Slumping Blues fire Quenneville

ST. LOUIS -- The Blues fired coach Joel Quenneville on Tuesday and replaced him with assistant Mike Kitchen.

Quenneville, the winningest coach in franchise history and the NHL's coach of the year for the 1999-2000 season, was let go as the Blues scrambled to avoid missing the playoffs for the first time in 25 years.

The Blues are in ninth place in the Western Conference with a 29-23-7-2 record. Only the top eight teams make the playoffs.

"I think Joel did everything he could," said Larry Pleau, the Blues' senior vice president and general manager. "I just felt that the way the team had been playing, that a change was needed -- and a new face.

"In these positions, you make decisions, and I felt it was time," Pleau said. "I didn't think it was going to get back on track."

Kitchen, 48, was given a multiyear contract, the terms of which Pleau refused to specify. He has been with the Blues as an assistant since 1998. He was an assistant with the Toronto Maple Leafs for eight seasons before that.

"It's a hard job to take, when you lose a good friend and coach," Kitchen said.

Quenneville took over as Blues coach on Jan. 6, 1997, and has led St. Louis to at least 40 wins in five of his six full seasons with the team. The Blues won 307 games during his tenure but went just 34-34 in the postseason, including a trip to the 2001 Western Conference finals -- where they lost to Colorado in five games.

"Somebody's got to take the heat when the team's not playing very well, and it's pretty tough to fire a whole team," said Chris Pronger, the MVP and Norris Trophy winner as the league's top defenseman in 2000. "Obviously, the coach is the easiest guy to let go, but at the same time we as players haven't played very well."

At times this season, Pronger said, "at times we seemed lackadaisical out there and not really put our best foot forward. For Joel to take the heat for that is kind of sad."