Blackhawks Fire Yawney

BruceM · Post by **BruceM** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 4:48 pm

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=186158&hubname=

Can't say I didn't see this one coming but it's a shame in a way. They got off to a decent start and looked to be a .500 team this year. Then the bottom fell out, Handzus, Havlat, & Khabibulin all went down and so did the team.

Good luck Denis Savard but I don't think there will be much of a turn around for a while. They need Havlat and Handzus and only Havlat will be back this season.

flea · Post by **flea** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 5:28 pm

Well, I dont know if this is a fair one because the Bhawks were playing real good before their top men went down with injuries.

I also havent enough knowledge of the Bhawks to be fair in this matter, so I really would like to see what Minty thinks about it, as I think he know them the best of all of us here.

The Blackhawks are probably the most unlucky team in the NHL in the last years, not??

Anyway, good luck to Savard.

Post by **batdad** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 6:01 pm

Good god, this organization is stupid. Minty I am sure you will agree. No one playing for that team is healthy, they have a great coach who has worked hard to make a bad situation good, and stick the coach with players like Cullislugbait because they are so inept. Yawney must have widdled off Pulford or Wirtz by telling them they are idiots or something. No way he should be gone. Hawks are morons.

That being said...maybe Denis will get the whole team smoking between periods and they will cough their way to victory. Go Savard. Best of luck to him. And the good part...the man does not have a defensive bone in his body. Get ready for alot of 8-6 losses Minty. heh. Probably not, but one can hope.

Post by **Minstrel** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 6:24 pm

*sigh*

This right here is total Kasparaitis

The team had gone from one mismatched coach to the other with 6 coaches in 5 seasons before this and Yawney has earned this job. He's an excellent coach who many players attribute their being the players they became directly to him. He has years of experience with the team and it's young players which apparently they've now abandoned... again... with half the team hurt did they expect them to get out and run and gun and get blown out 8-4 every night just so they could say they were scoring??

They were playing the way they had to give themselves a shot. The wins weren't coming but the team was giving it's all and playing hard all up and down the roster, but when you are playing three and four guys a night who are just up from the AHL against powerhouses like Dallas you're just overmatched. That's not bad coaching. That's guys believing int he system of a coach who has a proven track record with young players and that is what this team is made up of now and will have to be made up of even more in the future if they are going to be successful. This year didn't matter fer crissakes... it's a building process and you had the right guy behind the bench for it now you're, as they say, throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

You say you want a "more offensive" team?!?! Well then how about having a single player on the team that has scored over 30 goals in the NHL before? Oh wait... Havlat is the only one and is still hurt. Where exactly was this offense supposed to come from?? From teaming up chronically frail Tuomo Ruutu with career 3rd/4th liner Brian Smolinki and a career AHLer in Jeff Hamilton? Because that is what the team's "Scoring Line" has been for the past month and before Ruutu returned from his latest injury it was Rene freakin' Bourque in his place Rene Bourque/Brian Smolinski/Jeff Hamilton. That's your #1 line!! So don't shoot the artist for not creating a freakin masterpiece like Van Gogh when given fingerpaints to make it with. That this team has played hard and not been thoroughly embarrassed and even scratched out some victories agains the likes of Anaheim is actually darn impressive I think.

Firing Yawney now is just a joke and horribly, horribly short sighted and it's a double blunder because every darn one of us knew that Savard would be the next "Loyal member of the Blackhawk Familyâ„¢" to be called upon to fall on his sword.

The problem is that he is a terrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrible coach. I love and respect him dearly as a player but he's proven to be a nothing as a coach. He was in charge of the "powerplay" under Sutter and they were the worst PP in the league by a longshot for two full seasons and this was when they had far more firepower. So they keep him until mid next year about this time when they say that he couldn't get enough out of the young players and his offensive system was careless defensively. They still refuse to hire an experienced coach (handing jobs one after another to former players from the team does not = "experience") so again this leaves the team with three coaches in two years come mid next year when who knows will be the next "hired to be scapegoated" coach after Savvy, but it will probably be whatever former Hawk player they bring in to be the new assistant coach because again, why have coaches with experience as coaches when we have Loyal Members of the Blackhawk Family that can fill that role?

Don't forget we have former Hawk Eddie Olczech doing color commentary and the man who is GM now was the last person to fill that slot. Dale Tallon? Also a Loyal Member of the Blackhawk Familyâ„¢ and when they yanked him from working the broadcast ya know who filled in?? You won't freakin' believe this one... they brought in a defenseman that was out of the lineup because of elbow surgery! He'd never spoken into a mic before in his life but here he is doing color commentary for the Hawks broadcast. I'm sure Wirtz was like "Wait... what's this?!?! A player is on IR with a shoulder injury and the announcers job is open? Great, we're already paying him have him do it!" Later on Jocelyn Thibault also did a few games for the same reason. This is how things are done around here.

Back to Blackhwaks Business as Usual. This entire organization is a joke and this move clearly shows that they don't have the balls to ride out a real rebuilding, which they have the tools to do, but instead will continue to hire and fire coaches and GMs and try to win now while rebuilding.

You stupid clueless silly billies. Now I'm sure that they'll deal one of Seabrook/Keith/Barker to get a center to play with Havlat, which is completely pointless because you're not goign to win this year anyways!!! So awesome we deal a guy who could become a true #1 defenseman for a first line center for half a year because said veteran will certainly be in the last yer of his deal (or his team wouldn't deal him) and the Hawks will let him walk. Why? Because they'll have Handzus next year. So gut the franchise for the outside hope that the team might somehow sneak into the 8th seed and bring Dollar Bill Wirtz his sweet sweet playoff revenue, because that my freinds is all a Blackhawks team is ever built to be.

Post by **batdad** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 6:38 pm

Tell us what you really think Minty.

Oh and to get it starteed (I was going to but thought I would wait to see if you did)> How abour Morrison for Barker and Seabrook? Sounds fair to me, Wirtz and Pully should like it.

Post by **Minstrel** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 6:45 pm

batdad wrote:Tell us what you really think Minty.

Oh and to get it starteed (I was going to but thought I would wait to see if you did)> How abour Morrison for Barker and Seabrook? Sounds fair to me, Wirtz and Pully should like it.

Oh yeah, I wasn't done.... had to go back and edit more in

the truly sad part about all of this? I'm not surpised, like when your girlfriend has cheated on for the 14th time not surprising just annoying.

That deal won't get done without us "throwing in" Skille for Tyler Bouck though...

Time to go back to my Blackhawks Fan Lights Self On Fire In Front of United Center in Protest avatar from back in the days that Puhlford took over as "co-coach" of the team with Lorne Mollekan

Post by **inSTAALed** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 8:29 pm

Wow.

That is easily the dumbest decision any GM has made this season. This is including the 15 Year Pay Him While He's Injured Contract and the Hiring of Garth Snow.

It almost reaches the classic bad move of Peter Forsberg + alot for Eric Lindros.

Hopefully we still have a Minty by the end of this week and he won't attempt the stunt portrayed in his avatar.

Post by **Minstrel** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 8:54 pm

Part of what really kills me about it beside my knowing that Trent is the right guy for the job is the then bringing on of Savard as Coach; no interim attatched, he's the man.

We've learned and been forced to accept the fact that this team finds both GMs/scouting and coaching to be things to not be worth spend money on ever... so Yawney was a great compromise for us fans. We know they won't hire a Ken Hitchcock (not that I'd want them to but for sake of example) or anyone with experience who hasn't played for the Hawks before so at least Yawney was cheap, a former Blackhawk AND at the same time a skilled coach that was also the exact type of coach this team needed.

So losing him is a giant blow because you see what we get: no debate, no interviewing of other candidates just a simple scapegoating and instant installation of the next Loyal Member of the Blackhawk Familyâ„¢ in line.

The simple fact was that if that Hawks didn't name Yawney coach when they did he's have had about 8-10 other teams more than willing to give him a chance. He was the exception and now were' back to the status quo, former Hawk player coach with little to no coaching experience or talent.

Post by **Shadd666** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 12:25 am

I can't find words to explain what i feel about this... "Stupid" is maybe the best word if we want to stay polite...

Post by **Minstrel** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 12:26 am

Scott Burnside ESPN wrote:Add Yawney's firing to list of Blackhawks' bad moves

Well, this ought to fix things up.

All this time, we thought the Chicago Blackhawks were a mess because of poor drafting, short-sighted free-agent signings and crippling injuries, and it turns out it was coach Trent Yawney's fault.

Never mind it was GM Dale Tallon who, back in July 2005, introduced us to Yawney as the man who would lead the Hawks out of the wilderness in which they've been stumbling for well over a decade. Nope, it turns out it was Yawney's fault, and Monday, Tallon put the Good Ship Blackhawk on the course to hockey happiness by naming his good pal Denis Savard as coach.

In places like Chicago, the pain never ends. It never ends because teams make decisions that ensure the pain just keeps on coming.

Forsberg · Post by **Forsberg** » Sun Dec 03, 2006 10:57 pm

Interesting that CNN:SI seems to think Savard is a good thing.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/w ... index.html

They are on 3 game winning streak, but sincerly doubt they can maintain even a 500 pace the rest of the season. Most likely drop 5 straigth or something after after this win streak comes crashing down sooner rather then later imo.

Post by **Minstrel** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 12:13 am

Forsberg wrote:They are on 3 game winning streak, but sincerly doubt they can maintain even a 500 pace the rest of the season. Most likely drop 5 straigth or something after after this win streak comes crashing down sooner rather then later imo.

Agreed... see my post in the NHL thread.

Forsberg · Post by **Forsberg** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 1:45 am

Minstrel wrote:
inSTAALed wrote:The Bills are known failures (4 straight superbowl losses)
Which reminds me of the joke Q: "What does Bills stand for?" A: "Boy I Love Losing Superbowls"

I have to say that I'm not planning on watching any more Hawks games as no, I'm not pleased with the team in the slightest, I don't care that they've won all their games as they are all witht he exception of Dallas teams they should beat, they are in a very easy stretch of the schedule especially with how Minnesota has been struggling. However the team has apparently already taken to the "play more offensively" approach to heart because they've stopped caring about doing the little things that they were excelling at under Yawney.

I watched yesterday's game and it was absolutely pathetic no matter the final score. At one point FIVE times in a row they failed to clear the puck and/or get the puck deep enough to make a line change with really weak clearing attempts failing to get the puck out of the zone or just drive the puck down, then at the end of that series defensemen that has been out there stuck in their defensive zone joined the rush instead of going for a change getting stuck out again when there were five chances he had to change as he was within feet of the bench. And this was the third pairing!

It is also absolutely unexcusable that the team for some reason fields a first line that doesn't feature Tuomo Ruutu! Their "scoring line" all last night? Jeff Hamilton who is a career AHLer and made the team after coming to camp on a tryout, centered by Smolinski with Tony Samaleinen on the other wing. I don't care that Hamilton scored a hattrick (mostly on soft goals) he shouldn't be featured on the first line and either should Salmaleinen. Just because he has speed does not mean he has offensive ability... yes he's fast but he's shown to not have any touch or finish or ability to beat NHL defenders. This was something Yawney quickly realized and is now one of the supposed reasons he was let go, for not giving Salmaleinen more playing time since he's fast. And now somehow he and a career minor leaguer are both ahead of Ruutu on the depth chart??? What a joke.

This team will be absolutely embarrassed against a real NHL team without major injuries and/or amidst a major slump. I didn't care they were losing before because the effort was there and they were playing hard and smart now I don't care that they are winning because they have totally lost any sense of hockey fundamentals and are making a billion mistakes and bad decisions that good team with capitalize on 9 times out of 10.

Think that about concludes this thread for now then heh.

Post by **batdad** » Wed Dec 06, 2006 6:35 am

Did I hear correctly today on the radio? SAvard got a three year extension from Tallon on his contract? For 3 wins? Thank god the Hawks did not wait until April 2008 when they would have had to give him a 4 year extension for FOUR WINS.

I am sure I heard this...Minty?

Post by **Minstrel** » Wed Dec 06, 2006 10:20 pm

They announced an extention through th 2007-08 season so that's not sooo bad, they'll still fire him around the time they fired Yawney this year. They gave Sutter a year's extension the summer before they decided to not have him return as coach so like everything in BlackhawksLand you are looking for logic where there is none. I'm just happy they didn't give him a six year extension; one for every Hawks head coach that has been fired while he has acted as their assistant coach