You don’t necessarily have to play the game to know the game. This, to many, is silly, but Ken Hitchcock is proving it behind the bench for the Dallas Stars.
We’ve all been there before. If you’ve discussed hockey with former players (this applies to all levels of hockey: pros, juniors, college, etc), they likely immediately gave themselves the conversation’s upper hand. Their logic is, with decent reason, is “I played, you did not.”
I have never and will never played major organized hockey, but I’d like to think that I know a lot about the great game of sticks and pucks, and certainly more than just the ins and outs. It’s important, if you want to know more about the sport, to talk to knowledgeable individuals around the game, just be weary of those that have played in a premier organized league or manner. They evidently know everything about hockey.
Former athletes sit in the oscillating chairs of sports networks just spewing nonsense and disconnect for hours, due solely to “I played, you did not.” Former players obtain jobs of extreme importance in sports, especially the National Hockey League, only because of “I played, you did not.” This, my friends, is why I love Dallas Stars head coach Ken Hitchcock.
Pull up Hitchcock’s hockey-reference.com page and you’ll see what I mean. Across four teams (Dallas twice, Columbus, Philadelphia, St. Louis), Hitchcock has had one of the most successful head coaching careers in NHL history, one that will make an impact long after he’s gone. Hitchcock is one win away from passing Al Arbour on the all-time wins list amongst head coaches, and never played a second of pro hockey, junior hockey, nothing.
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Hitchcock grew up around hockey rinks and stores, as his passion for the game came from his father, who helped manage local arenas and also coached an endless amount of local squads. He could never play the game, he looked like a real Tom Dorsa out there, but his smarts and his vision led him to the top spot behind the bench of the Western Hockey League’s Kamloops Blazers in 1984 at the ripe age of 33.
Before he knew it, Hitchcock was in the NHL, coaching unbelievable talents we all know like Mike Modano, Sergei Zubov, and Brett Hull. Hitchcock and that beautiful, iconic late-1990s mustache had gone from a hockey afterthought to a Stanley Cup champion in relatively no time at all. It wasn’t Hitchcock out there beating and banging, but it was the way he looked at things that gave the Dallas Stars an extra jolt of energy.
The 65-year-old Hitchcock, now in his second stint with the Dallas Stars, gets to watch over Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn, transforming them each into the three-zone dynamos they have tried to gradually become in the speed of light. Hitchcock seemingly sees talented players and watches them as himself, evaluating at every turn what he would do if he could skate, shoot, or see like that.
Dallas Stars
His hockey sense and knowledge is incomparable. When players buy into a Ken Hitchcock system, it’s like listening to Mozart. Hitchcock, over his stint with the Blues, fielded some of the toughest teams to oppose in the generation. It’s poetry in motion, the kind that can – on its face – only be designed and perfected by a hopeless hockey romantic like Hitch.
Hitchcock overlooked the “I played, you did not” crowd the way we all should. Keep in mind, you probably know the game and all of its wonders and amusements just as much as someone that played it does. It would be inappropriate to ask you to engage in potentially ugly discussions with hockey analysts and players, but if your goal is to prove a point, don’t back down just because you didn’t play. That would be ridiculous.
Some of, if not, the best analysts in hockey were just fans. Never playing hockey, just watching and assessing every ounce of it. However, it’s hard to articulate points against the “I played, you did not” crowd if the people in the powerful, nationally-recognized positions are former players looking for their next paycheck after the game. You could, in theory, however, just point to our boy Ken Hitchcock.
Next: Dallas Stars Putting Youth First In Preseason Lineup
Ken Hitchcock is a future Hockey Hall-of-Famer that gained international fame and gratitude to his hockey mind without skating on pro hockey ice for a minute. Keep your head up, fans, the coach of the Dallas Stars is one of us.