When I was in grammar school, the best way of following the Chicago Blackhawks was reading about them in the local newspaper. If you did not have cable, you were not seeing your team on ice. Of course you could have been one of the lucky people with tickets to Chicago Stadium during the 1980’s. It was a very hard ticket to get. The Blackhawks did not have their games telecast on the local free channels for every Chicagoland household. Only the road games made their way on Sportsvision from your cable provider. The Blackhawks were a playoff team almost every year. In the 1990’s, the Blackhawks even made it to the Stanley Cup and came way with a loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Then nothing but crickets took over Chicago Blackhawk home games. Sure the Blackhawks still had some fans, but the whole organization sunk into a deep abyss down to the LA Clipper level. It is very hard to bounce back from being ranked at the bottom of the 4 main sports in the states and seeing your team next to the Clippers, a franchise in disarray for decades. Things did change. Uncle Scrooge Bill Wirtz passing for the Blackhawks to resurrect.The son, Rocky Wirtz, took over and made a big hire bringing in John McDonough from the Cubs organization, making him the President of Hockey Operations for the Chicago Blackhawks. For John it was simple he had to raise the dead. Revive the whole Blackhawk organization.

In 2007, John McDonough took the job and immediately got his hands dirty. Remember the words of Uncle Scrooge as Bill Wirtz said “Stanley Cups cost too much money.” Getting to the playoffs in his mind mattered much more than a Stanley cup. If they lost in the playoffs, the fans would still want more. Basically keep stringing them along. Yes, John McDonough definitely might be in too deep. McDonough rebuilt the front office from scratch. All the Blackhawks games were available to watch on television. Uncle Scrooge would be tossing and turning hearing that. The most important thing was he created a winning culture. What helped John McDonough and the Blackhawks being so bad for so long was they made the right picks. Especially having high draft picks which they used on Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews. Add some key trades to the mix which resulted in three Stanley Cups. Besides bringing back winning hockey, McDonough was savvy on the business sides of things. Stanley Cup championships should make a franchise more money than cost the franchise money. Little things like adding the Blackhawks convention in the off-season for the fans. McDonough hooked, lined and sinkered the Blackhawks fans into the boat like a fishing vessel. Uncle Scrooge alienated the fan base. In 2019, Forbes has the Blackhawks at number 4 in the NHL for the most valuable franchise. That explains the 531 consecutive sell outs at the United center.

I remember giving my friend a VHS tape. Asking him to tape a Blackhawks game for me. This was when the Blackhawks road games were only on cable and he had it. My family was always last to the party when it came to cable and call waiting. I wanted to see Dave Manson just obliterate some opposing player on the boards. The friend taped the game and I watched it the next day. As I watched it, all of a sudden other channels would come in. My friend was channel surfing through the taping so only bits and pieces came in. My point is I hope the Blackhawks are not headed down another Clipper road. First getting rid of you can say the best coach in the entire NHL, Joe Quenneville. Now you axe John McDonough after all he brought to the table. The Blackhawks perhaps do not see that the problem is Stan the Man Bowman. He’s the one who needs his head scalped from the organization. All his moves he has made the last few seasons have been disastrous. Rocky Wirtz could be sending a message to his organization that change needs to happen or more heads will roll. Wirtz better have a plan ahead. A good replacement not named Bowman. I’m still trying to figure out the DVR world if we go old time hockey again.