t hesitate to step away either.
“For me, I feel like as long as I’m energized to teach, as long as I don’t lose that energy, that fire to teach and build teams, I feel like I can do this at a high level for a long time,” he said.
“I think if I lose that energy, I’ll just knock on the GM’s door and probably just leave, you know, because I think the minute you lose the energy to build your team, your days are pretty much numbered.”
After making the playoffs for the first time in franchise history last season now Hitchcock’s challenge is proving to the NHL that his Columbus Blue Jackets are legit night in and night out.
Topics: Columbus Blue Jackets, Dallas Stars, Kalamazoo Wings, Kamloops Blazers, Ken Hitchcock, NHL, Philadelphia Flyers
Latest Headlines
- Hoefflin performs in shutdown role
- Yakupov Leading The Way
- Quinn and Recchi Lead Prospects into Kelowna
- All Eyes on Faksa
- ASG Skills Competition Participants Selected
- Hyka’s NHL Team in Limbo
- Excitement Builds for NHL Prospects Game
- Mrazek shines in first Under-20 experience
- No More Mr. Magician
- Sweden Relishes World Junior Glory
- Beaulieu a prized prospect for Montreal
- Team Canada set to face Russia in WJC Semifinal
- Sergeev is Foreurs jack-of-all-trades
- Gibson forged interesting path to Team Finland cage
- Q Round-up: American Coyle signs with Sea Dogs
In The News
Sarnia’s Kujawinski ready for U-17 Hockey Challenge
Sarnia’s Kujawinski ready for first taste of international competition at the U-17 Hockey Challenge, competing with Team Ontario at the end of the month in Windsor, Ontario
Gourde keeping pace with the scoring leaders
Victoriaville forward wrestles scoring lead with help from Tigres linemate, team depth
Abeltshauser adds leadership, control from blueline
German defenceman plays solid two-way hockey for Halifax and on the world stage
Richard Finding Success in Guelph
Another of the OHL's Tanner's - Richard that is - is the Storm's leading scorer and will suit up for Switzerland at the U-20’s