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Chicago Already Panicking
by PuckStopsHere on 10/16/08 at 11:43 AM ET
Comments (5)
Any team that fires their coach four games into the season is in panic mode. A major piece of the team, as it was assembled in the off season, is already being replaced. The Chicago Blackhawks are already panicking. They have played four games and have announced the firing of coach Denis Savard. There is little sign that Chicago has anything significant to panic about. They have not started the season with a hot streak, but they are not in bad shape. After four games, they have collected three points. They won last night in a 4-1 victory over the Phoenix Coyotes. They picked up another point in a shootout loss against the Nashville Predators. They collected points in both of their last two games. It seems pretty clear that if the Blackhawks are already willing to fire their coach, then they should not have began the season with him in place.
Chicago will be replacing Savard with Joel Quenneville. Quenneville had been hired by the Blackhawks as a pro scout in September. He is a more established coach than Savard. If the Blackhawks wanted Quenneville as coach, they should have hired him then instead of leaving lone duck coach Savard in place for training camp and the opening of the season. The instability in this transition could have been avoided. It would have been better still for Chicago to have pursued Quenneville as a coach earlier in the summer to let him properly prepare for the season. This is poor management.
Quenneville has had recent controversy. On September 21st, he was arrested for drinking and driving.
Savard has never proven to be a particularly effective coach. It seemed he was hired because of his success as a former player in the Blackhawk organization and he had never done anything to prove he was a top level coach. He had been a Chicago assistant coach since his retirement and had no head coaching experience at any level and had a losing record in his tenure.
Quenneville meanwhile has won over 400 games as an NHL head coach and won the coach of the year award in 2000. This is likely a positive, but poorly timed move for the Blackhawks organization.
Here is TSN’s story on the coaching move.
Filed in: | The Puck Stops Here | Permalink
Tags: Chicago+Blackhawks, Denis+Savard, Joel+Quenneville,
Comments
Savard probably came to realize that Huet and Campbell are stiffs. The rest of the world will realize that soon enough. Where’s Bob Pulford when you need him….
Posted by kevin from boston on 10/16/08 at 12:37 PM ET
This is like pulling your goalie in the first minute of a game.
Posted by Ryan from Toronto on 10/16/08 at 12:42 PM ET
Terrible move by the Blackhawks. Since they actually won last night, this means they really wanted to fire him three games into the season which is completely ridiculous. I think bcrt is right, it must have been winning with Khabibulin that drove Tallon over the edge, which makes you wonder about Tallon’s priorities. It will be interesting to see where the Blackhawks go from here.
Posted by Mike from Idaho on 10/16/08 at 12:49 PM ET
I think you all are jumping to conclusions, and reading way more into this than is necessary.
You don’t fire a coach midseason without a replacement.
Just exactly when Quenneville agreed to take the job has never been discussed.
Posted by HockeyTownTodd on 10/18/08 at 12:54 PM ET
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The only way this makes sense is if Savard had a personal conflict with Talon or Savard wanted to make Khabibulin the starter, which would have made Talon look really bad
Posted by bcrt on 10/16/08 at 11:54 AM ET