CBC-Sports

Blue Jackets, Blues follow same downward path

February 3, 2010 06:01 PM | Posted by   Scott Morrison  

In the end, Ken Hitchcock was pretty much a victim of his own success.

And, it could safely be argued, of the success of his goaltender.

Hitchcock, of course, was fired on Wednesday afternoon by the Columbus Blue Jackets, the second coaching casualty of the season.

Interestingly, the scenario that got Hitchcock is very similar to the one that got Andy Murray in St. Louis.

In both instances, they took average teams to the playoffs last season, propelled by a good defensive system and great goaltending. In the case of Murray, he had a team that sat dead last in the Western Conference and moved it into sixth place and their first playoff appearance in four seasons.

In the case of Hitchcock, he got the Blue Jackets into seventh place in the conference – with an identical 41-31-10 record as the Blues – and the first playoff appearance in the eight-season history of the franchise.

Murray was fired back on January 3, with his team sitting 12th in the conference with a 17-17-6 record and just six of those victories coming in 22 home games. Not good. Prior to Thursday night’s action, the Blues sat 13th at 24-22-9, a marginal improvement.

As for Hitchcock, he did a terrific job with the Blue Jackets last season. In fact, they improved each season during his tenure and were a 92-point team a season ago. A big part of that improvement last season involved brilliant goaltending from Steve Mason, who won the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year and was runner-up for the Vezina Trophy as top goaltender.

Mason appeared in 61 games with a 2.29 goals-against average, 10 shutouts and a .916 save percentage. He ranked second in goals-against average, tops in shutouts. This season, his average has bloated to 3.28 and was third worst in the league, while his .890 save percentage was tied for second worst.

What’s the old saying: show me a great goaltender and I will show you a great coach.

That’s not to pin it all on Mason, not by a long shot. But the team and the goaltender have struggled and as fans in Toronto can attest, the two are often linked. Again, that is not to hang it all on Mason because the players in front of him have not been very good.

Overall, it is the defensive play of the Blue Jackets that has been brutal. Most nights they trail and they do it early, which is why they are 14th in the conference, nine points out of a playoff spot.

Oddly enough, the goaltender in St. Louis is also named Mason. But the fall for Chris Mason is not as dramatic, his save percentage at .911, down from .916. He has one shutout - two fewer than at this point last season - and his goals against average has gone up from 2.41 to 2.51.

Both Murray and Hitchcock are good coaches. Both are demanding and it will be argued that they wore down their players and wore out their welcomes. Perhaps, but there is another cliché that applies, that you can’t change 20 players, but you can fire one coach.

There are just so many similarities between the two and now Murray and Hitchcock have one more thing in common.

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