Former Stars, Flyers and Blue Jackets head coach Ken Hitchcock, who was just named a special adviser to Columbus, is spending some time with the Red Wings while they go through training camp. Hitchcock, who was an assistant coach to Mike Babcock during this year's Olympics, wanted to attend training camp as a learning opportunity for himself, and the Red Wings view it as a learning opportunity for them as well.
“Hitch phoned me and said, ‘I want to learn, can I come to your camp?,'” Babcock said. “I phoned Kenny Holland and said, ‘He wants to learn, but I want to learn, too -- can he come to our camp?’ It’s more to deal with the coaches -- talk to our coaches, talk to me. I’ve worked with him. Evaluate me, evaluate the coaches -- what can we do better?”
“I was grateful they gave me a chance to come and watch,” Hitchcock said. “I want to learn. I want to see what and how the team does in training camp. I’ve been with Babs quite a bit and watched how he runs things, and I’m curious to see how he does training camp, because we’ve seen it at the highest level at the Olympics.”
Hitchcock coached 1,041 games during his career, so it definitely can't hurt to have someone with that much experience around for a few days.