Patrick Kane Probably Saved Stan Bowman's Job Last Night

I don’t know if the McDonough and Rocky were close to making changes or not. It felt like we were on the brink of a house cleaning heading into the game last night. Horrible losses, poor roster construction, awful trades, bad cap management and you know…being in almost dead last in the Western Conference despite having two Vezina caliber goalies and the best winger in the game. After the St Louis game I started getting texts from people in and around the organization. All kinds of speculation about whether or not this was the end. I was so sure that one more loss would push Stan Bowman over the edge that I haven’t put “Fire Stan” t-shirts on sale because I didn’t want people to buy them and then have him be fired before they were shipped.

Then…Patrick Kane

A lifeline in the form of a hat-trick and nice home win against a division rival who has been on fire lately. Then the big on-ice post game speech that has me and everyone else ready to crawl up over the trenches. Patrick Kane blows the whistle and we all go over the top…ready to get mowed down again.

And even though I believe Patrick Kane with all my heart and I believ18e that he believes…there are machine guns waiting for us all.

12/18  Colorado

12/19 @ Winnipeg

12/21 @ Colorado

Another tough stretch. Three games in four nights against divisional opponents who are currently sitting in playoff spots. And this is why things are dangerous. Stan Bowman must know that he’s in danger. I don’t care if he signed a secret contract extension in the summer, you can’t miss the playoffs three years in a row. You especially can’t do it after you made it clear that you weren’t rebuilding by trading for de Haan, Shaw, and Maatta and then signing Lehner and NOT trading Gustafsson. You can’t waste another year of Toews, Kane, Crawford, and Keith. You can’t continue to have fake attendance records, dwindling TV ratings, and zero playoff gate for three years in a row, and FIVE years without a playoff series win. This is Chicago and this is the NHL. No Here Long if you don’t win. The last thing the organization needs is for Stan Bowman to have the Hawks in striking distance at the deadline and have him make another stupid, short-sighted and self-interested trade at the deadline. A desperation move by a guy who doesn’t have time on his side. With de Haan going on LTIR soon the Hawks will have a good amount of cap space, draft capital, and a decent prospect pool to deal for the Mark Borowiecki and Ben Huttons of the world. Pass.

Changes have to come. I don’t have an axe to grind. I just want the team to do well. The quickest way back to the top is to lop the head off of the organization. It’s unfortunate, but its what it is. I wish I was wrong. I wish it wasn’t this way, but a change is gonna come