These fire-the-coach news conferences always make my skin crawl.

"We're all responsible -- management, players and coaches," Blue Jackets general manager Scott Howson said.

So, at the end of the day, how is it that only one guy, coach Ken Hitchcock, got fired?

"This decision was made for the best long-term interest of our hockey club," Howson said. "It had become clear that, despite the efforts of Hitch, the coaches and players to find a solution, it wasn't working. The team was not responding to the message."

The Jackets have issues. Every losing team does. The coach is usually to blame for some of them -- in some cases, for a lot of them, though that doesn't appear to be the case here.

Hitchcock might have inflicted information overload on his young players. There have to be reasons that Jake Voracek hasn't played the way he's capable for months now, and a good case can be made that Derick Brassard is thinking too much instead of letting his talent flow. If those guys had had better seasons, the Jackets probably would have won more than 10 of their past 37 games.

But Hitchcock isn't responsible for sophomore goaltender Steve Mason's troubles, and that's probably the biggest difference between this year's team and last year's playoff squad.

One of the ominous signs Howson has observed is the lack of push-back shown by players when they get down. Maybe that has more to do with some of the soft goals that have found their way into the Jackets' net than with the coach's message.

Discouragement goes both ways, too. The defensemen's failures -- and Fedor Tyutin, Jan Hejda and Mike Commodore haven't played nearly as well this season as they did last -- might have discouraged Mason.

Who brought those three guys here?

"We didn't find the right mix for him, and I feel responsible for that," Howson said. "We didn't bring in the dynamic that he needed to be successful."

See what I mean about these fire-the-coach deals? Everybody makes mistakes, and the coach gets the ax. Even when the coach isn't a future Hockey Hall of Famer, even when he doesn't have a Stanley Cup and more than 500 wins on his resume the way Hitchcock does, the willingness of everybody to believe that things will be better if they just fire the coach always confounds me.

When Howson was asked about the timing, he said something about the franchise's having to maintain credibility with its fans. Just the other day, I got an e-mail from a guy asking why other NHL teams fire their coaches so fast and the Blue Jackets don't. If that thinking takes hold, you know who gets fired? Howson.

"I tend to favor longer-term coaching tenures," Howson said. "But nothing lasts forever, and there comes a time where a person's effectiveness can run out and there's nothing we can do to change that."

I'm glad Claude Noel is going to get a chance to be an NHL coach, even if it's only until the end of the season. If this follows the usual script, the team will probably play its rear off for him -- at least for a while.

But there will always be questions. If the kids grow up next season, will that be because the new coach is handling them better or just because they have grown up? And were the Blue Jackets really as magnanimous as Howson suggested when he implied that they didn't fire him sooner because "We all felt that Hitch deserved the opportunity to try and work out of this"?

I'm telling you, it makes my stomach ache.

"It does not change the fact that Hitch is an excellent coach," Howson said. "He came with the organization in disarray and is leaving it in much better shape. He brought structure, credibility and legitimacy to our franchise. He played a huge role in getting us to our playoff berth last season, and we've all learned a great deal from him in terms of commitment, preparation and attention to detail, and for that we're grateful to him."

Yep. Thanks for everything, Hitch. You were great. Now get the hell out.

Bob Hunter is a sports columnist for The Dispatch.

bhunter@dispatch.com