Come To Think Of It...Chicago Blackhawks' Firing Of Denis Savard Bad Timing

The Chicago Blackhawks fired their coach, Denis Savard, today after only four games.

What?!

The coach they hired to replace Savvy is Joel Quenneville—certainly a veteran coach, but one without any ties to Chicago.

Based on last year's success, and the team's marketing efforts—and yes, the death of old man Wirtz, let's be honest—things seemed to be looking up for the Hawks.

And part of their marketing emphasis was on bringing back the old stars—Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita, Tony Esposito. It was perfect—or so I thought—that they had a former star as their head coach.

Denis Savard was a well-liked offensive star for the Blackhawks before fans started to lose interest. The fact that he had to go to Montreal to earn his Stanley Cup was a shame.

Somehow, this latest bit of news just doesn't seem to mesh with the plan, Stan.  I mean, that a team trying to rebuild its fanbase with famous names from the past while establishing a core team full of recognizable players would throw away their most-recognizable name makes me scratch my head.

Or maybe that's just dandruff.

Granted, I understand that Savard had a won-loss record of 65-66-16 in parts of three seasons. And it's true his team started slowly this season.

But he inherited a bad team when he first took the reins three years ago. He improved the team to 40-34-8 last season, although they still missed the playoffs.

Hell, compared to their previous performances, the Hawks shouldn't fire Savard—they should build a statue of him.

Despite how well Savard seemed to take the news, I don't like the way this situation was handled. This could have been done during the offseason.

For his part, Savard said he understood that his team needed to get off to a fast start this year.

"I knew I had to do well this year. We talked this summer and I was aware of that," Savard said.

Yes—but how much of the blame should be directed at Savard? Certainly the team he originally inherited was lacking in difference makers, so he really can't be fairly judged for much of his tenure. And the brightest talent is still very young, led by sophomore stars Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane.

In fact, at what point does someone look at the GM, Dale Tallon? He's responsible for assembling the talent. And Rocky Wirtz allowed him the opportunity to spend money in the free agent market.

Quenneville, according to Tallon, "brings us a wealth of experience and a winning track record that will have an immediate and lasting impact."

Tallon had better hope so.

Ownership should be looking closely at Tallon if the Hawks don't quickly turn this around. Clearly Savard was not his choice all along, with Bill Wirtz and Bob Pulford sticking their noses in the decision. But why wait until four games in the season to fire him?

Like a drummer out of rhythm, the timing is off.

I'll bet that as soon as the old man died, Tallon knew he was going to replace Savard as coach. Perhaps the last straw was that Savvy didn't want to start expensive free agent bust Nikolai Khabibulin in goal?

Ah, but the beat goes on.

"They promised to bring a Stanley Cup here, and they felt maybe I wasn't their guy. It's very well understood," said Savard.

Look, what is very well understood is that Tallon should be on a short leash now, come to think of it. Hold him just as accountable as the coach.