Rozner: Staff change just the start for Chicago Blackhawks

It wasn't much of a secret around the Blackhawks that Mike Kitchen was hard on his defensemen, a coach who generally took the fun out of going to the rink for those players who were consistently in his crosshairs.

That includes a pretty big name or two.

So it wasn't so much a search for a scapegoat when general manager Stan Bowman fired the longtime assistant coach a few days after the Hawks were eliminated in the first round for the second straight season.

It was considered a change long overdue by some around the game, but one that was impossible to make after Kitchen was here for Stanley Cups in 2013 and 2015.

There's also that minor matter of Kitchen's closeness as a friend and former teammate of head coach Joel Quenneville, who had Kitchen on his staff as an assistant for 13 years in two different cities.

But with nearly 1,000 victories (including playoffs) in the NHL, Quenneville is heading to the Hall of Fame after three Cups in Chicago, and opportunities to force a change on his staff don't come easy or often.

So Bowman made his move and Quenneville admitted Thursday - at a pre-draft news conference at the UC - that he wasn't thrilled.

"That day I was not happy," Quenneville said. "We lost a great coach and somebody I had been working with a long time. It was tough.

"We've moved on now, but I wasn't excited at the moment."

Replacing Kitchen to run the defense and penalty kill is another former Quenneville teammate, Ulf Samuelsson. A two-time Cup winner as a player, Samuelsson is expected to be the life of the party among the players compared to the dour Kitchen.

"I didn't know Ulf Samuelsson until we went through the interview process," Bowman said. "He's got a lot of great ideas, a lot of energy, a lot of passion.

"I walked away from the interview and knew he was the right guy for the job."

To his credit, Quenneville is looking ahead and finding the positives with having Samuelsson on staff.

"It was a nice fit," Quenneville said. "There's some familiarity there and some excitement being together, knowing that (Samuelsson) is one of those guys who brings passion."

As for style on defense, don't expect a huge change, but there's thought based on previous Samuelsson stops that the Hawks might look a bit different sorting the rush and on the penalty kill.

"I think we'll be very comparable," Quenneville said. "How we played without the puck, I don't think that was too much of an issue, but we have a defense that can play both ways and we still want offense from our defense.

"But when it's time to defend, how we want to play in our own end without the puck is something that'll be very close to how we play."

Bowman made mention that exit interviews with players are often for the edification of management more than a chance to grade players, and it was perhaps in those sessions that Bowman concluded a move had to be made.

Either way, there were adjustments coming after another first-round exit.

"Sometimes you're just looking for something different, and sometimes change is good," Bowman said. "I know it's not easy when you've had a group that's been together.

"We weren't going to do the exact same thing next year and expect a different result.

"We're going to have some new players next year. We're going to have some new staff. We have a new coach in Rockford. Every now and then, it's good to bring in some new ideas."

It's going to be a big year for the Hawks, and the end result has to be different.

Or there may be more significant change.

brozner@dailyherald.com

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