As coach John Stevens was giving his post game press conference following yesterday’s Flyers 3-2 victory over the Blue Jackets, reporters started to rudely leave one by one. It started out as 30 writers, and in the end I was left standing with about five people, when I uncomfortably left myself. It reminded me of sneaking out of church early. Usually no one leaves the coach’s PC, but today everyone had someone else to talk to. Stevens knew what was going on.
BJ Coach Ken Hitchcock would soon be addressing the media after coaching the opposing team a mere two days after he was scouting for the Flyers. When you walked out into the hallway you could barely move. Normally the opposing coaches address the two or three media guys. Today it was a swarm waiting for the coach. Hitch is one of those guys that is a rock star in this world. And like the song says, “You don’t know what you got til it’s gone.”
It took Hitch a longer time than usual to get out there, and as it turned out we all could have stay with Stevens to the end. Here you saw for the first time that Hitch was being treated as the enemy. With a big comfy press room 10 feet behind me we all stood crowded in a hallway. One of the Flyers beat writers got whacked by a camera.
Eventually out came Hitch and he could barely get in through the crowd. The same basic questions were asked of Hitch. “Did it feel weird?” “Did you keep looking at the Flyers team.”
As Hitch talked he kept saying "we" played a solid game and I really thought "they" played well. Except "we" meant the Blue Jackets and "they" meant the Flyers. Same building, same reporters, but everything reversed. It is moments like this that you realize how much of a crazy business this is.
But Hitch was the pro and said all the right things. There was a legitimate excitement about his new team. He joked about leaving the twenty or so people who cover the Flyers behind for the 2 writers that cover the Jackets. In typical Hitch fashion when asked how he thought the Jackets played, he said he was pleased and he turned to one of the beat writers for Columbus and said, “I though this was as strong of a game that they have played all year, you’ve seen them play a lot, didn’t you think so?”
And there was Hitch. Unpretentious and at the same time forging a new relationship with his media by showing respect. The great thing about the guy is that he REALLY answers questions. And when the team sucks, he won’t throw out the cliché excuse. He may not say it on the record, but off he will tell you how he also thinks they suck.
Hitch’s comments on what he liked about the BJs was also a list of what we all knew he didn’t love about this current Flyers team. When asked about the Flyers he said he noticed a few things, like how Pitkanen and Timonen looked like a good pair, and how there were some juicy rebounds left by the goalie.
As he walked past me e shook my hand and said, “Good luck Ek. Thanks.”
We will truly miss him.
Join the Discussion:
»