When members of the Chicago Blackhawks were asked about rumors of a locker room fight before the team’s game against the Florida Panthers on Thursday night, the answers ranged from surprised to unconcerned. While social media went ablaze earlier in the day following a tweet from NFL analyst David Diehl, it appears there’s smoke, but no fire.
Jonathan Toews said there was no fistfight in #Blackhawks” dressing room. Said players were joking about it when they heard it during lunch.
— Chris Kuc (@ChrisKuc) February 26, 2015
Q said the rumored #Blackhawks fight “all news to me.”
— Tracey Myers (@TramyersCSN) February 26, 2015
The rumors may have originated over the summer in a post from The Committed Indian, as Puck Daddy points out, though a pair of tweets in the past couple days re-ignited the rumblings. First came a tweet from local radio host Dan Bernstein on Tuesday, then Diehl added fuel to the fire with his post.
Whether the Blackhawks have actually had any legitimate issues off the ice recently is hard to say, but the team’s disinterest in letting it become a major discussion is more important, anyways. This is about team chemistry and the players getting along, and if they’re not fretting about any of this stuff, we probably shouldn’t, either.
And even if there was some kind of issue between players on the Blackhawks’ roster, it’s worth noting that teams in the past have weathered similar situations. These are people, after all, and sometimes they’re going to have problems and disagreements. As long as they’re dealing with them and preventing them from impacting the team’s supportive environment, I’m not sure it’s worth some kind of big reaction.