Thanks to the St. Louis Blues’ 2-1 shootout victory against the Vancouver Canucks, Ken Hitchcock won the 600th game of his coaching career on Tuesday.
Hitchcock, 61, had a simple and amusing explanation for the milestone (which made him the 11th bench boss in NHL history to reach that mark).
“It’s basically because I’m old,” Hitchcock said. “If you last long and you’re old, you get this.”
Here’s his career record in 1,152 games coached: 600-381-88-83 (88 ties, 83 shootout/OT losses).
Again, he was quick to deflect praise, the next time to his team.
“For me, I’m proud of being able to be a coach in this league, but I’m more proud of the way our team is playing right now,” Hitchcock said. “We’re playing hard.”
Only one other active coach (Chicago’s Joel Quenneville) has more than 600 wins. Hitchcock’s 59.5 career winning percentage only trails Quenneville (61.2 percent) and legend Scotty Bowman (65.7 percent) in NHL history.
Here’s the full list of coaches with at least 600 wins:
Hitchcock
Quenneville
Bowman
Al Arbour
Pat Quinn
Mike Keenan
Dick Irvin
Ron Wilson
Bryan Murray
Jacques Lemaire
Jacques Martin