Opinion

By Craig Custance

updated 10:22 p.m. ET Oct. 17, 2008

CHICAGO - Since taking over as Blackhawks team president, everything has been done swiftly under John McDonough. The return to television, the reuniting with former players and the reconnection with a city full of hockey fans — it all happened faster than anyone could imagine.

That swiftness now includes the evaluation of coach Denis Savard. On Thursday, Savard was fired and replaced by former St. Louis and Colorado coach Joel Quenneville.

The Blackhawks were 1-2-1 through four games, and Savard had just earned his first win of the season on Wednesday night against the Coyotes. It wasn't enough.

On Wednesday afternoon, McDonough shared with Sporting News his high expectations for the Blackhawks and also gave a clue as to why Savard's contract hadn't been extended beyond this season.

"We haven't made the playoffs in seven years," McDonough told SN. "We were better last year but it's time for us to make the playoffs. It's time for us to get in the postsesason and see what happens. Although we improved, we were short. That would be the reason. It was a discussion I had with him and (G.M.) Dale (Tallon) had with (Savard)."

The decisiveness of McDonough's decision should not be surprising, nor should the fact that it came after a win. He's a man who is not easily satisfied. When the fans started to return to United Center last season, and ticket sales reached 12,000-14,000 per game, he said there were people on the staff satisfied with those numbers — even excited.

"They wanted to hear me come in and give them a Knute Rockne speech and say, 'This is great, let's keep going.' I said this is abysmal and unacceptable," McDonough said. "In 24 years with the Cubs, I never saw an empty seat. If we were happy about this we had even more work to do."

Still, the firing of Savard isn't an easy one for the Blackhawks. He's a popular former player and one of the great people in hockey. But rebuilding a franchise is never easy.

"This was an extremely hard day for this organization and for me personally," Tallon said in a release.

"Denis is forever a part of our organization. We made a tough decision that we strongly feel is the right one as we continue to evaluate our team and create a championship caliber organization that can sustain success."

In Quenneville, the Blackhawks get a highly-regarded coach who is the main reason Colorado made the playoffs last season despite a number of injuries.

He has won 438 games as a head coach in St. Louis and Colorado and he won the 2000 Jack Adams Trophy.

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