The Chicago Blackhawks made the surprise decision to fire Joel Quenneville on Tuesday. He was the longest-tenured coach in the NHL in his 11th season and won three Stanley Cups with the Hawks. With 890 wins, Quenneville is second on the all-time list next to only Scotty Bowman’s 1,244.
“I have a lot of respect for Stan Bowman, he’s a real sharp guy,” Brian Burke said on Sportsnet 590 The Fan’s Starting Lineup Wednesday. “I could see it coming where, OK, you’ve won your Cup, you’ve signed your guys, you’ve got major cap problems since you’ve won your Cup, everyone does … this is not Stan Bowman being a bad guy. This is a Hall of Fame coach, but it might be time for a change. I have no problem with that.
“I don’t agree with it myself, I think Joel Quenneville is an amazing guy and a great coach. He’ll be out of work about 72 hours if he wants to work again right away.
“If he wants to work tomorrow he will have a job offer by tomorrow.”
Despite all Quenneville’s success in Chicago, this firing seemed a long time coming. There were ripples of a disconnect between GM and coach even before the team won its second Stanley Cup in 2013. As Elliotte Friedman noted in 31 Thoughts on Tuesday, there were various occurrences over the years where this showed: the firing of assistant Mike Kitchen, the trading of Niklas Hjalmarsson and Artemi Panarin, and putting Barry Smith on the ice for practice seven years ago.
With all of their success over the years and because of how much the players enjoyed having Quenneville as coach, it never made sense to let him go. The team could have done it at the end of last season after Chicago finished last in the Central Division, but with a fully healthy lineup and a .500 record through the first month of 2018-19, the timing was finally right.
“I always felt that if you’re going to fire the coach you have to be able to say to the coach, ‘I’m firing you because I’ve given you enough players to win, I believe this is a playoff team, we’re not in a playoff position and it’s your fault,'” said Burke, who also noted he never once fired a coach he hired.
“I don’t think there’s enough patience in our game with coaches. I don’t think there’s enough patience in our game with GM. I think it’s a joke. And the teams that are successful have patience and have stability.”
Last season was an unusual one for coach firings in that there wasn’t one until Alain Vigneault was dismissed after the New York Rangers’ last game of the season. With Los Angeles’ John Stevens and Chicago’s Quenneville already dismissed this season, we’re clearly on a much different path. There are a number of other bench bosses still on the hot seat, too.
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The fact Quenneville is now available for hire will make any GM think long and hard about going in a different direction, but interestingly Burke suggested there is another currently employed head coach who would get another job offer immediately after being let go.
“I had heard one team was waiting for a coach to be fired because they wanted to hire him and it wasn’t Quenneville, so I don’t think we’re done with coaching changes yet.”
Whatever happens, Quenneville is quite obviously the best available hire. He has multiple championships and has a solid reputation among players – in a player poll conducted just last season, Quenneville was who players most wanted to play for.
“This guy won three Cups,” Burke said. “This is a guy who won in St. Louis with less talent. He’s a great coach. He’s a Hall of Fame coach. First-ballot Hall of Fame coach. He’s going to walk into the Hall of Fame, his shoulders aren’t going to touch the door frames.”
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