So, what now?

"We're not going to have a knee-jerk reaction," Wirtz said. "You can't let your emotions be in control." Crawford "tells me he's okay. We'll see."

Overall, "I think the team will be fine." But, "if things are off at the beginning of the year, that's a different story. . . .Nothing lasts forever."

Asked if that means changes could occur right after the holiday season if the team is doing poorly, Wirtz had a short answer: "Yes."

The Blackhawks' owner conceded that the price of not winning has started to hit his pocketbook. As my colleague Danny Ecker previously reported, team ratings are down, and Wirtz confirmed season ticket renewal rates are off, too. Last year at this time, it was 99 percent, with all but "one person who went to jail and another one who moved out of town," Wirtz quipped. This year, it's 85 percent, despite a price hike, high enough to enable the team to fill slots with people on the waiting list and high enough that all games still are sold out—but still, not 99 percent.

The future holds the possibility to be great or terrible, and since it has not yet occurred it remains simultaneously both.

The future holds the possibility to be great or terrible, and since it has not yet occurred it remains simultaneously both.

Well its not like they'll fold the franchise.

The future holds the possibility to be great or terrible, and since it has not yet occurred it remains simultaneously both.

I have MANY years of experience in trying to appreciate steaming piles of dogshit.

If Bill didn't die when he did, the franchise was gonna go into the league's receivership like the Coyotes and Expos did. It was like weeks away from what I understand.

Can you explain this a little. Does the league say you stink and we are taking your toys away or does OrganIzation determine they no longer can carry expenses...other...

The future holds the possibility to be great or terrible, and since it has not yet occurred it remains simultaneously both.

Could an owner technically throw in some say liquor business money and keep it afloat if it wanted to hold onto the franchise? Based solely on the product and the perceived organizational dysfunction I always assumed that was what was going on. I couldn't see how the franchise made any money on its own from about 2003 - 2006.

The future holds the possibility to be great or terrible, and since it has not yet occurred it remains simultaneously both.

Ticket prices are too damn high.

Same issue with the Cub. Even though they're a WS contender I'm getting marketing e-mails from the Cub saying weekend Pirates tickets are available.

A lot of words to a simple problem.

The future holds the possibility to be great or terrible, and since it has not yet occurred it remains simultaneously both.

I don't know how the Blackhawks can make the live experience better, but they have to. It's a dreadful atmosphere.

How much more can you change a live hockey game?

I have MANY years of experience in trying to appreciate steaming piles of dogshit.

Octopus, lots of octopi

Many that is true, but an incomplete statement.

I dunno I had a blast last game I went to. Everyone was going nuts. It was fun.

The future holds the possibility to be great or terrible, and since it has not yet occurred it remains simultaneously both.

The future holds the possibility to be great or terrible, and since it has not yet occurred it remains simultaneously both.

The future holds the possibility to be great or terrible, and since it has not yet occurred it remains simultaneously both.

Were the Hawks trailing at any point? Because they trailed for about 48 minutes of the game I was at and you could practically hear the drink orders from the club seats across the ice. Nothing but grim resignation. I'll never forget the silence eventually being broken by a man yelling "YOU SUCK, ROZSIVAL!"

Many that is true, but an incomplete statement.

This was 2015. Seabrook was still useful.

Also in that article, Rocky said that giving Toews, Kane, and Keith so much money was the right thing to do at the time, "but now they have to earn it." Damn, dude. Kane and half of Keith were some serious collateral damage on blowing up Toews like that.

What could they have done though? Those contracts killed us in some ways but that's what the market was. Hossa contract is hurting them too. They won 3 and really should have won 4 (2014).

Almost all NHL teams act as loss leaders this way. You get the master lease to an arena and make the real money on concerts, touring shows, parking, and concessions. (This was the undoing of the Atlanta Thrashers: the Hawks didn't need the hockey team to keep the lease, so they got rid of them. On the other hand, the Florida Panthers' ownership can't control the arena without owning the team, so they stay.) In the case of the Dark Ages Blackhawks, they had their 50% of the United Center, but were moving money from Judge & Dolph to the Blackhawks to keep them afloat and had gotten tired of loaning to themselves with no foreseeable end in sight.

I don't like white rappers.

The future holds the possibility to be great or terrible, and since it has not yet occurred it remains simultaneously both.

Yep, all of this.

The future holds the possibility to be great or terrible, and since it has not yet occurred it remains simultaneously both.