Joel Quenneville, Blackhawks have 'moved on' from each other, and his quiet return Sunday proved it
Many fans at the Blackhawks-Ducks game Sunday may leave the United Center at the end of the night never knowing the winningest coach in Hawks franchise history was in their midst.
There was no official acknowledgment of new Ducks coach Joel Quenneville, who will likely become the second coach in NHL history to reach 1,000 career wins later this season. His mustachioed face was never shown on the video board, his myriad accomplishments in Chicago never retold in a dramatic tribute.
His name was only mentioned once, in public address announcer Gene Honda's standard reading of the visitor's starting lineup 10 minutes before puck drop — before many fans had taken their seats. A handful of people clapped for a couple seconds.
Since Quenneville technically returned to Chicago as an opposing coach for the first time back in January 2020 with the Panthers, the Hawks were absolved of any obligation to recognize him Sunday, and they took that gift and ran.
After all, Quenneville's Hawks legacy will be forever complicated by his involvement in the cover-up of former video coach Brad Aldrich's sexual assault of Kyle Beach during the 2010 playoffs. It's easier to just avoid it altogether at this point.
The event level of the United Center has hardly changed during the building's existence. So when Quenneville walked around it Sunday, his eyes scanned across the same gray air ducts, white cement blocks and multicolored floor tiles that he scanned on May 23, 2010, while walking to the fateful front-office meeting in which Aldrich's reprehensible actions were discussed.
As the Jenner & Block investigation finally revealed in 2021, the misunderstandings and callousness that occurred during that meeting ultimately allowed Aldrich to escape justice in Chicago and allegedly sexually assault at least two other people in the years following.
Then-general manager Stan Bowman told investigators he remembered that "Quenneville shook his head and said that it was hard for the team to get to where they were, and they could not deal with this issue now."
Then-team counselor Jim Gary told investigators that "during the meeting, Quenneville appeared angry and was concerned about upsetting team chemistry."
Since 2021, Quenneville has been reportedly proactive in learning about what he did incorrectly in 2010 and reforming his approach to delicate situations moving forward. He said he has had "healthy conversations" with Beach, too.
The NHL reinstated him for hiring in July 2024, and the Ducks took the leap this past summer, making a decision that unabashedly prioritized winning over morals.
Quenneville's track record — including three Stanley Cups — speaks for itself, results-wise. That appealed to the young, talented and impatient Ducks, who conveniently receive minimal local media scrutiny and even less league-wide attention.
The 67-year-old Canadian coach, to his credit, has been relatively transparent and willing to speak about his takeaways from the scandal, and he did so again Sunday afternoon.
"Things we learned from that was that I could have been more forceful asking more questions and gotten more involved in the details of what happened," Quenneville said.
"We talked to the team. We addressed them right off the bat. Guys have been good. I think, as a staff, we’re aware on a daily basis of the accountability of each guy."
Only two current Hawks players — Connor Murphy and Teuvo Teravainen — played under Quenneville, but a handful of support staff remain from his tenure, and he jovially greeted and caught up with them on the event level Sunday.
There isn't much of an official relationship anymore between Quenneville and the Hawks' front office, though.
"I think I’ve moved on," he said. "We’re part of the game and the league. [With] the Hawks, I haven’t had a lot of shared discussions lately. But at the same time, we’ve gotten along fine as we’ve gone over the last year. The memories that we have over that stretch of time were spectacular, and I don’t think you can take anything away from the guys who accomplished some great feats.
"I’m just happy to be back in this building and hear the crowd being excited. The crowds look like they’ve been good so far this year. The team is on that next level of trying to be a playoff team, and it looks like they’re on the right track."