Blues fire coach Ken Hitchcock, promote Mike Yeo
ST. LOUIS — The Blues abruptly fired coach Ken Hitchcock on Wednesday, cutting short the veteran’s final season in St. Louis and putting coach-in-waiting Mike Yeo in charge of the underperforming team months earlier than planned.
General manager Doug Armstrong announced the change one day after the Blues’ fifth loss in six games.
“We don’t lose with pride,” an emotional Armstrong said at a news conference. “I don’t think that we’ve given our best effort, and, Ken, ultimately he’s paying the price with all our failures, starting with mine.”
The 65-year-old Hitchcock was in his sixth season as Blues coach. They went 248-124-41 and made the playoffs in each of his five seasons, reaching the Western Conference final last spring. But St. Louis went just 5-8 in January and at 24-21-5 was mired in eighth place in the Western Conference entering the day.