As a player, Kitchen made up for his lack of size with smarts. As a coach, he is devoted to improving the Blues' defense.

Kitchen knows the drill
By John McGourty | NHL.com
Nov. 16, 2004

It just figures that a defensive-oriented defenseman like Mike Kitchen would make an excellent coach. During his playing days, Kitchen, now the head coach of the St. Louis Blues, always played a smart, intelligent game.

Kitchen was an intellectual master of his trade, possessors of a hefty bag of defensive tricks that left opponents driving to the net without the puck, shooting at pucks swept away a split-second earlier, being pushed off-sides, striding into firmly planted skates, skating into nets and a multitude of other frustrating defensive tactics.

Kitchen was able to put his 5-foot-10, 180-pound body through eight NHL seasons with the Colorado Rockies and New Jersey Devils.

"'Kitch' was a competitive, in-your-face guy who was a consummately conditioned athlete," said NHL Executive Vice President and Director of Hockey Operations Colin Campbell, Kitchen's Colorado teammate in 1976-77. "That's how he survived. He came into camp as an unexpected guy and made the team in his first year.

"He's been successful as an NHL coach because he had to work so hard to be a player in the NHL. He knows what it takes and he brought those kinds of skills to be an assistant coach in Toronto and St. Louis. He has also worked for good people, good head coaches, like (NHL Vice President of Hockey Operations) Mike Murphy, Tom Watt, Pat Burns and Joel Quenneville."

Kitchen, 47, appeared in 474 NHL games, recording 12 goals, 62 assists and 370 penalty minutes with the Rockies and Devils. He was drafted by the Kansas City Scouts with the 38th overall choice in the 1976 Entry Draft after spending three seasons with the Toronto Marlboros.

"A lot of people today don't realize the Devils started as the Kansas City Scouts in 1975 and moved after two seasons to Denver where they became the Colorado Rockies," Kitchen said. "I came up in 1976-77, the team's first year in Denver, and played all six seasons there. Then, we moved to New Jersey and I played another two years there before retiring.

"It's kind of a shame what happened in Denver, the franchise moving," Kitchen continued. "We had good coaching and a lot of good players and great fans. We didn't have enough good players and only made it to the Stanley Cup Playoffs once. That was too bad because we had really enthusiastic fans in Denver. I think that franchise could have been a big success if then we had the kind of modern-day marketing efforts that we have now."

Earlier this week, the Hockey Hall of Fame inducted three defensemen from Kitchen's era, Ray Bourque, Paul Coffey and Larry Murphy. Youth-hockey coaches of their era barred their players from attempting some of the plays performed by Bourque and Coffey because they were too risky. Only very rare players with superior skill, awareness and athletic ability could gamble with passes in front of their net, last man back carrying the puck up ice and some of the other derring-do that put them in the Hockey Hall of Fame, while purists cringed at the risks they took.

Defensemen like Larry Murphy, Kitchen, Campbell and Detroit head coach Dave Lewis played it by the book, knowing that if Bourque or Coffey messed up a risky play, they'd then only be plus-49 for the season while a player of lesser talent who messed up on a "don't do that" play might next be on a bus for Fort Wayne.

Kitchen was an assistant coach in Toronto for nine seasons before moving to St. Louis where has had the opportunity to work with Norris Trophy winners Al MacInnis and Chris Pronger and Calder Memorial Trophy winner Barret Jackman. MacInnis saw how former Blues coach Mike Keenan instilled confidence in a young Pronger by giving him consistent shifts regardless of how many mistakes he made in the beginning.

Kitchen has his defensemen playing the way he did, aggressively. He wants more hard checking and more joining the play. His players know he will demand that they be accountable. He quickly put down a bit of team friction late last season, leaving no one doubting who is in charge.