Correct. You can't fire the players and the coach has not done a very good job with what he has.

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Lay off that whiskey and let that cocaine be.

The only issue with Quenneville has been how he's dressed and scratched his defensemen, and even that isn't beyond the pale because Connor Murphy did have games where he didn't deserve to keep dressing. It's not Quenneville's fault Seabrook is a fat piece of shit, or Toews is a pot-addled slug who is quietly leading this team in penalty minutes (the penalty he took early in the game is what sent the Isles off to the races), or that apparently Saad underwent some horrible mental trauma in Columbus and came back here unable to play hockey, or that even Duncan Keith is falling apart. You can't fire a Hall of Fame coach midseason, and if you did, FOR WHOM? Dineen and Samuelsson are Q's guys, so they'd be gone too; you really think Don Granato is the solution?

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Nothing symbolic about it. Again, this team still has enough talent to make the playoffs. Is Q's style still working with this team? Do they need a fresh voice? I will again point to Boston - Claude Julian coached them to a SC in 2011, and got them back to the Final in 2013. He was canned last season when the Broons went into the tank (with the same key players). The Broons are now back in contention (with the same key players), while the Canadiens are languishing under .500 with Julien after a first-round out in last season's playoffs (even the invincible Carey Price can't save them).

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Not a mult.

If this is on anybody, it's the last kick in the ass from Dollar Bill.

Rocky wanted to prove to the fan base that he wouldn't alienate or trade the star players the way Dollar Bill did from Hull all the way through to guys like Roenick (BTW, fuck Alex Zhamnov). So he bet on the Canadian dollar staying at least at US$0.93, extended all the stars, and allowed the mistake of full no-movement clauses for the entire contract length.

The Hawks are multiple champions in large part because they drafted extremely well from 2000 to 2007. That came after about 15 years of absolute crap drafting after Eddie O, with Roenick being the only star pick in that entire time, although I guess McAmmand had a good career just not in Chicago. Unless Ivan Dropppa does it for you.

Their drafts from 2008-2012 have produced more role players like Andrew Shaw, with the exception of Saad they are guys who are not part of the top 6 forwards or top 3 defensemen. Serious free agency is off limits to them for the next 3-4 years, so the only way this team competes is by hoping the 2015-2017 drafts pan out in terms of top 6 forwards, and they can draft well in 2018-2019 with guys who can make an immediate impact. Otherwise, they are toast and it doesn't matter who the coach is going to be.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

You absolutely can fire a HOF coach midseason. Personally, I have always thought Q was a little overrated. He was an above average coach before he came to Chicago and then won Cups because of a young core of HOF players. At times, they have won in spite of Q.

Who replaces him? I don't know. I don't think any any fan has anything more than a guess for who should be the next coach but Bowman should have a list. I don't necessarily think it is the solution but it might have a 1 in 4 chance of working. The chance of them making the playoffs while keeping things status quo is much less than that.

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Lay off that whiskey and let that cocaine be.

You can if you're an embarrassment of a franchise like the Blues. We're not an embarrassment of a franchise like the Blues. Quenneville is probably the third-best coach of all time behind Scotty Bowman and Al Arbour (all three guys fired by the Blues, lol) and for that and his three championships in six years with this team, deserves better than getting sent home in the middle of the year in the quixotic hope that Jeremy Colliton or Don Granato will make Anton Forsberg or Jeff Glass belong in the NHL. Even Darryl Sutter got to finish out the year. To fire Q like this would make the Hawks look like a bunch of stupid assholes in a way that would not have positive ramifications going forward.


well ok, Imaginary Wonder-Coach it is! He'll be the one to keep the lines stable, play the kids, and babble to beat reporters!

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I already said that if Crawford is out for the season you might as keep Q since the season is lost. And I disagree with all your "embarrassment" and "stupid asshole" talk too.

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Lay off that whiskey and let that cocaine be.

I disagree with CH a lot, but in these discussions about Q he is dead on correct.

He has a aging roster combined with kids and his goalie is out. This is not his fault and you are not finding anyone better right now.

Funny how people now come out to say he is overrated. He helped lead a franchise that had been trash to 3 cups and is one of the best coaches of all time in the entire NHL. Overrated indeed!

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Maybe it's not anybody's fault and this was never meant to be a championship team, kind of like the 2011.

And what can't be understated is that no one -- except maybe denisdman? -- could have predicted a 75-cent Canadian dollar and the havoc that would wreak on teams' budgets. ~20-25% of the TV contract disappearing into thin air will fuck you up.

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I say he is overrated when people say he is the 3rd best coach of all-time and NHL.com ranks him as the 2nd-best coach in the NHL. He has been a good to very good coach that led a great core of players to 3 Cups. Add in his longevity stats and he has had a great career and is a HOF coach. But with all that said, I still feel his life span is no more than 10 years with a team. He's not Belichek, Walsh, or Gibbs. He might be a Landry or Noll though.

And replacing him is not saying it is all his fault. You replace him because it is the last thing you can try. A lot of teams have gone on 20-game hot streaks when a new coach comes in. If things stay the same and Crawford comes back in a month it will be too late. Yes, the pundits on TSN and the NHL channel will criticize the move but who cares what they say?

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Lay off that whiskey and let that cocaine be.

Well, Forsling got booted back to Rockford, so they're trying that first before firing a legendary coach in January like an asshole.

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“like an asshole” I can’t help but sing that a la “like a virgin”

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Lay off that whiskey and let that cocaine be.

I thought he had been playing well, just not as well as Oesterle. Is this just a logjam because they can't really make 7 a healthy scratch every game without pissing off the veterans?

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

If you want to fire in that scenario, then Stan Bowman is the guy who needs to go.

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Forsling has been a gongshow in his own end. Q was going for a trial by fire by having him start in there and kill penalties, but he wasn't rising to the occasion. He's gotta work on it on the farm.

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I just think we are at the end of the window. Realistically this window was only going to last as long as Keith and Seabs were legit 1-2 Dmen and that time has passed. You simply cannot expect to draft and develop guys who will be 2009-2015 Keith and Seabs.

It was a good run, they doubled the total number of Cups the franchise had in its 90 year history. Yes we may be greedy and want that 4th Cup, but if I told you at the draft in June 2007 that the Hawks would win 3 Cups in the next 8 years, and then find themselves with an aging roster and in cap hell, would you be that upset about that?

Kane and Toews were billed as the next Hull/Mikita duo. I'd say that they already surpassed that. In the end Hull and Mikita only managed to win 1 Cup in an area with 6-12 teams. The rest of their attempts were ended by Beliveau and an unreal Canadiens squad. If this is the end of the dynasty, then honestly I can't be upset. It's very hard to win 1 Cup in this league let alone multiple Cups within such a short period.

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

But that doesn't do anything to change this year's team. You fire Q to try to spark the team. I think Q is gone after this year anyways.

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Lay off that whiskey and let that cocaine be.

Agreed. The Cup window closed as soon as the 1988 contracts kicked in and Toews stopped being a top 10 player in the league. You would have hoped they could have stayed competitive a few more seasons with a couple more playoff series win. It is Seabrook's contract that caused all of this. I know it is revisionists history but what if the Hawks had traded Seabrook instead of Saad? You still have Panarin and not a 6.8 M 3rd pairing dman. WWBD?

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Lay off that whiskey and let that cocaine be.

Sounds like hockey Ryan Pace.

No, Stan has done some great things to keep the dynasty going.

But the Seabrooke contract more than anything else is not one of them.

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keep in mind when it comes to seabrook...id bet money that Bowman was trying to avoid another Hjalmarsson/Sharks/Niemi offer sheet nightmare scenario

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'Your AT&T Universal Card has arrived'? Oh God, Kick-fucking-ass, I got a Master Card! I don't believe it, man. Life is kinda cool sometimes.

Another loss, 2-0 Lightning

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Sherman remarked, "Well, Grant, we've had the devil's own day, haven't we?" Grant looked up. "Yes," he replied, followed by a puff. "Yes. Lick 'em tomorrow, though."