St. Louis Blues' Ken Hitchcock wins Jack Adams Award for best coach of the year -NHL Update
The National Hockey League (NHL) Awards ceremony in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Wednesday, June 20, 2012, was certainly a big night for the St. Louis Blues as head coach was given the title of the best in his position and named the winner for the Jack Adams Award
for the first time in his career.
Emotions took over the 60-year-old coach as he reminisced about what a great regular season he had with St. Louis Blues and practically making them go from being the worst team in the NHL to one of the best in a span of a few months.
What Hitchcock terms to be his reason for success is knowing how different people work in different ways. He realises that each and every player has their own strengths and weaknesses, making it much easier to work on an individual.
"I know the Xs and Os, but I study people. I pride myself in studying people," Hitchcock said."I've worked hard at my craft. I just don't go into coach's clinics and look at Xs and Os and power play and penalty killing. I got to millennial seminars for kids.
I talk to junior coaches all the time and get updated on when the changes are there. I talk to military people who have cadets going through the same issues that our kids are. I study people and I pride myself in staying current."
St. Louis was on the verge of winning another trophy, the Frank J. Selke, that had Blues’ captain, David Backes, in the running but was ultimately given to Boston Bruins’ Patrice Bergeron for being the top defensive player in the league. Detroit Red Wings’
Pavel Datsyuk was also nominated for that award.
Ending the 2011-2012 NHL regular season as the second best team in the Western Conference with 109 points was definitely a huge accomplishment for Ken Hitchcock and the St. Louis Blues. This award certainly gives recognition to that fact and for him, it
could not have been a better time to get motivated.
St. Louis Blues were eliminated in four straight games by 2012 Stanley Cup winner, Los Angeles Kings, in the semi-finals, but hope to change that next year for sure.
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