Thank you Coach Q.,
Thank you for everything. Since 2008 you have provided Chicago with some of the greatest hockey teams that the NHL has ever seen. You have created a winning culture in Chicago. Whenever hockey season comes around Chicago gears up for another winning season. The people of Chicago had the absolute luxury of watching your team dominate on the ice for a decade. In that span, you won 3 Stanley Cups and became the second most winningest coach in league history. Second to only Scotty Bowman.
The 2010 Stanley Cup win by the Chicago Blackhawks was the first championship I have ever witnesses won by my beloved Chicago sports teams. I remember my brother seeing that Patrick Kane shot go in the net while my mom and I sit, confused about what just happened, until we hear Doc announce that Patrick Kane had scored. It was a feeling I have never felt before. But you weren’t done there. You had a team, ready for action after the lockout and set the NHL record for most games unbeaten to start the season (24) then finished the job and took the Hawks to their second Stanley Cup victory in 3 years. A Stanley Cup that featured two incredible goals in 17 seconds to lead the Hawks over the Bruins in a riveting back and forth series. Finally, you brought the Hawks back for a third Stanley Cup and clinched the Cup in Chicago for the first time in a million years.
Chicago has become one of the Hockey Capitals of the world thanks to your contribution and development in the young Blackhawks players. Kane and Toews are now one of the best tandems in the league and the Hawks will be the best team of this decade. Since your hire in 2008, Chicago has grown exponentially as a hockey market. Millions of fans showed up to all three Stanley Cup parades. I cannot wait to tell my kids stories about the resilient Chicago Blackhawks back in the 2010’s who would not give up and stuck together. A team that could not be beaten and had one of the best coaches of all time. So again, from me and the rest of Chicago, thanks Coach, for everything.
