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With the Philadelphia Flyers setting the all-time team record for straight losses and Bobby Clarke heaping praise on the current regime I thought it would be a good time to check and see how Ken Hitchcock, the former Flyers head coach, and John Stevens, the current head coach, are doing.
At the end of October the Philadelphia Flyers fired Ken Hitchcock as head coach and replaced him with John Stevens. (For more on that: The Real Problem with the Flyers Family.) Then about a month ago Hitchcock accepted the position of head coach with the Columbus Blue Jackets. Now I'm wondering just how each of them is doing with his team.
Under John Stevens the Flyers are 7-17 and are currently in the midst of a seven game losing streak. Believe it or not but this is a slight improvement over the team's record before he took over. They were 2-13 for a 13% winning record then versus a 29% winning record under Stevens. I don't know about you but that does not really impress me.
On the other hand, Ken Hitchcock has done a decent job in Columbus. Before he took over the Blue Jackets were 9-18 for a 33% winning record. Hitch's record with them is 7-5. In other words, he took a losing team and now has them winning more games than they're losing. I would say that's a good head coach.
Meet the new GM, same as the old GM
When Ken Hitchcock was fired Bobby Clarke also 'retired' from the job of General Manager and was replaced with his assistant and long-time, loyal Flyer Paul Holmgren. Clarke is now Senior Vice President with the team. In effect nothing has changed in the front office of the team but on the ice they have lost a good, experienced head coach.
I'm still finding it very hard to be optimistic about the Flyers.
