For the first time in the Joel Quenneville era, the Chicago Blackhawks have opened the season 0-2-0. They lost their season opener Wednesday night at home to the St. Louis Blues 5-2, before falling on Friday night in Nashville, 3-2.
Since taking over in 2008-09, the Blackhawks have made the Postseason every season that Quenneville has been at the helm. Only once have they failed to hit the 95-point mark, and that is due to the lockout season, in which they went 36-7-5 and went on to win the Stanley Cup.
Success with Chicago and Quenneville have been synonymous: he’s won three Stanley Cups (2010, 2013, 2015) against three different opponents. Their loss in the first round to St. Louis last season was the first time they hadn’t reached the conference quarterfinals since he took over. In the Postseason with Chicago, he owns a .610 winning percentage, while managing to keep the core of his All-Star roster both in tact and at the top of their game.
A former first-round pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs (21st overall) himself in the 1978 NHL Draft, Quenneville had a decade-long career that mainly featured time with the Hartford Whalers as a defenseman.
From 1996-2002, Quenneville was always the bridesmaid and never the bride when the head coach of the St. Louis Blues. He went to seven consecutive conference quarterfinals, getting as close as losing in the conference finals in 2000-01 to Colorado. Only once in his 18-year coaching career that he has been allowed to finish the season, has his team not made the playoffs.
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