Hello 66. It looks to me that either the players have quit on the coach and decided to get him fired, or he has completely lost the room to the extent that the team cannot function. I think there is too much talent to be as bad as they've shown. What do you think?
- mohel

It's the Core that killed Q and it's the Core that will kill JC.
They should form a band and call themselves The Core Four Coach Killers !!!

From ‘The Hockey News’.


But this is what needs to happen before it gets better in Chicago. This roster has to be stripped for parts, it has to fail, it has to add top talents through the draft and then the coaching staff and management need to give those players the room to grow. We’re already seeing one part of that process enacted with Kirby Dach remaining with the NHL club and Adam Boqvist brought up from the AHL. Further moves, though, will have to be executed carefully, meticulously, by Bowman, assuming he’s given the chance to steer this ship back on course. He will need to exercise patience, adding only where needed and ensuring he doesn’t further muddy the cap situation by overpaying to fit a round peg into a square hole on a team that’s nowhere near contention. There can’t be major missteps. As it is, Chicago can hardly afford the minor. (Speaking of which, the jury remains out on the Alexander Nylander-Henri Jokiharju swap, but the Blackhawks sure could use another young, promising blueliner about now.).
- scottak

While a lot of what is stated here "can" be right, it is not the only way to rebuild. You can trade for talent (see James Neal and Phil Kessel). You can also sign from overseas. This is really just the "this is what I would do" article that comes out whenever teams are doing poorly.

The second bolded part kind of shows that they only look at the surface of things. We have plenty of young, promising blueliners. We also added two veteran D in the offseason for basically peanuts (and I like Kahun). So again, while not incorrect, I'm not putting much stock into this article.

Meanwhile, 8n the ‘Sunshine State’, the players seem to enjoy playing for their new coach. From ‘The Athletic.

Quenneville has his team working hard and fast.

Most practices only last 45 minutes or so, but the Panthers are skating almost the entire time. Defensive problems the team has faced in the past are starting to disappear, and bad habits are popping up less and less.

“In talking to guys before the season, I did not hear one bad thing (about Quenneville),” Vatrano said. “He brings a real energy to the rink every day, and everyone knows what he expects out of you. He holds himself to that same standard. He makes sure we are doing the right things.

“It has been fun to be coached by him, and it is fun coming to the rink every day. You know you’re going to work hard every single day. Every game and every meeting, we’re prepared. You cannot be halfway here. You have to be all-in and committed to the way he wants to play, to doing the right things and taking care of yourself off the ice. There’s accountability here and we need that.’’

As for the yelling Brouwer warned about, the Panthers have not really seen that side of Quenneville yet.

Sure, players say, he has raised his voice a time or two, but Quenneville can get his mood across with just a look.

Ekblad, for instance, said instead of screaming after a loss or focusing on “all the bad things we did,” Quenneville has focused on how to do things better and improve as a team.

The Panthers seem to have taken to that approach.

“After a bad game sometimes, you come into the room and you can feel that depression,” Ekblad said. “Right now, it is not like that. There is no ‘Screw you guys!’ There is a lot more optimism, more of a positive outlook, and each day you come to the rink with a fresh outlook and almost a new lease on life.

“He wants us to fix our mistakes, not dwell on them and continue to think about them and lose confidence in what we’re doing. I wouldn’t say he is a yeller at all, but he has a real optimistic approach to teaching. He wants us to find a way to be better. It’s a ‘moving forward’ mentality, not a look-back one. It really works.

“It is so different around here and so exciting. It really is awesome.”
- scottak

And we can keep going back to the well on this, but it won't change much. The Hawks were playing worse each consecutive year under Q. I'm obviously not saying that JC was the right hire, but Q was not solving the problem here. That does not take anything away from how good of a coach he was or is currently. It just shows that he was not getting the job done here.

Gilbert sent back to Rockfish.

Room for a forward call-up - Sikura, Highmore, Wedin...?
- StLBravesFan

with bokie playing now...all it means is gilbert should playing in rcf and not sitting in the pressbox. i doubt a forward is coming up to sit..JC has been rotating cags and smith.

don't expect other line-up changes short of injury...

when murphy comes back then things get interesting...bokie stays...someone else has to sit = gus?? not sitting keith, dehahn, matta, or seabs again..

And we can keep going back to the well on this, but it won't change much. The Hawks were playing worse each consecutive year under Q. I'm obviously not saying that JC was the right hire, but Q was not solving the problem here. That does not take anything away from how good of a coach he was or is currently. It just shows that he was not getting the job done here.
- Chunk

I honestly think this goes further up the food chain than individual teams and their coaches and management. This goes to how Bettman and the owners run the NHL overall. They use revenue from successful teams like Chicago to finance weaker revenue producing teams, and then he wants to keep expanding which, yeah, it grows the sport, but it dilutes the talent. Haven't you noticed that there are only a few core players on each team, then there are the assorted fill ins? While not every team is in cap pergatory, many are strapped, and it's not necessarily bad decisions, but the cap is set ridiculously low for professional teams.

Then, with the raised awareness of brain trauma and other injuries, I wonder if those players who have already experienced multiple concussions simply do not want to run the risks anymore of long term effects. I think with Car Bomb in Chicago talking to players regularly about these issues does affect how some players play. Toews, Saad, and Crawford alone would give others pause to see how long the recovery takes. Geez, Crosby took years just to seem right again. Bettman does everything in his power not to admit liability, but sooner or later they are going to have to change to more protective headgear to safeguard the players futures.

The league overall seems weary and not as driven. Other teams seem to slog through the schedule, add a week or two at the beginning of the season to get rid of the six games in seven days crap. Football players need a week to recuperate, and hockey players use muscles that most athletes only dream of owning. And, our core has been squeezed dry.

Sorry for my rant, I have been storing up.

Hello 66. It looks to me that either the players have quit on the coach and decided to get him fired, or he has completely lost the room to the extent that the team cannot function. I think there is too much talent to be as bad as they've shown. What do you think?
- mohel

Hey Mo, I would agree with this. At some point I think pride will take over for the older players. Maybe sometimes the bear must be poked, but these guys didn't forget how to play. I'm glad I'm not in charge.

If the Hawks decide to blow it up, I would trade Lehner for a big haul, and try to resign him as a FA.
- LAHawk

I said that too the other day. One of Maatta or Murphy could bring back a decent asset. Will be interesting to see if anyone takes Gus or Smith. I’m ready to move on from Keith as well. Let the kids play!

If the Hawks decide to blow it up, I would trade Lehner for a big haul, and try to resign him as a FA.
- LAHawk

You’re assuming the other team won’t resign him first. Too much of a gamble for me unless you had certain conversation prior to this happening.

I said that too the other day. One of Maatta or Murphy could bring back a decent asset. Will be interesting to see if anyone takes Gus or Smith. I’m ready to move on from Keith as well. Let the kids play!
- Assman22

Somebody will take a chance on Gus, the return just won’t be as much as if Stan had dealt him in the summer. For the right price a contender (ie Toronto) will take a chance on Gus.

I honestly think this goes further up the food chain than individual teams and their coaches and management. This goes to how Bettman and the owners run the NHL overall. They use revenue from successful teams like Chicago to finance weaker revenue producing teams, and then he wants to keep expanding which, yeah, it grows the sport, but it dilutes the talent. Haven't you noticed that there are only a few core players on each team, then there are the assorted fill ins? While not every team is in cap pergatory, many are strapped, and it's not necessarily bad decisions, but the cap is set ridiculously low for professional teams.

Then, with the raised awareness of brain trauma and other injuries, I wonder if those players who have already experienced multiple concussions simply do not want to run the risks anymore of long term effects. I think with Car Bomb in Chicago talking to players regularly about these issues does affect how some players play. Toews, Saad, and Crawford alone would give others pause to see how long the recovery takes. Geez, Crosby took years just to seem right again. Bettman does everything in his power not to admit liability, but sooner or later they are going to have to change to more protective headgear to safeguard the players futures.

The league overall seems weary and not as driven. Other teams seem to slog through the schedule, add a week or two at the beginning of the season to get rid of the six games in seven days crap. Football players need a week to recuperate, and hockey players use muscles that most athletes only dream of owning. And, our core has been squeezed dry.

Sorry for my rant, I have been storing up.


- Googlyeyes

speak your mine is always welcome and you some good points. The league did not need vegas or seattle if anything needed to get rid of 2 teams then spread that talent to other teams. The hard cap is the problem, i understand parity in the league is good for the game but teams having to constantly having to reconstruct their roster because they cannot afford players is not good. Some middle ground has to be reached in the cba talks, whether that is a luxury tax being able to reconstruct contracts a softer cap i do not know. But there are too many struggling teams financially in the nhl.

It's the Core that killed Q and it's the Core that will kill JC.
They should form a band and call themselves The Core Four Coach Killers !!!
- Hawkytalk

The four core bespoken are: Keith, Seabrook, Toews, Kane. Omitted Crawford who was out injured?

What the heck
You could come up with four core failures for Cubs and Bears too. But not necessarily coach killers

The four core bespoken are: Keith, Seabrook, Toews, Kane. Omitted Crawford who was out injured?

What the heck
You could come up with four core failures for Cubs and Bears too. But not necessarily coach killers
- jhawk59

Trubisky is absolutely killing Nagy.

Why do any of you respond to the Preds troll?

It’s not hard to just ignore him and he will go away. Sheesh!’ You are not hurting him by talking about Cups, living in s trailer or banging his sister, because he doesn’t even respond to those posts. He is a troll, doing nothing but flaming to incite the EXCACT thing some of you are doing.

I honestly think this goes further up the food chain than individual teams and their coaches and management. This goes to how Bettman and the owners run the NHL overall. They use revenue from successful teams like Chicago to finance weaker revenue producing teams, and then he wants to keep expanding which, yeah, it grows the sport, but it dilutes the talent. Haven't you noticed that there are only a few core players on each team, then there are the assorted fill ins? While not every team is in cap pergatory, many are strapped, and it's not necessarily bad decisions, but the cap is set ridiculously low for professional teams.

Then, with the raised awareness of brain trauma and other injuries, I wonder if those players who have already experienced multiple concussions simply do not want to run the risks anymore of long term effects. I think with Car Bomb in Chicago talking to players regularly about these issues does affect how some players play. Toews, Saad, and Crawford alone would give others pause to see how long the recovery takes. Geez, Crosby took years just to seem right again. Bettman does everything in his power not to admit liability, but sooner or later they are going to have to change to more protective headgear to safeguard the players futures.

The league overall seems weary and not as driven. Other teams seem to slog through the schedule, add a week or two at the beginning of the season to get rid of the six games in seven days crap. Football players need a week to recuperate, and hockey players use muscles that most athletes only dream of owning. And, our core has been squeezed dry.

Sorry for my rant, I have been storing up.


- Googlyeyes

I agree with this post, except you failed to add about expansion - the owners get a nice chunk of change when new teams are added to the league. This is why Arizona has sucked for so long (it really needs to move out of the state). So instead of moving the franchise, they will wait it out until the next idiot spends millions of dollars to get an agreement to make the SC finals the first year.

Trubisky is absolutely killing Nagy.
- gifman

Maybe not fair to put it all on one guy, but he’s killing the team. The O-Line isn’t necessarily helping and not having a legit threat at TE doesn’t either, but in year 3 Biscuit should look better not worse.

Time to draft another QB. If Pace had lived up to his word about drafting a QB every year, maybe they’d have a backup with upside vs a 30 something yo game manager.

Why do any of you respond to the Preds troll?

It’s not hard to just ignore him and he will go away. Sheesh!’ You are not hurting him by talking about Cups, living in s trailer or banging his sister, because he doesn’t even respond to those posts. He is a troll, doing nothing but flaming to incite the EXCACT thing some of you are doing.
- kwolf68

This PSA brought to you by KWolf.

He’s right. If it helps, type what you wanted to say but don’t hit submit or just think of Ogi’s troll flowchart.

This was the column posted after Jay Zawaski’s rant yesterday on the Score. I know his opinion is worthless because he never played the game at a high level, if at all, and he hasn’t experienced big boy hits that left a mark, but I don’t disagree with his suggestions on how things maybe should play out...



https://670thescore.radio...n-organization-crossroads

I honestly think this goes further up the food chain than individual teams and their coaches and management. This goes to how Bettman and the owners run the NHL overall. They use revenue from successful teams like Chicago to finance weaker revenue producing teams, and then he wants to keep expanding which, yeah, it grows the sport, but it dilutes the talent. Haven't you noticed that there are only a few core players on each team, then there are the assorted fill ins? While not every team is in cap pergatory, many are strapped, and it's not necessarily bad decisions, but the cap is set ridiculously low for professional teams.

Then, with the raised awareness of brain trauma and other injuries, I wonder if those players who have already experienced multiple concussions simply do not want to run the risks anymore of long term effects. I think with Car Bomb in Chicago talking to players regularly about these issues does affect how some players play. Toews, Saad, and Crawford alone would give others pause to see how long the recovery takes. Geez, Crosby took years just to seem right again. Bettman does everything in his power not to admit liability, but sooner or later they are going to have to change to more protective headgear to safeguard the players futures.

The league overall seems weary and not as driven. Other teams seem to slog through the schedule, add a week or two at the beginning of the season to get rid of the six games in seven days crap. Football players need a week to recuperate, and hockey players use muscles that most athletes only dream of owning. And, our core has been squeezed dry.

Sorry for my rant, I have been storing up.


- Googlyeyes

The problem with the league and the cap is that revenues haven’t grown as much as they had hoped or as rapidly as other leagues. Except for the entry fees for two expansion teams, which they don’t share with the players.

Basketball, football, baseball - they each have contracts with multiple TV networks, with staggered expiration dates so that every couple of years, they’re negotiating a new contract with one of their TV partners (or with a new one) for dramatically more money.

The NHL has one long-term contract in the US - expiring after 2021-22 I think - a 10 year contract at $200 million per year. But - that amount has been effectively frozen during those 10 years. A similar situation in Canada, I think.

The league needs to figure out how to get some competition going for national TV revenues going forward.

The problem with the league and the cap is that revenues haven’t grown as much as they had hoped or as rapidly as other leagues. Except for the entry fees for two expansion teams, which they don’t share with the players.

Basketball, football, baseball - they each have contracts with multiple TV networks, with staggered expiration dates so that every couple of years, they’re negotiating a new contract with one of their TV partners (or with a new one) for dramatically more money.

The NHL has one long-term contract in the US - expiring after 2021-22 I think - a 10 year contract at $200 million per year. But - that amount has been effectively frozen during those 10 years. A similar situation in Canada, I think.

The league needs to figure out how to get some competition going for national TV revenues going forward.
- StLBravesFan

And, especially in today's world, they are going to have to let go of the outdated notion that individual players should not be seen as or profiled as interesting individuals and promoted as "stars" of the team. The "kids" are all about the social media influencers and the guy whose shoes they saw promoted during the last game, etc. I know it is antithetical to hockey, but to a small degree, McD and Rocky have done that with members of the core, notably 1988 and it has paid dividends in increased fan interest. BHTV in the 2009-12ish was brilliant.

I look at Shaw's, Lehner's, Nylander's, and Boqvist's social media presence and savvy, Dach's day in the hot seat on Spittin' Chiclets, etc. and all of those things are going to bring in new fans and keep fans interested and engaged, especially while the team is going nowhere. They can and do interact with each other and with the fans. Toews had some interesting online stuff until (I'm assuming) PR came in and turned his account over to the robotic team who manages many players' accounts.

Yes, there is always the risk of the social media misstep, but the kids are so smart about it and the benefits far outweigh the risks for the teams and the NHL overall.

I'll stop living in the past after this (well, at least for today) - I'm just venting:

Last year we were 6-2-2 on 10-25-18 after beating the Rangers 4-1. Over the next week we lost 5 straight: 7-3 Blues, 2-1 Oilers in OT - gained a point, 4-2 Canucks, 4-0 Oilers and 5-3 Flames. We had a pretty bad week.

At 6-6-3 Q is fired. I thought the timing of the firing and decision to hire an inexperienced coach were poor decisions. Mentioned in an earlier post that Stanley had a very itchy trigger finger (presumably with Rocky's and McD's blessings).

Fast forward to today...……..I couldn't be a more apathetic fan.

Rocky, it's time.

One scenario

Hawks continue to flounder.
Crow plays about everything third game and starts playing at a near elite level again.
Colliton is given a couple more months to get the team trending in the right direction.
Colliton is fired before the TDL.
Gus, Saad, Crow (maybe others, but not the core) are traded at the TDL. Hawks pick up another 1st round pick and a 2nd round pick among other minor pieces.
Hawks tank and get their own top 4 pick in addition to the 1st round pick they acquired in trade.
I do not see Bowman losing his job under any circumstance. Rocky like Reinsdorf is loyal to GM's. Posters will say that if attendance drops dramatically Rocky or McD will have a knee jerk reaction. I don't agree.

I'll stop living in the past after this (well, at least for today) - I'm just venting:

Last year we were 6-2-2 on 10-25-18 after beating the Rangers 4-1. Over the next week we lost 5 straight: 7-3 Blues, 2-1 Oilers in OT - gained a point, 4-2 Canucks, 4-0 Oilers and 5-3 Flames. We had a pretty bad week.

At 6-6-3 Q is fired. I thought the timing of the firing and decision to hire an inexperienced coach were poor decisions. Mentioned in an earlier post that Stanley had a very itchy trigger finger (presumably with Rocky's and McD's blessings).

Fast forward to today...……..I couldn't be a more apathetic fan.

Rocky, it's time.
- 17SEC

You may appreciate the discussion in this article: https://theathletic.com/1...e-to-reassess-the-future/

I continually see people complaining about his system. I don’t think it’s the system, and I’ve heard that from a lot of hockey people I trust. Colliton is not above criticism, and he certainly hasn’t always pushed the right buttons over the past year. He’s been defensive about some of his decisions, especially his line combinations, and I don’t think people were out of line for questioning him. But he’s intelligent, understands the game and isn’t asking players to do anything extraordinary in his system. To me, it’s more about roster personnel. The results have been nearly the same under Colliton as they were Quenneville. That tells me something.

The question is how long McDonough considers an appropriate amount of time for this to play out. The message last season was everyone expected somewhat immediate results. No one backed off the goal of reaching the playoffs. That obviously didn’t happen. Expectations were placed at that same level again this season. There’s never been talk of a rebuild from within. But now their trajectory is again well off target. The playoffs aren’t impossible as of today, but they are improbable. At what point does McDonough say enough is enough? And if McDonough does get there, I expect a major overhaul. We’ve seen only coaches and players really be held accountable for the Blackhawks’ playoff misses. Coaches were fired, players were traded and the front office and hockey operations have remained intact. There are a lot of people within the organization who have been in their positions for many, many years. McDonough is a loyal person, and it’s those longtime employees he will undoubtedly have the most difficult time assessing.

You may appreciate the discussion in this article: https://theathletic.com/1...e-to-reassess-the-future/
- pdx2ord

Thanks for posting the article. Interesting read. If push comes to shove, and McD wants to replace Bowman, maybe he'll just kick him upstairs. The smart thing to do would give Stan a position with no authority and hire a new GM/VP of Hockey Ops with complete autonomy who wouldn't have to look over his shoulder to make the necessary moves to improve the team.

Minor trade between STL and DET, Fabbri for de la Rose. Fabbri, if I remember, had a promising start to his career then got injured.

You may appreciate the discussion in this article: https://theathletic.com/1...e-to-reassess-the-future/
- pdx2ord

I disagree with your point with your point. The blame for this dumpster fire falls entirely on Stans shoulders. Stan decimated this teams depth , handed out awful contracts , made trades that never panned out.


Stan traded away panarin for saad that was one of many ridiculous moves.

While we can debate coach Q being fired or not the timing along with the team stan handed coach q was disrespectful.

JC was given a opportunity that if you look at his history / resume he doesn't have the experience or strong enough credentials .

JC record hasn't been impressive in fact Chicago has regressed under JC with a better team than last year by far.

JC wants a dump and chase game played first off this team doesn't have enough speed to play that type of game and the skill level suits the players better to skate the puck in.
Last game as a example 31 dump ins only 4 retrieves?
That is a huge reason this team looks lost .

JC should be fired, along with Stan for creating this mess.