Hitchcock has the Stars on the rise
Like a moth to a flame, Ken Hitchcock was always attracted to the Dallas Stars.
The fifth-longest serving coach in NHL history would have been a good short-term fit for the rebuilding Vancouver Canucks when he was looking for work last spring — especially if Travis Green had landed elsewhere — but that was never going to happen.
Hitch got the itch again after considering calling it a career at age 65 when he was fired by the St. Louis Blues on Feb 1. However, it didn’t take long for the phone to ring and for his coaching confidantes to remind the Edmonton native he had a lot left in the motivational tank.
They knew what we all know. There was only one place that answered his desire to not only win, but leave a legacy.
Hitchcock not only guided the Stars to a Stanley Cup championship in 1999, he kept close ties to the organization and the city during a 15-year absence when he directed the Philadelphia Flyers, Columbus Blue Jackets and Blues.
“I don’t know how long I want to (coach) — I just want to go year to year,” Hitchcock said Monday when reminded he trailed only Scotty Bowman (2,141), Al Arbour (1,607), Joel Quenneville (1,551) and Lindy Ruff (1,493) in career regular-season games with his 1,466 behind an NHL bench. “What’s important is that we make this a good team and relevant in the city. And that’s really important to me.
“I’m going to be with this franchise hopefully for a long time, whether I’m coaching or not. We need to get a real grip in the city and earn our way back to the front.”
Hitchcock’s impact has been instant and impressive.
The Stars missed the playoffs last season and were a mess. They lacked structure, discipline and desire and Ruff was shown the door.
On Monday, they took the league’s top-ranked power play, second-ranked penalty kill and fifth-ranked faceoff efficiency into a meeting with the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena. Last season, the Stars’ power play and penalty kill were ranked 20th and dead last respectively.
If that isn’t enough, Hitchcock is doing what he did with Mike Modano and Brett Hull. He has turned Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn into more complete players.
And he challenged former Canucks defenceman Dan Hamhuis to be better conditioned and play better in a system suited to his style.
As for first-liners Benn and Seguin, there was a comfort factor with the long-serving winger and a curiosity with a centre often labelled a one-dimensional dilemma. Benn led the Stars after 11 games with 13 points (seven goals, six assists) while Seguin had 11 points (six goals, five assists).
“Benn was easy because of our experience in the Olympics,” said Hitchcock. “Seguin was surprising to me. I felt and was told that his defence was the problem and it’s been the opposite. He’s got good instincts defensively. We have to work with his offence and get him to be more patient.
“He’s a guy I trust and is one of the few players in the league who can create offence by being in a defensive posture. We create a lot of odd-man rushes because he’s able to check players off the puck easily.”