I Am Considering Apologizing To Stan Bowman
Just kidding, I’m not going to apologize. He’s responsible for his role in this mess. He should be fired, but maybe Stan Bowman should get less blame than I previously thought. I’ve been hard on the Blackhawks front office this year. Namely Stan and John. Mostly Stan. I’ve been hyper-critical of his moves. I’ve made a tshirt depicting him as a clown face that many of you have purchased and I then re-furnished my living room. It’s worked out for everyone.
More recently I’ve turned my sights on John McDonough. The figure head of the franchise. The guy who LOVES taking credit for the resurection of the Hawks. The guy with the most carefully cultivated image. The guy who licks frosting off of cupcakes and puts them back on the dessert tray with the rest of them…allegedly.
I don’t know why, but I’ve always felt a slight tinge of guilt when going after John(and honestly, Stan too. I don’t like being mean to people), and I said as much yesterday.
He’s an old man. He did put the home games on TV and deserved some credit. I was going to sit on some of the more salacious rumors until I got a DM and a text last night from someone I trust who used to be in the organization
Uhhh no it doesn’t help the process. It makes my fucking head explode. I couldn’t let that sit. Or even be a DM. Moved to text for serious business.
Now look it… Stan did this shit. He executed the trade. He got a poor return. HOWEVER…it could be that he was just trying to appease his boss who insists on meddling in Hockey Ops and is a complete MEATBALL who probably thought Panarin was too soft for playoff hockey after one bad series against Nashville…in which the entire team got BOAT RACED by the team who went on to win the Western Conference. I think that is a relatable position. An idiot boss who you need to appease. Panarin was a good player against STL the year before and was CBJ’s BEST player in the playoffs last year. 15 points in 17 games in the playoffs for his career…NOT GOOD ENOUGH!!! Jesus Christ. I don’t even know what to make of this. I bounced it off other people who used to work for the Hawks in one capacity or another and they all kinda of said the same thing “Ehh…it’s still on Stan, but yeah that makes sense. I can see it”.
So no, I don’t have definitive proof. This was a story from a guy from another guy who probably heard it from someone else. Those guys are all high level NHL employees who would, in theory, know, but still. It’s plausible. John pushed the idea. Stan executed it. And the Hawks have never been the same.
The organization is a complete mess. There’s plenty of people to blame, but ultimately it needs to start and end with John McDonough. The organization can’t move forward if he’s meddling in Hockey Ops and is able to bully Stan into moves that don’t make a lick of sense. It’s time to clean house, bring in real hockey people to run the organization, and let new blood run the business side. And it needs to happen NOW before management completely wastes the dwindling prime years of Toews and Kane. And maybe this is why Stan hasn’t been fired by John. John has a guilty conscience. He knows that he pushed this idea on Stan. The Blackhawks acted irrationally and banged tables and blew up a good thing when they didn’t have to. That is shameful. And fireable. Fire them both.