Chicago Blackhawks: Stan Bowman is on the hot seat
The Chicago Blackhawks are in a do or die season it seems, and the GM might be the one to pay if they miss the playoffs for a third consecutive year.
The Chicago Blackhawks are very well known for their success that they had this decade. They started the decade off by ending a 49 year Stanley Cup championship drought. They followed it up by winning it two more times to make it three in six years. It has been an incredible thing to watch but things have taken an ugly turn over the last few years.
In 2016 they lost in the first round to the St. Louis Blues in seven games. Nothing seemed to be wrong, they just lost a really tough series that came down to the wire. Then the following season they had the best record in the Western Conference, but then they were swept in the first round by the Nashville Predators and it made the glory days feel like a millennia ago.
Since being swept by Nashville, a once playoff lock has failed to make the postseason in each of the last two seasons. There have been some questionable trades and signings, and they have all seemed to lead team President John McDonough to consider general manager Stan Bowman on the hot seat.
In an interview McDonough had with Scott Powers of “The Athletic”, he used the term “hot seat” when talking about Stan Bowman while being very complimentary of him at the same time. It feels very contradicting but at the same time, you have to believe him if he goes as far as saying that he is on a hot seat. He wouldn’t have used that term had some thought of letting him go in the not so distant future if things didn’t turn around. If they miss the playoffs for the third consecutive year, you might see Bowman get fired.
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It just feels like weird timing to come out and say things like that for John. The summer has been somewhat decent for the Hawks and they appear to be a better team than a year ago on paper. Stan hasn’t been that great at all over the last two seasons but he has made some decent acquisitions over the summer. He might deserve to go, but this is a weird time to bring it up in an interview over the summer.