Each NHL team’s biggest burning question in 2018

Chicago Blackhawks: To what degree will Quenneville’s departure impact the club’s campaign?

On Tuesday, November 6, the hockey world awoke to the news that Joel Quenneville — one of the most successful coaches of the contemporary era — had been relieved of his duties with the Chicago Blackhawks.

For some, the decision was a confirmation of an apparent degree of seemingly conventional understanding: cracks had been made in the culture of winning ways that Quenneville had once so admirably piloted — as such, the club’s administrative body was merely taking advantage of the benefit of foresight, moving quickly to dismiss the respected coach before he was buried in the equivalent of a beautiful mess.

For others, the decision was nothing short of a mistake. Frustrations abound, the Blackhawks’ tendency to falter has indeed been worrying for fans of the organization, yet the question of blame remains largely undefinable. And whether Quenneville should be left to take the brunt of the burden of responsibility remains a hotly debated topic among puck lovers.

Whatever the case, the 2018-19 campaign now poses further challenges for an esteemed franchise straining the edges of the doldrums — a cause that the Blackhawks shall have to take up without the guidance of their respected leader.

While the firing of Quenneville should almost definitely foster immediate changes to the structural dynamic of the team, certain problems loom large. Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook continue to produce at rather slow rates — the latter of whom remains signed to a potentially problematic contract that will eat up valuable cap space until 2023-24. Bad luck between the pipes remains a staple of concerns surrounding the club’s potential window — or lack thereof — for success, as Corey Crawford battles the growing pains of returning to hockey after being sidelined due to vertigo-like symptoms for far too long. Brandon Saad is a Hawk, but Artemi Panarin is not — a trade that greatly angered Quenneville from the outset to its implementation back in June of 2017. Jonathan Toews appears to be back, but the prospect of another slump is still a subject of concern. And perhaps most worryingly, the team’s depth problem continues to run rampant.

In such moments of uncertainty, one can — and should — trouble the notion that Quenneville could have miraculously pulled a rabbit out of a hat, ushering forth measures through which Chicago’s recent on-ice and off-ice misfortunes would be fundamentally quashed. The decline of the pillars of the blue line, Crawford’s health, questionable contracts, forgettable trades and dips in form, after all, could have happened regardless of who formed the basis of the organization’s helm.

But bad on-ice play is just that — bad play — and in the estimation of many, enough was enough.

Look for the Blackhawks to attempt to start the dawn of a new era on a strong note. And expect Quenneville’s ghost to hover over the outcome of the 2018-19 season, as he watches from afar in new territory.