{"id":5677,"date":"2024-12-06T13:55:56","date_gmt":"2024-12-06T13:55:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=5677"},"modified":"2024-12-06T13:55:56","modified_gmt":"2024-12-06T13:55:56","slug":"breaking-l%cf%85ke-richardsons-firing-wont-stop-the-blackhawks-slow-slide-into-irrelevance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=5677","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING: L\u03c5ke Richardson\u2019s firing won\u2019t stop the Blackhawks\u2019 slow slide into irrelevance"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Is it Luke Richardson\u2019s fault that Tyler Bertuzzi has only two even-strength goals in 26 games? Or that Teuvo Ter\u00e4v\u00e4inen does, too? Is it Richardson\u2019s fault that the Chicago Blackhawks have been outscored 14-6 with T.J. Brodie on the ice? That Philipp Kurashev has fallen into a well, outscored 18-3 at five-on-five? Is it Richardson\u2019s fault that Connor Bedard keeps finding iron or leather with seemingly every shot he fires?<\/p>\n

\"SALT<\/p>\n

Does it matter?<\/p>\n

Does anything matter at this point when it comes to the Blackhawks?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the most distressing thing about general manager Kyle Davidson\u2019s decision to fire Richardson on Thursday \u2014 the collective shrug with which it was met. Sure, there\u2019s a corner of the fan base that was fuming about another lost Blackhawks season, and they got the head on a spike that they wanted. Good for them.<\/p>\n

But a big chunk of Chicago stopped caring a while ago. Maybe it was when Davidson tanked so nakedly, dealing away Alex DeBrincat and letting Dylan Strome walk two summers ago. Maybe it was when Davidson didn\u2019t even offer franchise icons Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews the chance to re-sign and usher in the next generation of Blackhawks, a ruthless decision that left many fans cold. Maybe it was when the Blackhawks disappeared from most fans\u2019 televisions at the start of this season, the Chicago Sports Network debacle conjuring up so many references to \u201cDollar\u201d Bill Wirtz that he was practically trending Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

As Florida Panthers coach Paul Maurice slyly (and rightly) noted last month, nobody outside of Chicago is going to feel pity for the Blackhawks less than a decade after their third Stanley Cup championship in six seasons. Success is cyclical, after all, and the golden age of Chicago hockey is a still living memory for current high-school freshmen.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

But, man, things are bleak right now.<\/p>\n

The Blackhawks are bad, dead last in the NHL.<\/p>\n

The Blackhawks are going to be bad for a while, with much of their deep prospect pool still years away from the NHL.<\/p>\n

The Blackhawks are guaranteed nothing in this tear-down rebuild, as the beleaguered Buffalo Sabres and Detroit Red Wings can attest.<\/p>\n

And the Blackhawks are unwatchable. And we don\u2019t mean boring, though the Bedard novelty is wearing off and the roster is loaded with stopgap veterans who are essentially just passing through, merely laundry for fans to root for. No, the Blackhawks are literally unwatchable for a huge swath of their fans. For subscribers to the two biggest television providers \u2014 Comcast and YouTube TV \u2014 the hoops you have to jump through in order to watch this team play hockey are laughable. You must purchase a set of rabbit ears (rabbit ears! In the year 2024!). You must have a room with a window that faces downtown Chicago. You must have the rabbit ears high on your wall somewhere. And you must have a night that\u2019s not too windy. Or too rainy. Or too cold. Or too clear? Who knows? There\u2019s a good chance, on any given night, that you\u2019re going to be looking at something that more closely resembles scrambled HBO in the 1980s than a high-definition hockey game. Your other (legal) option is to pay $20 a month to watch the games on your phone or laptop. But just the Blackhawks. If you want the Bulls and the White Sox \u2014 those high-flying, can\u2019t-miss squads \u2014 you\u2019ll need to pony up $30. A month. It\u2019s gobsmacking.<\/p>\n

It\u2019ll take years to know whether Danny Wirtz made the right call in hitching his wagon to Davidson as general manager instead of Eric Tulsky, Mathieu Darche or Scott Mellanby. Despite the excruciating product Davidson has put on the ice the last few seasons, the sheer volume of quality prospects the Blackhawks have acquired in such a short time suggests he might have. But it didn\u2019t take long to realize it was the wrongest of wrong calls for Wirtz to hitch his wagon to a Jerry Reinsdorf enterprise such as CHSN. The billionaires are fighting for carriage fees and meager advertising dollars rather than fighting for their fans. And it could be catastrophic to the bottom line in the long run.<\/p>\n

Bad, irrelevant and out of the public eye. If any team should know how dangerous that combination is, it\u2019s the Blackhawks. As Jason Dickinson put it a few weeks ago in an intelligent and passionate plea to put his team in front of as many eyeballs as possible, \u201cIt\u2019s never a good thing for any business to just slip into oblivion.\u201d The Blackhawks have been there before, just 20 years ago, and it took a miraculous confluence of talent led by Kane and Toews, and a massive influx of money from Rocky Wirtz to recapture the city\u2019s imagination and take over the hockey world.<\/p>\n

These days? Hell, the Blackhawks don\u2019t even do fan giveaways anymore. Last year, there was a towel day and a scarf day. That\u2019s it. This year? Even less. It\u2019s been years since the last bobblehead was handed out before a Blackhawks game. Fans notice. Fans mention it. A petty grievance? Sure. But also a telling one. Either the Blackhawks don\u2019t want to spend the money, or their advertising partners don\u2019t. Neither is a good sign. Crowds are thinning again, back to pre-Bedard levels. And they\u2019re quieter than ever. There\u2019s so little energy in the building these days, so little enthusiasm, so little noise. You can hear every skate carving its way through the ice echoing throughout the league\u2019s biggest arena. And who can blame fans for disengaging when the Blackhawks are doing so very little to engage them?<\/p>\n

The one thing the Blackhawks do have is Bedard, and thank the hockey gods for that. Bedard is so good (don\u2019t believe the naysayers, the kid will be fine) and so popular among young fans (a weekend practice at Fifth Third Arena sounds like a Taylor Swift appearance) that he might be able to single-handedly keep this team at least a little relevant as it wanders through the wilderness for another season or two or three or four. It\u2019s a lot to ask of the second-youngest player in the league, but he\u2019s pretty used to it by now. He seems singularly built for the task. He\u2019s just 19, but there might never have been a Blackhawks player more important to the team\u2019s on-ice and off-ice fate.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

\"Luke<\/p>\n

\n

How much blame does Luke Richardson deserve? (Isaiah J. Downing \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

As for Richardson, he didn\u2019t exactly help any of this. Nice guy, tried hard. Developing Bedard into the superstar he\u2019s destined to become was his No. 1 priority. Really, it was his only priority from an organizational standpoint. And Richardson deserves some credit for Bedard\u2019s improved defensive awareness in his second season. But the coach\u2019s constant line shuffling hurt Bedard more than it helped him, and now you have to hear the words \u201csophomore slump\u201d every time a national pundit invokes Bedard\u2019s name. Richardson\u2019s seemingly random benching of former MVP Taylor Hall and his insistence on keeping Kurashev in the top six only made things worse.<\/p>\n

Like his predecessor, Jeremy Colliton, Richardson is a good man who might be a good coach in a better situation. To his credit, Richardson owned his mistake after scratching Hall without first talking to the veteran. He was honest and forthright with players and with the press, rarely jerking fans around like so many coaches do. He was a modern coach, a progressive thinker who learned how to get through to Gen Z players through long talks with his daughter, a high-school teacher.<\/p>\n

The Blackhawks have been far more competitive this season after Davidson\u2019s veteran shopping spree over the summer \u2014 leading, tied or within a goal in the third period in all but one of their 26 games. But all coaches have a shelf life, especially when they\u2019re not winning. There were rumblings that some Blackhawks players had grown weary of Richardson, and perhaps interim coach Anders Sorensen \u2014 so influential in the development of Alex Vlasic, Wyatt Kaiser and now Frank Nazar \u2014 can get more out of these Blackhawks. Or, at least, the Blackhawks who matter, the Blackhawks who\u2019ll be here four years from now. It seems inevitable (and logical) that the Blackhawks will try to sign a veteran coach after two straight first-timers \u2014 names such as Gerard Gallant, Bruce Boudreau and Jay Woodcroft, among many others, are out there \u2014 but maybe the 49-year-old Sorensen proves to be the right guy, after all. That answer\u2019s a long way off. Just like hope and excitement are.<\/p>\n

The Blackhawks are fading from the public consciousness, and there\u2019s no easy way back. No, there will be no meaningful hockey in Chicago this spring. Yet again. Probably won\u2019t be for a while.<\/p>\n

Not that anybody would be able to watch, anyway.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

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