New hires have Flyers’ attention, respect

VOORHEES, N.J. >> In a period of little more than 12 hours, two Flyers coaches of the past were back where they belong in an NHL head coaching chair.

In St. Louis, assistant coach Craig Berube was promoted to the top job Monday night when the Blues moved to fire Mike Yeo.

Word then came early Tuesday that Ken Hitchcock, allegedly in a cushy consultant-level retirement job in Dallas, spoke Monday to his hometown team the Edmonton Oilers and that fast Todd McLellan was gone and Hitch was a head coach again.

Flyers winger Jake Voracek, who played for Hitchcock in Columbus and has had good things to say about him in the past, also thinks the Blues made a good move in promoting Berube.

“He was really good to me,” Voracek said of Berube. “He was hard on me, but in a good way, which I think is the best you can get as a hockey player. When a coach wants you to do good and he tells you what to do and is hard on you, you can use it to your advantage on the ice. Under him I think I played (some) of my best hockey I ever played.”

As for Hitchcock, he began long ago coaching a Triple-A kids team in Sherwood Park, Alberta. Flyers coach Dave Hakstol grew up about 90 miles away. He knew long ago what kind of a coach Hitchcock was ... is?

“Hitch?” Hakstol said, “he’s legendary.” What more need be said?