In St Louis Wednesday afternoon, the Blues fired veteran head coach Ken Hitchcock after a dismal loss on Tuesday, their fifth in six games.
“We don’t lose with pride,” Blues general manager Doug 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.”
St Louis sits in eighth place in the Western Conference and January was a lost month with five wins in 13 games.
“We’ve let our group become independent contractors,” said Armstrong, who informed Hitchcock of his decision Tuesday night after the loss to the Winnipeg Jets. “It’s a losing brand of hockey and Ken’s paying the price for it.”
This was Hitchcock’s final year coaching the Blues and he is replaced by Mike Yeo who was to have assumed the role after the season was over.
“We all have to dig much, much deeper than what we have,” Yeo said. “Effort is going to be something that is talked about day in and day out.”
Yeo last coached the Minnesota Wild.
Local reports suggest Hitchcock was angry about the dismissal.
“He was defiant to the end,” Armstrong said. “There was no kumbaya last night. He was angry.”
Also fired Wednesday was goaltending coach Jim Corsi.
If one thing was a near certainty this season was the hook being given to Blues’ starting netminders. The goaltending has been suspect all season with Jake Allen and Carter Hutton.
Goalie coaching will be managed by assistant GM Martin Brodeur and Ty Conklin
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