The End of an Era

The Chicago Blackhawks relieved Coach Joel Quenneville of his duties last week and replaced the three-time Stanley Cup Champion coach with Jeremy Colliton, one of the youngest head coaches in the NHL. This marks the end of an era for the Blackhawks as Coach Q, the man who helped bring Lord Stanley back to Chicago three times in the last eight years, will be searching for a new home and the Blackhawks look to revive their once championship caliber team.

Last year was a pretty rocky season and this year hasn’t started off much better. Currently experiencing a losing streak, the Hawks are under new management on the ice and Coach Colliton is aiming to bring life back to a team that carries multiple Stanley Cup winning players who haven’t really been present on the ice. However, in my opinion, this move is similar to that in a game where one team has no offense and lacks a defense pulls their goalie in an attempt to fix the problem but the real problem may not lie with the goalie but with the rest of the skaters on the ice. If you lack the tenacity and passion on the ice, making a gut-wrenching change may not have a positive impact on the players, but more likely a negative one.

Patrick Kane in his emotional words about Coach Q’s departure said, “Could have played better and then maybe something like this doesn’t happen. Just thoughts running through your head.” Jonathan Toews mentioned that Coach Q will always be an icon to Chicago as he brought the team and the city so much success in his tenure with the Hawks.

As a Chicago Blackhawks fan, I’m very sad to see Quenneville go and can only hope that Colliton turns this team around and leads them to a successful season. I don’t want to see Colliton fail just in spite of the firing of Coach Q and I don’t want to see Coach Q fail somewhere else. I hope for both of their sakes they are successful. After something this devastating to the team and the city, I hope the team can turn their season around and put on a show that Chicago fans love to see. Coach Q, we’re going to miss you. You’ve done more for this city than you can imagine. I wish you the best. Coach Colliton, I hope you can lead us to success and live up to the Chicago Blackhawks standard.