BLUE JACKETS SEND KEN HITCHCOCK PACKING

The Clippers’ bizarre ‘relieving’ of Mike Dunleavy’s duties as head coach wasn’t the only strange coaching move in pro sports of late.  In the NHL, the Columbus Blue Jackets fired head coach Ken Hitchcock late last week.  The well traveled Hitchcock had led the Jackets to their first playoff appearance in franchise history last season, but the team had stumbled to a 22-27-9 record.  Assistant coach Claude Noel will take over the team as interim head coach.

Jackets’ general manager Scott Howson said that the team wasn’t responding to the tough, defensive minded Hitchcock and a change was needed:

"It wasn't working. The team wasn't responding to the message We'll play hard the rest of the season and see what happens. We thought Hitch deserved a chance to work out these last 37 games. We kept hoping he'd find a decision."

Blue Jackets’ President Mike Priest gave the obligatory complimentary press release:

"Ken Hitchcock joined the Blue Jackets at a time when our team needed credibility, stability and structure, which is exactly what he provided and for that we are extremely grateful.”

Interim head coach Noel’s comments sounded much more sincere:

"This is an emotional day for me. Ken Hitchcock is a friend of mine. He's a tremendous coach. I've been blessed to be able to learn from him. This is a sad day."

Hitchcock himself took the high road with his parting comments:

"My message is that these are the actual growing pains that every organization goes through to get to a high level. If you look at the Pittsburgh Penguins, San Jose, Chicago -- this is the natural growth things that go on. Now, coaches come and go and so do some players. But there's a core group of guys here that by the time they're 25 or 30 years old, everybody's going to be marveling at how good they are and how sound they are. They're doing it the right way here."

There is some speculation that the change was driven by the need to sell tickets in a smaller sized NHL market, with the thinking that a more wide open offensive style will put fans in the seats.  The Jackets have won their first two games since the coaching change, but face a tough schedule heading into the Winter Olympic break with home games against San Jose, Vancouver and Chicago.