The Blues brought Ken Hitchcock back for a final season behind the bench in 2016-17 season, but brought in Mike Yeo to be the 'coaching the waiting.'
The wait wasn't as long as originally planned.
The Blues fired Hitchcock on Wednesday morning and put Yeo in charge. He's been behind the bench all season, but will begin calling the shots in Thursday's game against Toronto at Scottrade Center.
"I believed in Ken," Blues general manager Doug Armstrong said. "I believed when I talked to Ken last summer, what his vision was, what he wanted to do this year. I believe in Mike obviously. Was it ideal? When I called Mike and I brought him in, this isn't how I thought it was going end up. I thought we were going to have a good season, I thought Mike was going to have the ability to learn from a Hall of Fame coach. I thought were going to be a team that was competitive, that was going to fight, that was going to take pride in moving forward."
But that's not what happened, and so Armstrong fired Hitchcock after a 5-3 loss to Winnipeg on Tuesday, the Blues' fifth loss in their last six games. They are 24-21-5 for 53 points, which currently puts them in the second wild-card spot.
Hitchcock was notified postgame and Armstrong said that he did not go down without a fight.
"That's why he's a great coach," Armstrong said. "He was defiant to the end. I went home and had a strong drink, thought about that, and that's what I love about the guy. He's a hell of a coach. There was no kumbaya last night, like he was angry and he should have been angry. He's upset at where we're at as a franchise, the decision that I made. If he wasn't, I would've been more shocked.
"At the end of the day, it wasn't a two-way conversation at that point. I told him I thought that he did a hell of a job here. When he got here to where the franchise is now, its light years ahead. He's leaving this group in a way better spot than he found it. Our ultimate goal is to win the Stanley, that's why we're here. That's why I work, that's why everyone in that room should work, to win the Cup. It's not about money, it's not about other things.
"That was Ken's goal, but when I look back, he had a hell of a run here. I feel bad for the fanbase that we didn't win a Cup with Ken, I'm excited about winning a Cup with Mike. But I think as the days go by, and the months go by, we're going to look back on Ken Hitchcock's tenure in St. Louis with a real admiration and a fond memory."
Hitchcock, the head coach since Nov. 8, 2011, led the Blues to a 248-124-41 record over six seasons. He leaves with 781 NHL victories, which keeps him one short of tying Al Arbour for No. 3 on the all-time list of regular-season coaching victories.
But in announcing the move, Armstrong said the Blues had become a group of "independent contractors," meaning the players were more worried about themselves than the good of the club.
"I think we've let our group become independent contractors," Armstrong said. "One of the things I've learned about being around St. Louis is the Cardinals. They don't have independent contractors; when they do, they get rid of them. We have a situation now where I trust these guys and I believe in them. But I have a sense of independent contractors.
"When you see independent contracting going on on the ice, whether you're a fan or not, it's easy to see. What we have to do is we have to become a team again. We have to take pride in doing things for each other for the betterment of the team. I see when we win how guys react when they don't get what they want. I see when we lose how guys react when they get what they want. It's a losing brand of hockey. And Ken is paying the price for it."
Asked what Hitchcock's firing would say to the players, Armstrong replied: "The spotlight is on you."
The spotlight will also intensify on Armstrong now that his plan decision to bring Hitchcock back has ended with Wednesday's announcement. He took responsibility several times during his press conference, though offered little in terms of his own accountability other than he will ultimately be judged by Blues ownership.
"(Hitchcock) is paying the price for all our failures starting with mine," Armstrong said. "I'm the manager, I'm the 'president' of hockey operations. It's my team."
It was Armstrong's decision not to keep David Backes, Troy Brouwer and Steve Ott on the club last summer, allowing them to leave via free agency, along with trading goaltender Brian Elliott.
"We made hard decisions last summer that I thought were going to put us in a different (position) from what we've been," Armstrong said. "I owe it to the ownership group, that's who I report to, to do what I believe is best in the long-term for this franchise and I'm going to continue to do that. They're hard decisions to make; we have to make hard decisions in this room."
Armstrong has one more season remaining on his current contract.
"I deal with (owner) Tom (Stillman) on a day to day basis," Armstrong said. "I deal with the entire St. Louis based ownership group quarterly or every couple of months. They've been nothing but supportive. But when I talked to Tom last night, it's business. He gets it, I get it, he wants results, I want results.
"I share with him my long-term vision, why I'm making decisions I make. I don't make decisions and tell him what I've done. He's the owner. We have an ownership group and I answer to that ownership group. I explain to them my vision, why I'm making decisions, I get their blessing. Ultimately when I don't get their blessing there will be a new guy up here talking to you guys."
Armstrong's latest decision did put a 'new' guy at the podium Wednesday.
Yeo, 43, takes over the Blues after five seasons as a head coach in Minnesota, in which he made three trips to the playoffs with the Wild, and seven months on the job in St. Louis.
"First thing is that I am definitely up here with some mixed emotions and absolutely the first thing I have to do is thank Hitch," Yeo said. "He was nothing but amazing to me day in and day out, so I learned a great deal from him. I'm very appreciative, so I feel very bad that I'm sitting up here today. That said, I know that I have a job to do, an important job to do and one that I don't take lightly.
"When I look at the people that have coached the St. Louis Blues and Hitch being one of them, those are some awful big shoes to fill and I look forward to that challenge. I look forward to working with this group; it's a group I believe in and I know there's lots of work to be done, but like I said, I'm excited to work with them and I'm ready for that process to begin."
Yeo said little would change before Thursday's game with the Maple Leafs.
"I think what's important is that we give the players a chance to go out there and show us what they can do," Yeo said. "As Army said, this is a bit of a rebirth in a sense. We can determine a little bit more of that as far as chemistry and who's working together once we get our game going in the right direction.
"Our game, for whatever reason, is not where we need it to be right now and that's what we get to today. We have one practice before we play a game. We can't come in here and reinvent the wheel. I do believe there's some areas that we have to really dial in on. In a large part, I think that's our execution and with that comes the speed of our game and from there, obviously our checking game has been something that we've talked about greatly and it's an area that we have to get much stronger at from our net out."
In other coaching moves Wednesday, the Blues also fired goaltending coach Jim Corsi and will split those duties between Martin Brodeur and Ty Conklin.
"Marty will be on the ice, working with these guys day to day," Armstrong said. "I'm not expected Marty to re-invent the wheel, but I did watch the All-Star game the other night and he was one of the top 100 guys ever to play. He's got a few skins on the wall. I'm hoping that Jake (Allen) and (Carter Hutton) can work with him."
The speculation has been rampant for months that if things didn't change the Blues might be making a change. It happened on Wednesday.
"I'm disappointed for a friend, but I'm excited about the future," Armstrong said. "I'm excited to see how they respond. We're in the winning business and we're all judged _ I get it _ we're all judged on what we're doing on a day-to-day basis. There's not one guy that I've talked to in that room over the last five years that says they want less responsibility. There's not one guy that says, 'The game is on the line, I don't want to be out there.' They all want it. Well, we've made a coaching change, we've made hard decisions. Step up."
