From Philadelphia To Columbus
The 2006–07 NHL season would see the Flyers get off to an abysmal 1–6–1 start over their first eight games, their worst start in 15 years. After a 9–1 loss to the Buffalo Sabres, management promised there would be some major changes to the organization. On October 22, 2006, the Flyers fired Hitchcock and General Manager Bobby Clarke stepped down.
On November 1, 2006, the Flyers assigned Ken Hitchcock to be a pro scout for the club. On November 22, 2006, Hitchcock and the Columbus Blue Jackets agreed to a three-year contract to become their new head coach. He coached his first game for the Blue Jackets on November 24 against his former team, the Philadelphia Flyers, a game the team lost, 3–2.
On July 9, 2008, the Blue Jackets announced they signed Hitchcock to a three-year extension to remain as head coach.
On February 19, 2009 the Blue Jackets earned Ken Hitchcock his 500th career NHL win as a head coach, by defeating the Toronto Maple Leafs, in Toronto.
On April 8, 2009 Hitchcock secured the Blue Jackets' first ever post season appearance with a 4–3 shootout win over the Chicago Blackhawks, only to be swept in the conference quarterfinals by the Detroit Red Wings.
On November 11, 2009, in Columbus, in a 9–1 loss to the Detroit Red Wings, Hitchcock became the sixteenth NHL coach to reach the 1,000 game milestone.
On February 3, 2010, the Columbus Blue Jackets relieved head coach Ken Hitchcock of his duties behind the bench and named assistant coach Claude Noel as the club's interim head coach.
On November 6, 2011 the St. Louis Blues fired coach Davis Payne, and hired Ken Hitchcock in his place.
On June 20, 2012 Ken Hitchcock won the Jack Adams Award for NHL coach of the year.
Read more about this topic: Ken Hitchcock
Famous quotes containing the words philadelphia and/or columbus:
“I’d like to see Paris before I die. Philadelphia will do.”
—Mae West, U.S. screenwriter, W.C. Fields, and Edward Cline. Cuthbert Twillie (W.C. Fields)
“These were the sounds that issued from the wigwams of this country before Columbus was born; they have not yet died away; and, with remarkably few exceptions, the language of their forefathers is still copious enough for them. I felt that I stood, or rather lay, as near to the primitive man of America, that night, as any of its discoverers ever did.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)