Hawks Spinning Themselves Deeper Into Hole

There he is, whirling into the revolving door on the Blackhawks’ head coach’s office, ol’ Spin-O-Rama himself.

I don’t want to hate this pick. I really, really don’t. And of course I wish him all the luck, and hope he makes the Hawks a contender. But I just can’t get behind the choice of Denis Savard as the new Blackhawks head coach, starting with tonight’s game against Dallas.

Savard is, after all, an icon, his signature spin move good for 473 career goals. He was the face of Blackhawks hockey in the 1980s, as much as Stan Mikita was in the 1960s, Tony Esposito in the 1970s, and Jeremy Roenick and Chris Chelios in the 1990s. He even returned to play with those guys, and has been in the Hawks’ organization since retiring in 1997.

And that is exactly the problem. Among Bill Wirtz’ many, many faults as owner of the Chicago Blackhawks is that he is far too loyal to his guys. Former player and Hawks assistant Savard is replacing former player and Hawks minor-league coach Trent Yawney, who replaced former player Brian Sutter, who was one coach removed from a guy who seems to have held every front office position in Hawkdom, Bob Pulford.

I want all of these guys to win. Heck, I want Wirtz to buy them the players to win with. But simply changing the seating order isn’t going to get it done, and this move feels like that’s exactly what Wirtz has done, as he has many times before.

So now we wish Savard well, hoping for the kind of magic he seemed to display on skates, fearing that we will have to watch yet another Blackhawk legend’s legacy tarnished by Wirtz’ horrendous mismangement. Savvy, a cheer and a tear go out for you tonight.