Chicago Blackhawks' Pres. John McDonough Shows True Colors

When one of the National Hockey League's Original Six franchises makes a bold move, like naming just the ninth General Manager in the history of the organization, one would think the press conference would be a coronation of the new face in town.

On Tuesday, when the Chicago Blackhawks introduced Stan Bowman as their new leader, it was President John McDonough that was the focus.

And rightfully so.

In what has been a curious couple weeks in Chicago, what was perhaps the most intriguing storyline in professional sports has taken an awkward turn to the sublime.

The team was staring down the barrel of a number of free agent decisions that could impact the next two decades of the team's future, starting with whether or not they should retain the face of the team's offense for the last four years, Martin Havlat.

But, on the first day of free agency, it wasn't Havlat putting the pen to paper, but the biggest name in the free agent market, Marian Hossa. And it wasn't a cheap deal, either; the 12-year deal raised eyebrows to say the least.

Then came what has been described as at the very least a fiasco, with the organization failing to contact their restricted free agents in an appropriate time frame. This led to an NHL investigation and, eventually, a grievance was filed by the NHLPA.

In an effort to avoid further embarrassment, the team re-signed the two key players on that list, Cam Barker and Kris Versteeg, to contracts that many onlookers considered too rich for their experience.

After two weeks of ridiculous ups and downs, the team made another strong statement.

They fired General Manager Dale Tallon.

The roster that made the run in 2008-09, indeed the roster that has improved by at least 15 points in the standings in each of the past two seasons, was put together by Tallon. He drafted, traded for, and signed as free agents the great, young roster.

But the organization decided to go a different direction.

There were a lot of questions raised by this move.

Why make the change after the beginning of free agency?

Did the poor handling of the free agents last week play a role?

Did overpaying for Brian Campbell and Cristobal Huet have a part in the decision?

Was it a personal move by McDonough?

In the press conference Tuesday, the Chicago media approached all of these subjects in their field of questions for Bowman and McDonough. And, despite Bowman being the news, it was McDonough that did most of the talking.

There were a few awkward moments, and many telling answers provided. But what became overwhelmingly clear was that this was a move made by a change addict, that is, a marketing guy looking to craft a product as much as win hockey games.

McDonough has been very open with his reasons for hiring Stan Bowman's legendary father, Scotty, last summer—he knows nothing about hockey, and needed a tutor. This leads to even more doubt about a man making a change like this, at the time that he did, for this organization.

But, as McDonough reminded everyone at every opportunity, he didn't promote Scotty Bowman to General Manager; it's his son, Stan, that's got the job now.

What became abundantly clear during the press conference was that McDonough and Tallon aren't best friends. In fact, on a number of occasions, one would have thought McDonough lacked the respect for Tallon that the Blackhawks' fans think Tallon has earned.

A couple of poignant questions were asked of McDonough, and, to his credit, he answered them all fairly. He openly admitted that it is he McDonough, not Rocky Wirtz or Scotty or, now, Stan Bowman, or formerly Dale Tallon that pulls the strings at the United Center.

McDonough makes the decisions now.

Furthermore, he admitted that he is trying to manipulate the front office to reflect his personal leadership style; no matter what Tallon's track record, McDonough didn't like his style so he was out.

Perhaps more intriguing was McDonough's response to a direct question regarding the impact of the free agent mess-up on this decision. When asked if, had the free agent situation not been screwed up, would this move have not taken place, McDonough admitted that indeed it would not, have had that issue been avoided.

The straw that broke the camel's back was FedEx being a day (or week) late.

What's odd about that is, if you look at the job descriptions of the positions in the Blackhawks front office and honestly believe them, and listened to the press conference entirely, you can tell that it wasn't Tallon's personal fault for the error.

In fact, abiding the job descriptions would lead one to believe that it was Stan Bowman, not Tallon, that should have been responsible for the letters getting out on time.

But Bowman does things in the way McDonough wants them to be done, so it's Tallon that's now a "Special Assistant" or whatever they're calling his golden parachute.

When I broke the news on Bleacher Report early this morning that Tallon had been relieved of his duties, I thought I understood why the move was being made. The Bowmans have a great track record of handling the salary cap, and they were making a move to experience.

Just like the Hawks did in replacing another team and fan favorite, Hall of Famer Denis Savard, just four games into last season with Joel Quenneville, they were now making a move to put the right experience in place for the future.

But the press conference conducted Tuesday afternoon led me to believe that this had very little to do with the move.

McDonough needed to make a change because he doesn't like Tallon, and wants "his guy" in the position of General Manager moving forward.

This is a dangerous slope for any front office to face, but especially one in a situation like the Blackhawks are now. To have a hand-selected group of people in place that "agree" on almost everything, there isn't the checks and balances any business needs to succeed.

So now the unenviable task of Stan Bowman is to try his best to continue the job Tallon had started in the shadow of a marketing man who wants to sell, sell, sell.

Tuesday's press conference did as much to cement the legacy of Tallon as it did to tarnish McDonough's street cred with the fans, and made the hill Stan Bowman now has to climb look twice as steep.