Is the only way to describe this. I saw Tallon a week ago at the rookie camps. He obviously was completely blindsided by this. This isn’t even a defensible move, like the one with Savard was.

This “snafu” with the RFA signings now has to be put under the spotlight. I can’t believe I’m saying this about my hockey team, but was Tallon essentially framed by a management that needed an excuse to show him the door? This is fairly disgusting to me, and it smacks of the worst kind of disloyalty. How much longer until we 300 level season ticket holders are sent out to pasture by an organization that prices us out of the picture?

What’s next?

the last big name who was hired by the Old Regime?

This seems like a real cock way to do this. The Bowman influence, to me, made it seem inevitable that this would happen some day but this is still really shitty after all the work Tallon has done. If nothing else, I believe he has earned the right to be here through next season to see if his team can win the cup. Stan may or may not be the next right guy, but I think Tallon was the right guy right now. I don’t see Tallon being out of work long and I bet some team he is a part of down the road is going to bite us in the ass.

It’s a way to keep the media “into” all things Hawks related. McD fires someone again and creates buzz in time for the convention, it’s a double whammy (sorry Dale Tallon but at least it wasn’t a pink slip under the door on xmas day or an axe falling 4 games into the season after a home victory)?

The RFA “Snafu” was unacceptable in every sense of the word. In reality, those players were not restricted free agents at all… if Tallon failed to get those sent out on time (and ultimately the buck stops at him), then those players were all unrestricted free agents that entire time. He just about lost 6 or 7 players (can’t remember the exact number) for absolutely nothing.

If someone “sabotaged” him by doing that, that’s a hell of a gamble. They just about put a huge dent in a great young core of players to get the GM fired… I somehow doubt anyone would go to that kind of length to do so.

It was obvious for a long time that Tallon was on thin ice with McD and Rocky, what with the Bowmans brought in. He gave them every excuse in the world to be fired with that mess up.

If there is a relationship there, you might need to hope Tallon doesn’t get picked up as a GM by any team with cap space prior to next year’s free agency.

As a fan of a division rivals, I’m perplexed…usually you’d think getting a team from out of the playoffs to the WCF in one year was a good thing?

I’m sure there’s a joke in there somewhere about the Wings sending Bowman over to disrupt things over there in Chicago, but I’m not even sure how it’d go….something about an over/under before Q joins Tallon under the bus, perhaps?

Strangitude abounds over there in Hawk land, curious to see how it all shakes out.

And how does Coach Q feel right now? The Hawks still do not have a structure where the guy hired a guy who hired a guy. Coaches love working for GM’s who didn’t hire them, and those situations work out so well (Homer Simpson being sarcastic here).

Heck, I think the Bowmans had a hand in getting Quenneville onboard.

I think they just jumped the shark.

I’m completely distrustful of the organization. Tallon wasn’t boss-less through this whole draft/free agency period of time. I guarantee you he had to work with someone to make these moves. If you, as the President or owner of the Blackhawks, don’t like the signings, you tell Tallon he’s not authorized to make them. You don’t let the guy dig himself into a hole and then fire him. Why? BECAUSE THE DAMAGE HAS ALREADY BEEN DONE!

All of Rocky and McD’s press conferences, the way they spoke of him. It was like “he’s the guy.” Not “he’s our guy.” Sorry I have no exact quotes, but just listening to the radio, that is what I got from them. I think Scotty Bowman was brought here as the new architect of this team, and having his son as GM must have been part of the plan. They always made it seem like Bowman was evaluating Tallon. Add the RFA blunder, and yeah, he’s a goner! You may not like how it happened, but let’s not fool ourselves. I think many of us saw it coming. Sometime before the first day of the season.

Great article, Sam

Why wasn’t Stan Bowman held accountable for the qualify offer mistake? His job as assistant GM was handling ALL CBA-related issues.

Scotty Bowman won cups as a coach, not as a GM. If he’s going to have weekly pow wow sessions with someone from the Red Wings organization, I’d rather it be Ken Holland than Mike Babcock. I think his ability to give help to the GM in anything other than scouting is minimal at best.

Did Tallon deserve to be fired? Probably not. But he’s far from perfect. We don’t know about what was really going on behind the scenes, and ultimately what we do know is this team has mismanaged the cap two years in a row. And “capologists” aside, ultimately the GM is responsible for those decisions.

Bowman the younger will be judged by the performance of the team — if the team continues to do well over the next few years, we’ll all forget about this, just like we forgot about the cold way they dumped Savard. We’ll also see how highly Tallon is regarded in the league by how quickly he gets another front office gig, and to me, that will be more telling than any speculation that the Bowmans pushed him out.

Once the RFA situation was cleared up and everyone was re-signed, I’ve been waiting for Tallon to be fired. I’d like to see him reunited with Foley but that’s not going to happen even though Eddie O no longer needs the money (see Link)

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/hockey/blackhawks/1664335,CST-SPT-hawk14.article#

I’d like to kick John McDonough in the dick tip.

by McDonough and Bowman. Sure, it was bound to happen, but why now? Sam is on point with that. It makes little sense to have Tallon go through the draft, RFAs, FAs and then get the shaft.

That said, Tallon has hamstrung the team in regards to the cap … at least that’s what it looks like right now. Given the signings of Cullen and Madden, you’d have to think that Buff or Steeger is going to be moved … AND SEND SOEPEL WITH THEM!

blackhawks website

THis is my first Post!
Come on, while the timing is almost as bad as Savard’s firing, what good has come of Dale Tallon as GM. Khabby (remember his first season?), Huet (“five hole”), Campbell (could turn out OK), Havlat (love the guy, but one full season). He got to draft high because the team was brutal. How hard was it to pick Toews, Kane, Seabrook, Barker. As a former Spartan, I will credit him for Duncan Keith. That was good was a nice pick. Versteeg and Ladd were nice trades as well, but he was GM for how long and I’m coming up with 3-4 good moves?
We all thought Q was bad timing as well. Sometimes change is good. Q took them farther than I could have imagined last year. Would Savard done the same? We’ll never know, but Q did it.
There are teams that need scoring, and have D men. Minnesota comes to mind. How would you like to seee Burns in the Indian Head? Versteeg, Skille, Hendry, etc. for Burns? I know I’m dreaming. If Kane balls over this one trade him for Richards.
It will all be good come October

I see a lot of whining for no reason.

Dale hasn’t been a squeaky clean GM. He’s got a track record of blunders. Aucoin, Barnaby, Khabby (except for 08-09 season), Brown, Salmelainen, Samsonov, Arkhipov and Lapointe. Then of course, you can’t forget the Campbell and Huet contracts. The Huet-Khabby situation could have been a huge ordeal, but somehow he saved face and traded Lang for cap relief.

The Bowmans will try to clean up the mess Tallon made. Sure, Dale made a helluva foundation, but he’s come so close in making it collapse that someone had to stop him.

Order of duty:
1) Trade Byfluglien
2) Trade/Waive Huet
3) Re-sign Keith and Toews, then Kane if anything is left.

And while you’re taking care of those tasks, see if there’s someone out there willing to get fleeced. Word is Atlanta offered Campbell more money than us… maybe they’ll take him for a bag of chips, or maybe Colby Armstrong?

some expert tells me why this is the bestest move ever so I can stop crying and throwing up. Boy am I glad I went the safe route and got a toews jersey. I feel bad for anyone who paid 200 bucks for a jersey that will soon be obsolete

It seems to me this is just a re-org. Tallon is still with the club and now Bowman is the face instead of Dale. I don’t think anything is that different at all and I really don’t understand the bile and hatred for this. Yeah the timing is weird, but it was obvious they wanted Dale out as GM for a couple of years now. There was never going to be a good time to “fire” your GM.

Seems like most people are reacting to the initial report and now that the official word is out there I hope some people have stepped back off the ledge a bit. Tallon is still with the Hawks and the prospects of on-ice success are still extremely high for the upcoming season.

martinhavlat I guess everyone saw what happened to Dale….yes, the story is starting to come out but it’s just the tip of the iceberg.

martinhavlat Lot’s of people are telling me to stay quiet but shouldn’t the fans know the truth? It’s your loyalty, season ticket money and emotions here

Via Twitter
I trust him more than I do Eklund at this point.

when the Blackhawks were not in the news for those couple weeks…starting to miss those days.

Now Havlat is saying this firing is just the tip of the iceberg. He’s debating whether or not he should tell the whole story.

Never liked this guy. Did the Cubs win with him? No, but the stadium was always filled. The GM’s always took the fall. What a worm. Give Scotty McD’s job.

Most of the front office stuff for the upcoming year is done. Maybe move Buff and Huey, upgrade goalie, but the team on the ice is pretty well set.

If they win this year, all is forgiven. If not, the real challenge will be signing the big three next year.

Coming after the Savard and Havlat moves, it does smack of ruthlessness, but as Stalin said, if you want to make an omelet, you gotta crack a few eggs.

48 years is plenty, especially since I’m only 44.

Havlat says Dale was like a second father to him. Now we’re beginning to see the whole picture.

now he has a tweet up about clearing everything up that he loved chicago and is moving on… he plays for minny now… seems like a direct response to some comments

That dale wanted to re-sign him but the front office wanted Hossa instead.

Do you think McD would have let Tallon go/ “reassigned him” sooner if the Hawks hadn’t gotten such good PR for attending his father’s funeral?

When I first heard the news, I also thought the timing was bad, but the more I think about it, the seemingly odd timing has some merit.

It seems weird that the hawks would let Tallon go through free agency and the draft before firing him, but I believe he was kept on due to his relationship with this summer’s UFAs and RFAs. Most of these free agents probably had a relationship with Tallon and trusted him as he was the guy who drafted, traded for, or signed each of them originally. I think that if bowman had become GM before all of the contract talks, some of the FAs may have not re-signed due to perceived uncertainty in the front office. The bowman’s have been pulling the strings lately anyway (as is shown by havlat’s recent comments) and Tallon was just a trustworthy figurehead.

I think now, Stan Bowman has a somewhat clean slate to start wheeling and dealing some of these guys.

Did anyone not see this coming after Scotty got hired?!?

He got hired to fill the seats and win the cup — he doesn’t take any prisoners — loyalty is great, but a sold out arena and winning is better, right?

Two years ago you could throw a puck across the UC and not hit anyone, now my tickets and yours are hot as the Cubbies for every sap that wants to pay big bucks to jump on the bandwagon and drink the kool aid. Who am I to deny them the pleasure of forking over some profit to me so they can take the kiddies and wife to watch the likes of the Preds and Jackets and ramble on and on about the old stadium… I swear if I hear that one more time I’m gonna puke!

Yeah it sucks that Dale and Dennis took the wrap for not winning and Q is probably calling his realtor as I write this, but when Scotty got hired you knew things were going to change and change fast.

I don’t know much about the kid, but sure hope he’s a fast learner and has enough sense to respect to the Indian…otherwise it will be back to business as usual after a few years of losing.

 imo McCub and Scotty had to have a good team to turn over to Stan.I dont think Stan was part of this after his cancer recovery,but Daddy would not DARE let him attempt to fail with a bad team.Now that the Hawks are winners,Here Son,bye Dale.

my favorite part of the PC was McDonough’s explanation of the Bowman hire. “Stan is all about winning and that’s the direction we are going to go”. So that’s it, Tallon wasn’t interested in winning…now I see.

Wow. I really thought that the Hawks (with Hossa, minus Marty) were headed back to the 3rd round again this year. After this I am not sure. It seems like a lot of pressure to put on Stan Bowman. If they don’t make it past the 3rd round into the Stanley Cup, then they will have to fire Stan and Q and get someone in there that knows what they are doing… SCOTTY BOWMAN!!! That just came off as real sarcastic didn’t it? Good to see that you are back Sportsgal, tapping away on the blackberry when you should be working.

Here’s the deal: every one of the decisions made by the GM is made by committee. The President or Owner typically has final say on all contracts, especially anything long term. So how is it that Stan is the “capologist” and we seem to be in danger regarding next year’s cap, and yet he’s now the new GM? How is it that when there were front office disagreements over who to sign and Tallon went with Hossa (Bowman’s pick) over Havlat (his own pick) and Tallon still gets canned? And how does the RFA mailing issue become Tallon’s fault when, in McD’s own words, Stan was in charge of all the contract stuff?

Tallon’s number 1 problem is loyalty: he’s “too” loyal to the players he acquired and not “cold-hearted business-like” enough to dump them if needed. Bowman will have no problem getting rid of anyone Daddy tells him to. We may not recognize this team in a year. And there’s no guarantee it will be better.

After all the good feelings the Hawks have generated with last year’s season, they’ve lost a lot of luster for me now.

And now this. Well…if the Hawks off-season mission was to keep the new fanbase interested throughout the summer they’ve have succeeded in doing so that is for sure.
It’s an interesting move to say the least in promoting Stan Bowman as GM and demoting Dale Tallon to Senior Advisor of Hockey Operations, but it comes as no suprise to anyone who has followed this team even remotely since Scotty’s arrival. Stan, the son of legendary hockey guru Scotty Bowman, has worked his way throught the ranks throughout his 8 years within the Blackhawks organization and now has landed the most prominant position, and with that he deserves a congratulatory handshake. In any event, how he received this position is entirely another matter.
It seems that Scotty Bowman since his arrival last summer has done everything within his power to undermine Tallon. The Campbell signing has been the trigger-switch for what has been a very tumultuous relationship between himself and Dale. Scotty has his views and Dale has his. And it seems for the moment that it became so vile that management was virtually forced into this decision, thus sideing with the Bowman camp rather than Dale and now Stan is the GM thanks in large part to his father’s involvement. For it is not like Stan isn’t deserving of this opportunity, but they way in which he has received has even the largest Hawks fan leaving the table with a bitter taste in their mouth.
What’s more startling is that Dale received and accepted a 2-year extension from the Hawks to be the Senior Advisor of Hockey Operations. Usually most balk at a deal in which they will receive a pay cut especially when it comes down to managerial positions and in order of the proceedings leading up to this demotion. Maybe Dale is loyal? maybe he just wants to see this thing through? or maybe he is biding time for a new position elsewhere to become available? Time will only tell Dale’s motives for accepted this offer from the Hawks. In any event, regardless on how you feel about Dale and some of his managerial moves he deserved a better fate especially for how he architected this team from the doldrums to the elite.
Although different circumstances it definitley has some similar parallels to the dismissal of Keenan as GM after the Hawks reached the Stanley Cup Finals in 1992 only to replaced by $$$ Bill’s old buddy Pulford.
A day of mixed reactions: Happy for Stan, sad and sympathetic for Dale.

Anyone thinking the Kane will go is absolutely living in the dark. Every single poster around Wrigley Field for the Winter Classic had Kane’s picture on it for he is the marketing poster boy whether you like it or not. And just like Crosby he lives with the most influential person within his team organization- Stan Bowman, and for that I highly doubt Stan will ever think of the possibility of letting Kane go. Kane is staying like it or not.
Jonathan Toews leadership and skills are irreplaceable and for that it will pretty automatic that Toews is around for a very long time.
Which brings us to Keith, and though we all love him he has an issue with post-concussion syndrome and anytime you deal with a player commanding that type of dollar value it definitley becomes an issue, and a serious one at that. Keith really struggled after the Stafford hit and it continued on and into the playoffs wher his game wasn’t where it should’ve been. Make no mistake Duncan Keith is a phenominal defenceman but if he and his camp are seeking a 8-10 year deal he could be a goner for he is too risky to sign for that length of term for someone with previous PCS problems.
In the end the Hawks want to keep all 3 which brings us today and the ownerships decision to go with Stan for he may be the one that will pull the trigger on a Campbell deal, one in which Dale wasn’t willing to make. His loyalty to his UFA ’s signings may have predetermined his eventual fate.

Rozner over at the Herald does quite an attack job on Tallon here:

http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=306763

and also says in another article that Sharp is already being shopped around. Anyone got a comment on these? (I’ve never read Rozner before—but he sounds like Mariotti in a bad mood.)

Darren Dreger has an article/interview w/ some very specific quotes from Marty. Sounds to me like its more than just a angry ex employee. Read on

Since my stroke i spend a LOT of time on the pc reading anything about the Hawks.Heres a general feeling i got from hours of reading.McD is a arrogant asshole, he brought in the convention and Wrigleyfield nothing else.He is Scottys lapdog who will do anything to get HIS name in the paper.Scotty has his product now,his coach now,and his son as GM.After about two seasons McD will be history and Scottys man whoever that may be will be President.After the press conference Tues where McD dissed Tallon as did Rocky,this all make sense to me.McD has always said he knows nothing about hockey yet takes credit for all this shit.Qville and the TEAM filled the seats not this fuck.Hes a arrogant fucking cancer.Classless also.FUCK YOU McD and your headlines you jerkoff Cub reject!

His twitter on Puck Daddy,every player on the team are for Dale.They know a phony (McD) when they see one.Also that McD was Jealous of Dale,very interesting.

Why are we afraid of this guy? All he ever does is win the cup. Montrael, Pitt, Detroit. Granted he had more than his share of Hall of Famers in all those stops, but I think he has them here too.

Winning breeds winning. Scotty Bowman is a winner, that is a fact. Give McDingleberry the marketing VP, and let Scotty be in charge. Let’s finish it, and play hockey.

Drop the puck!!!!!!!!!!

Not afraid Larmy Scotty and Stan are the men!McFuck is the cunt who can rain on the parade.Is JHC lying when he says he has talked to the boys and they know McFuck is a phony?Cut the cancer out before it begins,lets learn from Pully,not repeat.

Im sorry for writng what i did,it wasnt right and i apologise.