Chicago Blackhawks Case Study

The Chicago Blackhawks are one of the most famed organizations in not only the National Hockey League, but in sports across the board. The team has a long-standing history of success, but recently the team has remained one of the most dominant groups in sports. The club has won three of the last six Stanley Cup Championships; the most recent being the 2015 championship. Unfortunately for the team, leadership and the fans that follow, the Blackhawks were unable to make it to the Stanley Cup finals to close out this season, but they are still in a position to be an impactful team in the near future. The Blackhawks were eliminated from the playoffs by the St. Louis Blues on April 25 when they dropped Game 7 with a 3-2 loss. This is after rallying to tie the series that started off 3-1 in favor of the Blues. Such a turnaround created an air of excitement that would be lost when the Blackhawks were sent home in what many consider to be an early exit. “This is a huge disappointment to me,” Head Coach Joel Quenneville said during the post-game press conference after the Game 7 defeat. “We didn’t get that excitement factor; we didn’t get that investment to take off.” …show more content…
Fans may do it, but players and organizations shy away from pointing blame. In Game 5 the team made a major change when they paired Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane together, which usually leads to increased scoring for the team. Unfortunately, that would not be the case to close out Game 7, as both players had been mostly quiet throughout the post season. Even though they were not performing well, the Blackhawks went with this pairing and nearly advanced to the second round of the playoffs. Sadly, their quest for a repeat was cut