DING DONG, THE KITCH IS DEAD!

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FINALLY the sun rises on a new day in St. Louis. Lame Duck head coach Mike Kitchen has finally been replaced. Ex-Kings coach Andy Murry steps in as head coach, and has signed a multi-year deal.

This is such great news. Kitchen was out of his element here. Everyone makes a big deal of how he kept the team competitive last season after being completely dismantled and left with essentially an AHL team. However, I believe that the players themselves kept it going. There were always rumors that Pronger was a "locker-room cancer" and that Al MacInnis himself once said that we'd never win a Cup with Pronger as Captain. The players wanted to prove that we didn't need Prongs. This year, after signing seven free agents, including Bill Guerin, Jay McKee, and Doug Weight, we are in exactly the same place we were last season - last. Sure, we won our seventh game a bit earlier than last year (it took us until December 20 last year), but we are seriously underachieving and we have lost seven in a row as of now. Kitchen was as emotion-filled as a droid - he showed no passion or hint that he knew how to motivate himself, not to mention his team. He never smiled, he never got angry, and he rarely sat the players that deserved to be sat. Murry ALWAYS has no problem showing his emotion, and I believe it rubs off on the players. They will know when he is angry, when he is pleased, and they will absolutely know they are playing for their jobs.

Sure, lots of people are saying we should sack many of the aging vets and let the kids play, myself included. Guys like Brewer, Drake, Weight, Tkachuk, Legace have all done nothing but coast in many parts of the season, if not the entire season. But, I also think that perhaps this was their only way of sending a message to management that liver-lips' act was wearing thin, and the players were absolutely not responding to him whatsoever. I am very excited to see how they respond to this change, let alone to Murry himself. I think this buys many of the players some time to show whether or not they want to be here past the trade deadline.

This is such great news. I'm freakin' ecstatic.

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this is funny. last night, apparently shortly before Kitch was let go (or at least, shortly before it was announced), a letter i sent Bucci a week ago made the 'Mother of All Mailbags':
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This sight brought tears to Blues fans' eyes -- for more than one reason.

Hey Bucci,

OK, seriously, after being in tears at the end of an amazing ceremony for The Golden Brett, then in tears for an entirely different reason three hours later:

--How does Mike Kitchen still have a job?
--How did this entire team not get hyped up after watching such pomp and circumstance, after seeing how one player can affect an entire city for years?
--Why hasn't John Davidson traded away these bored, lazy and coasting vets to ice a team that has something to prove, even if it's amateur hour? What's the worst that can happen, we come in last? Already doing that.
--What does it mean when Larry Pleau did not take part in the Hull ceremony last night?
--Why continue to start Lega-sieve?
--At what point does John Davidson accept accountability for continually breaking his preseason promise (that continues to be played during commercials on the radio during games) of "We will not be out-worked"?
--Is there anything short of a Ben-Stiller-and-Owen-Wilson-finally-coming-out-as-a-couple-level miracle that can help this sorry team?

Disgusted in STL,
TC

I don't know because my sources tell me the players can't stand Kitchen. I think he will be fired soon, maybe while this latest column is up on ESPN.com.

You are talking about losing to Detroit on Brett Hull night. Ceremonies are hard on home teams sometimes, especially when the team is not very good. I'm sure the Blues were watching the Hull highlights and some of those great St. Louis Blues moments and were saying, "Boy, we suck."

The Blues organization has never loved Jason Bacashihua. Jean-Sebastien Giguere is a free agent this summer and Blues might offer him a huge deal. He, coupled with Erik Johnson's arrival next fall, would be a major upgrade. Just keep being awful and get another Top 3 pick in next summer's draft.
linky

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I've liked Murray since his Kings beat the Wings back in '01 (in one game I believe he pulled their goalie with 4 minutes or something obnoxious like that left in the game, they scored 2 to tie and won in OT). Don't know much about your former coach, but it sounds like the term 'coach' can be used loosely at best when referring to him. Congrats to the Blues for cleaning up shop!

Now, wanna trade for an overpriced goalie?
"I'm like a dog chasing cars, I wouldn't know what to do if I caught one. . . . I'm not a schemer. I just do things."