Savard's Out, Quenneville’s In As Blackhawks Axe Coach

Now here's a bit of a shocker. The Chicago Blackhawks have fired head coach Denis Savard 4 games into the 2008-09 season and replaced him with Joel Quenneville. GM Dale Tallon made the announcement and Quenneville will have his first practice today for saturday's game against Quenneville's old team, the St. Louis Blues.

“We felt we needed a more experienced person in the head coach position,” Tallon stated, “and that’s why we made the decision. Quenneville's the right man for the right time. If you want to be a championship-caliber organization, you have to make tough decisions.”

Quenneville fits the bill that Chicago needs, that is a more experienced head coach as Quenneville took the Colorado Avalanche to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs while compiling a record of 44-31-7. He is also the winningest coach of the St. Louis Blues where he had a career record of 438-283-118 over 11 years as an NHL head coach, 3 years with Colorado before being let go by the Avs last May. The Blackhawks are the second-youngest team in the NHL, and with the Hawks’ youth and inexperience, need a more experienced head coach behind the bench.

The Blackhawks also announced today that Marc Bergevin will be an assistant coach. The Montreal native joins John Torchetti, Mike Haviland and goaltending coach Stephane Waite as the fourth member of Quenneville’s new staff.

Although Savard has been relieved of his coaching duties, both Blackhawks' Team President John McDonough and Tallon have said that they'll offer Savard a position within the organization in the near future. “For all of us, Denis will be a Blackhawk,” said McDonough.

“Denis handled himself with tremendous class and dignity as he always does,” said Tallon. “We’re going to move on and hopefully he’ll stay involved in the organization for a long time to come."

As for Quenneville, he says he is looking forward to the challenge of guiding his new team to the playoffs. “I welcome the challenge. I think it’s a tremendous opportunity,” he said. “I’m excited to start working with this group.”