from Frank Seravalli of TSN,

It just wasn’t supposed to play out like this – not with Hitchcock two wins shy of passing Al Arbour for third-most in NHL history, not without one more shot at a Stanley Cup that has eluded the NHL’s best regular-season team over the last handful of years.

The Blues fired Hitchcock on Wednesday morning following their fifth loss in six games.

Perhaps, it should not have come as a surprise, considering Mike Yeo was hired last summer with the announced and unusual coach-in-waiting title, officially putting a timer on Hitchcock’s tenure in St. Louis.

A coaching change was one of the few cards left for general manager Doug Armstrong to play in an attempt to jolt a Blues team that is hanging in the playoff race by the skin of their teeth.

Armstrong, who choked back tears at a Wednesday press conference, will enter the final year of his contract next June.

“Ken is paying the price for all of our failures, starting with mine,” Armstrong told reporters. “It starts with me as a manager, filters down. I think we’ve let our group become independent contractors. We have to become a team again.

“Whatever mess is here, it’s on me.”

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