Battling Blackhawks, Against Each Other

By: Chicago Sports Review

In hockey, there are fights. Players on one team try to bash the hell out of players from the other side. To some, it’s one of the best qualities of the game. However, usually fights are between players on opposing teams, not the coach and a player on the same team.Last Friday, the Chicago Blackhawks, the franchise considered by an ESPN poll and by yours truly as the most mismanaged sports franchise in any major sport, announced that coach Brian Sutter and Tyler Arnason had an altercation in a country and western bar in Nashville last week after the Hawks lost a game to the Nashville Predators.

The 24-year-old center has posted a paltry 16 goals and 24 assists in 68 games with a plus-minus of -8 as the Hawks have been near the bottom of the Western Conference in wins and points. Sutter, a no-nonsense coach who has been able to do a lot with a very young club, is obviously frustrated, and with his contract ending at the end of this season, and no talk of an extension from the leaderless, rudderless club, it is understandable. Apparently, Sutter and Arnason had words and Sutter, more than twice the center’s age, was putting the younger man through a wall in the bar.

The team said that all sides had been interviewed and that the incident was over, but this is yet another black eye for the Chicago Blackhawks. When they should be fighting other teams on the ice, they are fighting amongst each other. Current general manager Bob Pulford has not guaranteed that assistant Dale Tallon will be the next GM or that Sutter will be retained, but owner Bill Wirtz has said yes to both of those situations.

Meanwhile, the Hawks have traded any veterans of value to “free up money to attract top free agents” … that is, if there is a next season without labor problems. No one has yet to answer the question why would a top free agent come to Chicago to play on a team that has no idea what it is doing, and to play for an owner who has said that winning a Stanley Cup is too costly. Brian Sutter may have attacked a lackadaisical player, but what can he do about a lackadaisical ownership and front office?

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