The Chicago Blackhawks fired the most successful coach in franchise history Tuesday when they let go of Joel Quenneville.

Quenneville’s run with the team spanned 797 games since 2008; the organization matched the three Stanley Cup Championships it had experienced in the 82 seasons prior to hiring Quenneville.

Not only is Quenneville the most successful coach in franchise history, but he’s one of the most accomplished coaches in the history of the NHL. He ranks second in wins for coaches all-time in the NHL with a total of 890, trailing only the legendary Scotty Bowman who has 1244 career wins.

Quenneville’s three Stanley Cup Championships over a six-year span proved that he could guide championship caliber teams to the ultimate goal.

This proves that since 2015, the Chicago Blackhawks have not had a championship caliber roster of players. There is one person to blame for that, and his name is not Joel Quenneville.

Stan Bowman vs Dale Tallon

Stan Bowman, son of the legendary NHL coach Scotty, joined the Chicago Blackhawks in 2001 as a special assistant to the general manager. In 2009, he took over as general manager of the Chicago Blackhawks and replaced departing General Manager Dale Tallon. Stan walked into a very good situation when he took the reins. The roster was loaded with great players; a core of young, up-and-coming talent was already in place.

Contrary to popular belief, Stan didn’t draft the dynastic nucleus of the team that would go on to win three Stanley Cups in six seasons.

Top center and team captain Jonathan Toews, number one overall pick and dynamic winger Patrick Kane, and both top-pairing defensemen Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook were all drafted by Tallon. Quenneville was hired by Tallon. Veteran winger Patrick Sharp was traded for by Tallon. Long-time veteran defensive defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson was also drafted by Tallon. In his final act as General Manager of the Chicago Blackhawks, Tallon signed free agent winger Marian Hossa, who appears to have been the missing piece to the championship puzzle as the Blackhawks would begin their run of success the very next season.

Tallon was fired just days after he signed Hossa and before he could see his work come to fruition. In this article by ESPN, they criticize the move, calling it “heartless” : http://www.espn.com/nhl/columns/story?columnist=burnside_scott&id=4326789

There’s a pretty clear pattern here, Tallon’s fingerprints were all over the Chicago Blackhawks’ championship designs.

Bowman, on the other hand, inherited a championship team with a great second year coach and took all the credit when the Blackhawks started winning titles next season.

Bowman’s Transactions

Since Tallon’s departure, Bowman’s transactions have been mired by failure and contradiction.

Bowman has a very unfortunate history of acquiring players that he already traded away, or trading away players he acquired for less than he acquired them for.

For instance, the Brandon Saad situation. Saad was drafted by Bowman and the ‘Hawks at the 2011 NHL entry draft. At the time, the pick looked like a good one. Saad was considered by experts to be first round talent, but an injury prior to the draft saw him slide a full round from his draft projections. Saad landed in Bowman’s lap and he wisely snatched him up 43rd overall. Saad made the team out of training camp in 2013 and proved Bowman to have made the right pick. Saad finished as a Calder Trophy finalist that year, the trophy awarded to the league’s best rookie. When Saad hit restricted free agency after the 2014-15 season, Bowman felt the Blackhawks couldn’t fit Saad’s new contract under the salary cap, so he dealt him to the Columbus Blue Jackets in a huge deal that brought Artem Anisimov and Marko Dano the other way. Inexplicably, Bowman immediately signed Anisimov to a contract extension that impacted the Blackhawks’ salary cap nearly as much as Saad’s contract would. To replace Saad’s scoring, Bowman signed free agent winger Artemi Panarin from the Kontinental Hockey League.

After two incredibly successful seasons with Panarin, Bowman dealt Panarin to get Saad back.

This is only following the path of one player Bowman has been responsible for. If you look at every aspect of the Patrick Sharp trade, there are similarities and issues as well. Bowman has lost on for more transactions then he’s won. Look at his history and it’s not pretty.

The only good things Bowman has done that he hasn’t messed up yet is trading Andrew Shaw for a couple draft picks, one that turned into current goal-scoring winger Alex DeBrincat and drafting promising rookie defenseman Henri Jokiharju. Both of those players are young and talented, so give Bowman time to trade them for a bag of chips. Every other transaction has been bad, neutral or he managed to mess up some other way as he did with Saad.

The Rift with Quenneville

Quenneville, as previously mentioned, was hired by Tallon. Bowman never had the chance to hire his own head coach, and because of the success the Blackhawks experienced, he didn’t have a good reason to get rid of Quenneville and hire his own guy. There are rumors that Bowman came close to firing Quenneville following the 2011-12 season. These rumors are documented nicely by Second City Hockey here: https://www.secondcityhockey.com/2018/11/7/18069420/chicago-blackhawks-firing-joel-quenneville-jeremy-colliton-barry-smith-new-assistant-coach

The Scapegoat

During the historically successful run the ‘Hawks experienced from 2010-15, there can be no argument who coached the teams to victory; it was Quenneville. There can be an argument made of who the architect of the team roster was.

The person in doubt, Bowman, should’ve been the first person out the door. Of all the success the Blackhawks experienced during their championship window, Bowman was responsible for very little while Quenneville was directly linked to all of it.

To protect his job, Bowman fired Quenneville, trying to push blame off of his mediocre roster and onto the most successful coach in franchise history.

#Blackhawks I’d ask that everyone share their favorite story about #Queneville here is mine

1/ It’s Feb. 15th 2015 I’m about to walk into the room to get dressed. My phone is ringing off the hook. I answer. It’s a friend crying on the other line saying Steve’s gone. Steve’s gone

— Daniel Carcillo (@CarBombBoom13) November 6, 2018

2/ I was in shock. I tried to hide it and get dressed. I broke down once I got to my skates & looked over at his old stall next to Seabrook. I hid it well tho. Making it on the ice to warm up. I did a few laps & broke down crying again. I couldn’t do it. I was spiritually done..

— Daniel Carcillo (@CarBombBoom13) November 6, 2018

3/ I skated off the ice & ran down the tunnel into Coach Q’s office. He had just heard. I was crying. He was crying. He hugged me in my equipment. I was a mess. I couldn’t play. He said he understood. He comforted me. He listened. He didn’t force me to play. I’m forever grateful

— Daniel Carcillo (@CarBombBoom13) November 6, 2018

Barry Smith on the coaching staff is nothing more than a conduit back to the front office.

Hard for Jeremy Colliton & coaching staff to establish trust within the core guys, due to past experience with B.S. ….. in my humble opinion@NHLBlackhawks #Blackhawks #Quenneville

— Daniel Carcillo (@CarBombBoom13) November 6, 2018

Kevin Dineen and Ulf Samuelsson also have been fired. Don Granato and Jimmy Waite stay. Barry Smith named an assistant for Colliton.

The Quenneville-Bowman battle that has gone on for six years now is over. Bowman won.

— Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) November 6, 2018

For the record: This was not a smart decision by the Blackhawks.

— Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) November 6, 2018

The person really at fault for the Blackhawks’ problems is still at the helm, and he just fired one of the greatest coaches in the history of the franchise, the sport and the city of Chicago.