A Tale of Two Coaches
The 1998-99 Blackhawks season can be neatly divided into two parts: The
Graham Era and the Molleken Era. During the Graham Era, great lizards roamed
the Earth, while in the Molleken Era the Hawks actually won some games.
Just exactly what happened during the dark times of Winter 1998 is unclear.
The choice of archetypal "Blackhawk hockey" practitioner Dirk Graham as
Craig Hartsburg's replacement as coach seemed like not such a bad idea once
you'd resigned yourself to the fact that Bill Wirtz wasn't ever going to
shell out Marc Crawford-kind of money.
But it turned out that Dirk didn't have too clear a concept of what the job
"head coach" entails. His philosophy of work hard, kick ass, and don't
worry about strategy suited an assistant to a tactician head coach, but on
its
own produced disastrous results.
In January, four full months into the season, the Hawks still looked lost
out there, long after excuses about personnel turnover had lost any
credibility. And though you might expect a team with no strategy to at least
play a free-wheeling, creative game, the Hawks instead looked tentative and
restricted.
This can also be placed at Graham's feet, since about the only tactical
advice
Dirk had for the players was "Don't you dare get caught up ice." This
restriction eventually led to a blowup between Graham and star forward Tony
Amonte in practice, an incident Graham claimed later was staged.
Puzzling personnel decisions marked Graham's tenure as coach as well.
Longtime good soldiers Jeff Shantz and Steve Dubinsky were shipped out to
Calgary for Marty McInnis, who scored 19 goals, but not for the Hawks.
McInnis was traded immediately to Anaheim for defenseman Jamie Allison who
logged lots of ice time but failed to impress much of anyone.
Other players such as Ed Olczyk and Jean-Pierre Dumont landed in Graham's
doghouse once and never got out. Both are skilled offensive players who
could have taken some of the scoring load off Amonte if given the chance.
For these and other reasons the question could be asked whether the
180-degree
turn in Blackhawk fortunes that coincided with Graham's replacement by
assistant Lorne Molleken was more due to Molleken's coaching skill or the
sheer joy the Hawks felt at their release from bondage.
I personally haven't seen enough of the Molleken's Hawks to judge his
tactical
skills. Line combinations weren't changed radically, and trades had more
to do with who was on the ice than coaching decisions (other than reprieves
granted to the aforementined Olczyk and Dumont).
But it is immediately evident that the Hawks were a different team under
Molleken. They attacked the offensive zone with enthusiasm untempered by
fears of being benched if a counterattack develops. They often jumped on
teams early in the game, a stark contrast to Graham's team which was outshot
18-0 in the first period of the year and never got much better at
starting games. And they played hard nearly every night, not saving up
effort for the occasional tilt with Colorado or Detroit.
The test, of course, will be the rigors of a full season. But if this love
affair between players and coach can survive the first bad slump or long
road trip, 1999-2000 might be the first fun Blackhawks season in a number of
years.
Team MVP
|
Tony Amonte
by Meredith Martini
|
This is a no-brainer. Tony Amonte scored 44 goals, tying for second
in the
league behind Teemu Selanne. More importantly, he did so without any help.
Selanne had Paul Kariya, Jaromir Jagr had Martin Straka scoring 35 goals, and
John LeClair had the highest-paid player in the NHL taking pressure off of
him.
Amonte, on the other hand, had Eric Daze and Alexei Zhamnov potting 21 and 20
goals respectively. Obviously, teams keyed on him every night, yet he
managed
to have the best goal-scoring year of his career.
Furthermore, Amonte was also the only Hawk who played 100% on a consistent
basis. Not to speak ill of the dead (or at least dead to Hawk fans), but
Chris Chelios -- who has a well-earned reputation as a all-out team guy --
appeared to let conflicts with a coach get in the way of his play for the
second straight year.
Amonte, who disliked Graham's system as much as anybody, never let it affect
his play and was the only reason to watch the Hawks for most of the first
part of the season.
Surprise
Last year's surprise runner-up was a midseason call-up, a high draft pick who
despite a lack of obvious hockey skills seemed to have that undefinable
quality we call "scoring touch". Well, he got traded for this other team's
high draft pick, called up midseason, who despite a lack of obvious hockey
skills...
You get the picture. Anyway, rookie sensation Dmitri Nabokov has given way
to rookie sensation Jean-Pierre Dumont. Dumont is slightly less
risky a pick
than Nabokov, given that anybody who shatters Mario Lemieux's junior scoring
records has to have some talent. And Dumont scored on a consistent basis
over
25 games last year, while Nabokov played in less than 10.
Nevertheless, it's entirely possible that J.P. will tick off the coaching
staff again next year, ride the pine for awhile, then get demoted and traded
for a career minor-leaguer. But the Hawks are scoring-starved enough that
anyone who looks like he might know how to find the net 20 or 30 times
a year is going to get a very long look.
Disappointment
It's not really fair to call the team co-leader in assists a disappointment,
but Doug Gilmour was brought in to do a number of things for this
team, and
very few of them were accomplished.
Gilmour's presence was going to lead to breakthrough years for a number of
guys, especially Eric Daze -- who was going to score 40 goals with master
playmaker Gilmour feeding him -- and Alexei Zhamnov -- who was going to
dominate
other team's second-line centers.
Unfortunately, Gilmour disappeared for long stretches during the season,
occasionally showing up to dominate a game but mostly staying away from the
play and leaving fans to wonder if Dougie had been scratched that night.
Gilmour also ended up with the worst plus/minus on the team. And even for
those of us who feel that ESPN's favorite stat means next to nothing, you
don't expect a veteran with a reputation for responsibility in his own end
to lead his team in watching opponents score.
#93 probably suffers worst in the comparison department. He's making
$6 million a year, and we got him instead of Brett Hull. 'Nuff said.
Off-Season Changes
As reported in these pages a few months ago, team GM Bob Murray has already
told fans not to expect a free agent of Gilmour's status to come to Chicago
this off-season. "Thank goodness" you might reply, except that the Hawks
actually still need such a player.
Theo Fleury leaps to mind as a guy that would pay immediate dividends, but
his market value will be off the charts. Beyond him, scorers are scarce, so
you can't really blame Murray for hanging back. But the prospect of another
year of Amonte and not much else is kind of depressing.
What Murray has promised to do is go after a couple of "mid-level guys".
It remains to be seen what salary and/or talent level that refers to.
As far as Murray's job and that of his head coach, they're safe for at least
another season. Both have been given public votes of confidence from owner
Bill Wirtz.
