Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman on The Jeff Marek Show on Chicago Blackhawks really slow start to the season.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
** Before Stan Bowman stepped down yesterday
“Chicago, I think the urgency is much greater. Quite simply like you said, there were huge expectations this year. I didn’t know how good Chicago was going to be. I admit I was unsure but I didn’t see this. I didn’t see no lead in six games. And their ticket sales are also soft too. They announced night their sellout streak was over.
That’s the thing. I’m sitting here right now and I’m looking at some of these places, and I’m saying, okay, you see the way ticket sales are going. So you say, okay, what do we have to do to get these moving?
But also, in Chicago for example, Jeremy Colliton’s under contract this year and next. Stan Bowman, I don’t know how long his deal is but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s tied into the end of Colliton’s deal. Which is the end of next year. I’m wondering as teams come out of a pandemic and have been hammered in terms of revenues a bit, how eager are they going to be to pay guys not to work?
So it comes to this big debate about what’s more important, is it making a change to show you want to make a change, you recognize something has to be different or is it, do you say, look, this is not something we want to do right now because of the whole economics of the situation. I think in Chicago, there is no way they thought they were going to be having this conversation this early in the season. But they have to be having it. There’s no way you can’t be having it.”