Ken Hitchcock was stuck in no-man's land in 2010, let go by the Columbus Blue Jackets in February and still without a job in September. So he called on Olympic coaching buddy Mike Babcock for a favor.
The veteran bench boss, who fidgets when he's away from hockey, asked Babcock if he could attend Detroit's training camp in Traverse City, Mich., to just soak up the Red Wings way.
"Hitch phoned me and said, 'I want to learn, can I come to the camp?'" Babcock told Ansar Khan of M-Live at the time. "He wants to learn, but I want to learn, too.