Skip to main content

Blackhawks Fire Assistant Coach Mike Kitchen


CHICAGO, IL -- GM Stan Bowman is keeping to his word about making changes, I guess.

This may seem like a surprise to a lot of fans, but honestly, I can't say I'm overly surprised. Kitchen was mostly responsible for the power play and penalty-killing units. It's not an exaggeration to suggest that both units were more than disappointing this season--especially when it really mattered and they needed to be strong.

But, Kitchen was a good assistant coach. He saw the last two Stanley Cups with the Blackhawks, starting after the 2009-2010 season with the Hawks. Up until this year, the penalty killing and power play has been stellar--but, obviously something changed.

Still, I'm not sure anyone expected Bowman to make changes this quickly, or in this fashion. I think this likely sets the stage for what to expect this summer, which could be shocking to some fans this summer.

I'm not even entirely sure who is safe on the roster or coaching staff (except Coach Q, who Bowman said is going nowhere).

This is just the tip of the iceberg, friends. Hang on.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Checking In - Breaking Down the Blackhawks' Play Over a Month

CHICAGO, IL — I’m going to be absolutely real with you—I had no idea what to write about for the blog this week. I’ve written about the Blackhawks being good, bad, and everything in between, I’ve written about Patrick Kane a couple times now (#Kane4Hart), and I’ve even written about the best goal celebrations from the Hawks this season. The idea tank is running dry, my friends. So, I thought we could throw it back to a post I made a while back about what the Hawks really needed to do to make the playoffs, and grade them on how well they're meeting all three of those items a couple of weeks later. Let's just get right on into it, shall we? 1) With 27 games left, you have to go 18-9 to get to the 88-90-point range that would potentially get them into the playoffs. So, the Hawks currently sit at 71 points through 70 games, and since the date of this article (February 8th), the Hawks have gone 9-6, which is not terrible, but also only gives them a b...

Tic-Tac-Toews--Hawks Score Yet another W

CHICAGO, IL -- This may well have been a playoff game between the Blackhawks and the Blues with the amount of tension that surmounted. And, by some miracle (named Artem Anisimov), the Blackhawks came away with two points, poising them just one point behind Minnesota in the standings. Even better? Minnesota is on their bye week, which means the Hawks can easily catch them. But, we're here to talk about that incredible game, aren't we? Because, wow. The Hawks honestly haven't looked this good and consistent in a long, long time. That first period was proof enough that they're just getting started. They played down in the Blues' end a lot in the first period, which I think Coach Q knew they needed to do in order to be successful against this team. And, it paid off, because Nick Schmaltz was able to use his silky-smooth gloves to slide the puck through a Blues player's legs, right to Jonathan Toews, over Jake Allen and into the net. Unbelievable. Speak...

Measuring the Blackhawks Rookies and Newbies

CHICAGO, IL -- I know I did a quick measure of the entire Blackhawks roster back in February, but I thought since the season is likely coming to a close (save for a miracle), it might be nice to get an idea of where the newbies and rookies to the Hawks roster are. For this article, I did create some guidelines, like I did with the mid-season report cards (end of season report cards are coming soon, by the way!). This isn't really going to be a report card, but more of just my general thoughts on how the player is doing in his first season with the Hawks--I'll give a more specific/"graded" report in the post-season report cards article. The basic guidelines are as follows: Must be currently on the Hawks roster (not in Rockford) Must have played less than 82 NHL games OR less than 82 games with the Blackhawks (all stats will be just for this season to make things easy) Must be their first full year playing with the Blackhawks With that out of...