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End of an Era - Blackhawks Fire Coach Joel Quenneville, Rest of Coaching Staff



CHICAGO, IL -- Well.

 This has put me in a terrible mood.

Let me start by saying that as soon as the Los Angeles Kings fired their coach just a few days ago, I worried this would happen. I worried a lot, actually, even though most reporters and writers were looking to the St. Louis Blues or Detroit Red Wings to toss their coaches to the curb.

 For once, my overthinking proved me right. See you all in therapy.

 In all seriousness, this is a joke (wow, what an oxymoron). I was going to try and be professional about this, but I can't. If Hawks GM Stan Bowman thinks this is going to magically fix everything wrong about this team, he's sorely mistaken.

 This team has been doomed for the past few years, and every little misstep leads back to the front office. Trading away key players like Niklas Hjalmarsson, Bryan Bickell, Andrew Shaw, Artemi Panarin, Ryan Hartman, Vinnie Hinostroza, Teuvo Teravainen, and Trevor van Reimsdyk, and signing basically useless players like Brandon Manning, Chris Kunitz and Cam Ward (he's the exception, but only conditionally) is ridiculous and frankly unacceptable.

 On top of that, he traded away and then decided to bring back (mostly unsuccessfully) Patrick Sharp, Johnny Oduya, and Brandon Saad, Andrew Ladd--guys who probably should have never been dealt in the first place.

 I'm honestly surprised he still has his job.

 Oh, yeah, by the way--it wasn'yt just Coach Q that got the boot--assistant coaches Kevin Dineen and Ulf Samuelsson were relieved of their positions as well, leaving just Don Granato and Jimmy Waite left to pick up the pieces with a new coach.

 And, boy, it'll be interesting to see where this season goes with new coach Jeremy Colliton stepping in with assistant coach Barry Smith. You'll recognize Colliton's name--he was the head coach down with the Rockford Ice Hogs last season, and led them to the Calder Cup playoffs last year. Colliton is only 33 years old, making him the youngest coach in the NHL right now--that both excites and worries me.

 He only has two years of professional coaching under his belt, which might be a little unsettling, but I'm going to try and give him a chance. He did play with Brent Seabrook for Team Canada in World Juniors, which is an interesting connection, and he did play with the New York Islanders until he retired officially in 2014.

 I'm not thrilled, but I'm not ready to write him off. Just as when Q stepped in ten years ago for Denis Savard, this was not Colliton's fault, and I do think we as fans owe him a chance.

 So, at the end of the day, where do I stand with all of this?

 I do think it was a hard decision to make on the front office's end--and certainly not a rash decision. This was something that had been brewing for a while, I just thought they'd let the season play out first. That doesn't mean it was the right decision.

 Obviously, there are pros and cons here, but I really do think that the pros of Coach Q outweighed the cons. Sure, he was tough on younger players, and he had a rigid system that excluded many players, and he had a penchant for putting players that didn't fit his system into the dog house.

 But, he also led this organization, this team, to three Stanley Cups. The Blackhawks were virtually unstoppable from the 2009-10 season all the way through the 2015-16 season. The past two or three years have seen a decline, but I'd still venture to say that the 2016-17 season Hawks were contenders--they just didn't show it in the playoffs.

 I've seen #ThankYouQ trending on Twitter all morning, and it should be. He has done so much for this organization, and this was a--pardon my French--very, very shitty way for the front office to handle this situation.

 I also unfortunately think it makes room for a lot more change, and really sets the tone for the rest of the season. If there's one thing we've learned about this team, no one is safe from being thrown to the wolves.

 I think you all can gather who I think should be next.

 There's a big storm coming, fellas. You can either choose to weather whatever comes our way with me, or you can drop off.

 I'll ask this again: are you in?
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