Blues' Hitchcock on coaching future: 'I need time to reflect'

St. Louis Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock is in no rush to decide on his future as a coach after his most recent playoff exit.

"I need time," Hitchcock told Jeremy P. Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "I need time to reflect, some time to evaluate right now, what I've done, what I've accomplished, what's happened to us, both positive, a lot of it, and the negative, which goes with the territory."

The Blues have qualified for the playoffs in all four seasons with Hitchcock behind the bench, but the franchise has not won a playoff series since 2011-12 - his first year coaching St. Louis. Three consecutive first-round exits later, Hitchcock is ready to do a little soul-searching. 

I feel like I've let people down right now and I need to look at that and what needs to improve and I want time and space to evaluate it. I'll sit down with (Blues general manager) Doug (Armstrong), we've been together a long time, I know how good a coach I am, I know what I can do.

Armstrong credits Hitchcock with the Blues' transition from a playoffs also-ran to perennial contender, even though playoff success has largely eluded them. St. Louis has a 175-79-27 regular-season record under Hitchcock, which makes its postseason struggles all the more puzzling.

"What we're going to evaluate now is 'What do we have to do now to move this forward?'" Armstrong said. "I'm not going to put a timeline on it. It's not going to be 'You come back in 18 days and I'll have an answer.'"