“I wanted to give Mike a lay of the land,” Hitchcock said. “I wanted him to feel comfortable talking about his philosophy and my philosophy. As I explained to him, Doug and I are responsible for the stewardship of this team right now. I wanted to make sure on a personal level that the fellow that is going to take over for me wants to be the coach of the St. Louis Blues and not just a coach. I felt after spending time with Mike that he has this burning desire to be successful and I was very impressed by that. I felt like this is a fellow that wants to learn, this is a guy that knows he doesn’t have all the answers but wants to work hard to find them out. We just hit it off really well. I told Doug, ‘I really liked Mike and I really liked his ideas and what he brought.’”