News and Notes: Hitch out in Columbus

Thursday, February 04, 2010-12:08:am
/Andrew's Dallas Stars Page                            

When the Dallas Stars take on Columbus Thursday night Ken Hitchcock won't be behind the Blue Jackets bench. The former Stars coach was fired Wednesday, less than a year after leading the team to its first ever trip to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

"This season has been very disappointing for the Blue Jackets organization and our fans and the responsibility for that rests with all of us from management to the coaches and players," Jackets general manager Scott Howson said in a release. "Hitch worked tirelessly to build an identity for this team that was missing before he arrived and deserves a great deal of credit for those efforts.

"He earned and received the opportunity to turn things around this season, but unfortunately that has not happened and it has become apparent that change is in the best interest of our organization."

Claude Noel, who had been assistant coach, has been named interim head coach and will behind the bench for Thursday's game against the Stars.

"You’re going to see some changes," Noel said. "But I’m not going to reinvent the game."

The Blue Jackets got off to a strong start this season, posting a 12-6-3 record in the first 21 games. But they've been spiraling down ever since, going 10-21-6 in their last 37 games. Columbus last lost 14 games by three goals or more, including a 4-1 loss to Los Angeles last week and a 5-2 loss to Colorado on Tuesday.

"It has become clear that despite the efforts of Hitch, the coaches and the players to find a solution, it wasn't working," Howson said. "The team wasn't responding to the message and we felt this change was necessary to move forward in the right direction."

Hitchcock was hired by Columbus in November 2006, a month after he was fired by the Philadelphia Flyers. His record with the Blue Jackets was 125-123-36 and he has a 533-371-136 career record with Dallas, Philadelphia and Columbus. He won the Stanley Cup with Dallas in 1999 and took the Stars to the 2000 Stanley Cup Final as well.

Hitchcock will serve as an assistant coach with Canada at the Olympics next month in Vancouver.

Ribeiro goes through full practice

A step forward Tuesday for Stars center Mike Ribeiro in his recovery from a throat contusion that has kept him out of action for the last 13 games.

Ribeiro went through his first full contact practice in Frisco Wednesday morning.

"That was his first day of contact and he looked like he was really enthused to be in it,'' Star coach Marc Crawford said. "He was the life of our practice today, I thought, and that's good. The rest of the players had a tough game last night and you need some emotion in your group. It's great when it comes from someone like that. It showed his teammates that he is anxious to get back. He approached the practice with the zest and zeal that anybody would love to see. I thought he was very good out there because of it."

Whether he can return before the Olympic break is still up in the air.

Stars Notes: Sawada called up

• The Stars called up RW Ray Sawada from the Texas Stars Wednesday afternoon.

• Marty Turco will get the start in goal on Thursday.

• Mike Modano did not practice Wednesday. He was given time off to rest.

• Here was Wednesday's practice lineup, which had Mike Ribeiro filling in for Modano at center.