Ken Hitchcock’s biggest disappointment of his Hall of Fame career came with the Flyers

You’d think the 1,598 speeches given in the regular season and the 168 in the postseason have prepared Ken Hitchcock for the one he will have to give Monday night.

You’d be wrong.

The former Flyers head coach has rewritten his speech a number of times. He wants to thank as many people as he can, but he’s been asked to keep it short — he jokes they’ll need a hook to get him off the stage — as he enters hockey’s most hallowed halls. Hitchcock, who won a Stanley Cup with the Dallas Stars in 1999 and the Jack Adams trophy honoring the NHL’s coach of the year in 2012, is now a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame.

“I’m a product of having great managers that I worked for,” said Hitchcock, who is now a senior advisor with the Blues. “... My first 12 years as a head coach in professional hockey, I had Bob Gainey and Bob Clarke as my [general] managers. It doesn’t get any better than that, and those gentlemen allowed me to take risks and take chances and be creative, so that I could help the team win games.”

Hitchcock spent more than six seasons with the Flyers — three as an assistant coach under Paul Holmgren and then Bill Dineen from 1990-93, before he came back as the top guy between 2002 and 2006.

He will be inducted in the Builder Category alongside late Colorado Avalanche general manager Pierre Lacroix, and Tom Barrasso, Henrik Lundqvist, Caroline Ouellette, Pierre Turgeon, and Mike Vernon in the Player Category.

The Inquirer caught up with Hitchcock to chat about his tenure with the Orange and Black.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

How did the Flyers’ head coaching job come about in 2002?

I was in Europe at that time [at world championships with Hockey Canada] and Paul Holmgren and Ron Hextall flew to Europe to meet me and they said, “When you come back, [then-Flyers GM Bobby Clarke] wants to talk to you.” And when I got back to the United States, the next day I got a call from Clarkie and he said, “I’d like you to come and interview for the job.” I had another team in the East chasing me, and I went in and interviewed and as soon as I sat with Clarkie, I felt really comfortable.

What was it like taking over for someone like Bill Barber?

It was easy, and the reason it was easy was because Bill gave me the heads up. He gave me the time and said, “Listen, this is what you can expect.” He went over the personnel with me. He gave me a real leg up, which I thought was really unselfish, and was very much appreciated. So, he gave me the opportunity right away to understand who the players were and what I could expect.

Looking back, is there anything that you would have done differently as head coach?

No, but I must tell you my biggest disappointment in hockey was — and I still feel for the players, not so much me, but for the players — was the 2003-04 season when we lost all those defensemen during the playoffs, and we ended up playing Mark Recchi and Sami Kapanen as defensemen because we were so banged up.

I feel for the players because I thought, in all honesty, nobody was going to beat that team. We were playing so well. And we were on top of our game and we had literally run out of defensemen. We had to take a vote on who could play defense at the end because we’d lost so many of our own and then we even had a couple of the American League guys get hurt. So Mark was playing some defense, and Sami was playing 18 to 20 minutes a night as a defenseman.

What was that conversation like? Did you just draw straws?

It was a conversation of who can play defense. And Sami went out the first time because Mark played defense as a Peewee and Sami played as a Bantam. We were in a really tough spot. You know, we lost five of our top six guys.

And then you lose to the Tampa Bay Lightning and John Tortorella in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final.

I thought going into the playoffs, we were playing better than anybody in the National Hockey League, and we beat two really good teams; we beat New Jersey and we beat Toronto. I thought going into the playoffs, I really felt like the way we were playing, there was nobody that was going to beat us. You can’t can’t control injuries, but to be honest with you, it still hurts to this day.

Was there a moment where you thought you had a team that could go all the way?

I thought halfway through the season. I said that to the coaching staff, that if we continue to play at this level and practice at this level, there isn’t anybody going to beat us at the end of the year. I felt like after 40 games, that’s where we’re gonna be.

Is that normal?

No, not at all.

How did assistant coaches Craig Hartsburg, Terry Murray, and Wayne Fleming react?

I think we all felt like we had a special group of guys who were talented enough, dedicated beyond belief, and committed to each other. I just thought all of the coaches understood that the qualities that you need to have in a championship team were sitting right in front of us.

What do you think happened the next season when the Flyers lost in the first round?

What had happened was we were on a real roll, but then the lockout and our team had changed quite a bit. It impacted us in a huge way.

And then just eight games into the next season, with a 1-6-1 record, you were fired.

Well, I knew ahead of time it was going to happen. I knew Clarkie was going to resign, and I was attached to Clarkie. So I knew that I was going to be let go for sure. So it didn’t surprise me one bit.

But you had just signed a new deal at that training camp.

That’s the loyalty of Bob Clarke right there.

What is your philosophy going into a new season?

Well, for me, chemistry is everything. It doesn’t matter your talent level, chemistry is everything. Chemistry and culture. And we had a culture that was incredible and then we lost momentum because of the lockout. That happens, but we didn’t come back with nearly the same chemistry and culture that we had going in. We had spent three years building it, and we had built it to a really really high level, and then the lockout and the significant change in personnel really impacted just in a big way.

Are you the kind of coach that found players to fit your system, or did you make the system fit your players?

I try to fit the system to the personnel. I don’t jam the system down the player’s throat. I look at what we have, what’s our level of foot speed, where’s the strength of our team, and then I try to coach straight to those strengths.

So in Philadelphia, what was your strategy?

I thought we were a big team. We had average foot speed, but we had really good size and we could play a really heavy game. You needed to play a heavy game if you were going to win a playoff series in the Eastern Conference at that time because there were so many good teams.

Is there any one player from those Flyers teams that you thought, I’m really glad I coached this guy.

Oh, Keith Primeau. Yeah.

Why?

Because I watched the guy grow as a leader. I watched the guy really grow into the captaincy and, you know, it’s too bad he got hurt and had that concussion issue, because he was just in his prime as a leader, just starting to really understand the role of a captain and how important it was in a city like Philadelphia. I wished he could have grown another four or five years in that role because he would have been awesome.

Have you watched the Flyers recently?

They play with great spirit, which is a really good sign. Having that type of spirit is a really good building block.

How would you handle a team where expectations aren’t high for the season?

Well, I don’t look at it that way. I don’t measure by wins and losses. A great year is a group coming together, playing for each other, and really enjoying making sacrifices for each other. That’s what a great year is. And it doesn’t matter what your talent level is and what your record is; if you have a year like that, you’ve had a successful year.

To me, if the players buy into playing for each other, making sacrifices for each other, and managing the puck for each other, and you do that really well, you’re gonna have a great year. And I don’t like when anybody says, we’re just going to build, or we’re going to have a tough year, and we’re just going to have to gut it up. I don’t believe that at all. I really believe that no matter what your skill set is, no matter what your age is, if you do those things for each other, you’re going to be really successful.

How do you get guys to buy in?

Make it bigger than themselves. See if you can help them find the value of giving up things for the guy sitting next to him. That’s the most important thing is can you help them see the value of being able to sacrifice for each other?

Is it just a conversation?

It’s a constant selling, a constant selling. You’re selling concepts that allow the players to make sacrifices so the team can have success, and then find value in making those sacrifices.

What’s your favorite memory of your coaching career?

In general, it’s the people I worked for, that’s my greatest memory. I have had so many great managers that I worked with and so many coaches. That’s a great feeling when you work with such smart and dedicated people. And for me, in Philadelphia, that 2004 team. It was a special group of people and it was a special team.

What was your favorite memory about living in Philadelphia?

I loved the people there. I loved it. They gave it to you, and you could give it right back, and they loved it. I made friends for life. Andy Reid and I got to know each other, and we’ve been friends since his days with the Eagles. Tony La Russa introduced me to Charlie Manuel, and I got to know Charlie.

To me, it was the friends I made there, and just that whole Philadelphia mindset. I love the edge of the city, I love the edge of the people and the fans, and I really loved it there.

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