The Chicago Blackhawks wrapped up the regular season with a division title and the best record in the Western Conference. It was also only the second time in franchise history that a team reached the 50 win mark. Being swept in the first round of the playoffs by the Nashville Predators was not expected.
Disappointment is on everyone's mind, especially General Manager Stan Bowman. It was locker room cleanout day on what should have been game 5 of their opening round series. Bowman who was visibly upset said, “I am completely, completely disappointed, it is unacceptable to be where we are today."
This is how the general manager put it himself, “I am frustrated, I am angry, this was a tough, tough loss for us all to take. Standing here April 22 is not the way we expected our season to end. It is a completely failure when you measure it against the expectations that we have for ourselves. We did not come even close to reaching the standard we have set over the years here. And that is unacceptable. Any successes that we did experience this year are completely overshadowed by the abrupt ending to our season. It is not close to good enough for anybody. I think it is times like now to take a look in the mirror and face facts. And when you do that you look at accountability and that starts with me. I need to be better. There is no doubt about it. I am going to take a look at all things and I can promise you I will be better. Top to bottom we need more. This is unacceptable to be where we are today. There will be change moving forward. Change comes in many different ways. So the specifics of how we are going to change things into next year are not really meant for this forum. But I can promise you we need to be better. Joel is our head coach. he will continue to be our head coach. Joel and I are going to work together to make sure this never happens again.”
Bowman took accountability for the Blackhawks early exit and gave a vote of confidence to coach Joel Quenneville returning next year. He also vowed that there will be change in the off-season.
The word "unacceptable" was used three times through his short one minute and 57 second address to the media and he is of course correct. The Blackhawks have been eliminated from the playoffs in the first round the last two seasons. This season was the first time in any major sport that a number one seed was swept by an eight seed.
While Bowman gave no insight on the moves that the team will make, they may be drastic. The organization is loaded with heavy contracts and many of which have no movement clauses built into them. These may be hard to move but it's likely a core player or fan favorite will be gone, not unlike years past. Whatever happens, you know Bowman will be busy this off-season to avoid the disappointment of the last two seasons.
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