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Macivering Way Into Buffalo? |
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Chicago Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman is spitting mad today. His Hawks were punted from the first round of the Western Conference playoffs in four games by the Nashville Predators.
Bowman strongly suggested that there will be changes to the Hawks roster and possibly the front office in the near future. His team is in cap purgatory right now and his core group is aging at an alarming rate. Their core group have played more hockey in the past eight seasons than any other team in the NHL. The high mileage has added up on the odometer in Chicago. No movement and no trade clauses have Bowman handcuffed. He can't trade long term contracts with older players attached to them to make room on the roster for his brilliant and exciting prospects.
Stan Bowman is very cranky and rightly so. His team was expected by many to be playing in the Western Conference Finals. No such luck.
"I’m completely, completely disappointed," Bowman said Saturday at the United Center. "It’s unacceptable to be where we are today. I’m frustrated, I’m angry. This was a tough, tough loss for us all to take. Standing here April 22 is not the way we expected our season to end. And it’s a complete failure when you measure it against the expectations that we have of ourselves. We did not come even close to reaching the standard we have set over the years here. And that’s unacceptable. Any successes that we did experience this year are completely overshadowed by the abrupt ending to our season. It’s not close to good enough for anybody.
"I think it’s time right now to take a look in the mirror and face facts," Bowman added. "And when you do that, you look at accountability, and that starts with me. I need to be better. There’s no doubt about it. I’m going to take a look at all things. I can promise you I will be better. Top to bottom, we need more. This is unacceptable to be where we are today. There will be change moving forward; change comes in many different ways. So the specifics of how we’re going to change things into next year are not really meant for this forum. But I can promise you we need to be better."
"Joel is our head coach (and) he will continue to be our head coach," Bowman said. "And Joel and I are going to work together to make sure that this never happens again."
So, it sounds like Quenneville and his coaching staff are safe from the chopping block.
The vaunted core of Kane, Toews, Seabrook, Keith, Hossa, Panarin, Anisimov and Crawford are safe. Will other Blackhawks players be so lucky to survive the axe?
One person who may not survive the purge is assistant general manager Norm Maciver, who may be a person of interest to be interviewed by Buffalo Sabres owners Terry and Kim Pegula. Maciver has been AGM of the Blackhawks for the past five seasons and is said to be very interested in becoming an NHL GM.
The Pegulas fired GM Tim Murray and head coach Dan Bylsma on Thursday.
Finishing dead last in the Atlantic Division with a 33-37-12 record this season was the nail in the coffin for Murray and Bylsma, who promised a winning season before the 2016-17 campaign began.
Why were the Sabres so bad this past season? Three things come to my mind: Bottom 3 D were brutal, lack of even strength goal scoring, injuries.
Bylsma iced a turnstile blue line which plagued the team all season long. Rasmus Ristolainen, Jake McCabe, Josh Gorges and Zach Bogosian were the best of thin D corps. Dmitry Kulikov was a bust. Also, The lack of even strength goal scoring killed the Sabres inside games. Bylsma achieved #1 status for his power play units but his 5v5 scoring was ranked #25. The Sabres lost over 400 man games to injury in 2016-17. Good luck winning with regularity when there's zero continuity with your forward trios and D duos.
Maciver, 52, is reported very interested in the Buffalo GM job. Maciver was hired by Stan Bowman in 2006 as the team’s director of player development, then rose to the position of AGM in 2012 when Marc Bergevin exited Chicago to become the GM of the Montreal Canadiens. The Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup in Maciver’s first season as AGM and won another one two in 2015.
Terry Pegula said Friday that his next GM will be "experienced". Does Maciver meet Pegula's strict criteria? Can Maciver be an agent for a change of culture in Buffalo? Can Maciver improve the discipline, structure, communication and character of the Sabres? Maciver can no doubt draw from his Stanley Cup winning experiences. He would no doubt borrow the best practices and high standards he learned in Chicago and infuse them into the Sabres front office, coaching, scouting, trading and medical staffs.
I'm told that Maciver would make current Chicago Blackhawks assistant coach Kevin Dinesen his head coach were he to get a GM job in Buffalo or elsewhere in the NHL. Dineen was the head coach of the Portland Pirates for three seasons when they were affiliated with the Buffalo Sabres.
Sabres winger Tyler Ennis and several other Buffalo prospects thrived under Dineen's mentoring in Portland.
Dinner has three years NHL head coaching experience, all with the Florida Panthers, including a 38-26-16 first place record in 2011-12.
Dineen's crowning coaching achievement was coaching Team Canada's Women's squad to the Olympic gold medal at the Sochi Games.
Dinesen is a consummate communicator and is widely respected by his players and peers.
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I'm still hearing that Chris Drury, Tom Fitzgerald, Pat Verbeek, and Dean Lombardi are still candidates to be interviewed by the Pegulas.
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