Ken Hitchcock knows what people think when they think of his coaching style, and he’d really prefer for that to stop.
He rejects the characterization of that style as “defensive,” says Mike Heika in his latest post for The Dallas Morning News. Hitch’s vision for the Dallas Stars is of a team that uses its best offense – in the form of possession – to create its best defense.
To that end, he’s designing a team that gets the puck, keeps the puck, and forces opponents to play in the offensive zone, he says:
To do that, Hitchcock is going to ask top players like Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn and Jason Spezza to dig in and battle more.