Flipping through the channels on your television and catching a Chicago Blackhawks game in late June has certainly become nothing out of the ordinary in the past six years. Since 2010, the Blackhawks have appeared in the Stanley Cup Finals three times and have claimed all three titles.
From the outside looking in, the viewer on June 15, 2015 catches a glimpse of Chicago head coach Joel Quenneville at the Stanley Cup Finals. The NBC television cameras catch him with his arms crossed and a grim look on his face. Little would the viewer know from Quenneville’s countenance that the Blackhawks just grabbed a 2-0 lead in Game 6 of the finals against Tampa Bay Lightning and were five minutes away from their third championship in six years.
Where there are team milestones, usually personal accolades are a short distance away. On Jan. 14, a 2-1 victory for the Blackhawks over the Montreal Canadiens was coaching career win No. 783 for Quenneville. This victory meant Quenneville would pass Hockey Hall of Fame coach Al Arbour to become the second-winningest coach in National Hockey League history.
“I feel very fortunate and honored to be in some great company over the years. It happened fast and quick but I feel very fortunate,” Quenneville told Josh Cooper of Yahoo Sports.
Quenneville has also coached the St. Louis Blues and the Colorado Avalanche before joining the Blackhawks during the 2008-09 campaign. In his time with Chicago, Quenneville has won 345 of his 582 games, as of Jan. 14. He was rewarded following the 1999-2000 season with the Jack Adams Award for Coach of the Year after leading the St. Louis Blues to a top record in the NHL.
Two days before Quenneville claimed win No. 783, the Blackhawks announced a three-year extension that will push his coaching tenure to over 20 seasons. The latest extension will push Quenneville’s career to the end of the 2019-2020 season.
In his 18 seasons as an NHL head coach, Quenneville has impressively missed the playoffs only once, in the 2006-07 campaign with the Colorado Avalanche. He will be an assistant coach this fall for Canada’s team in the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.
Grant DePorter, CEO of Harry Caray's Restaurant Group and founder of the Chicago Sports Museum told Brian Hedger of NHL.com, "Joel Quenneville is the guy that got the Blackhawks over the 49-year [Cup drought]." He continued, "Once you do that, you can be immortalized in Chicago history."
As of Jan. 18, the Chicago Blackhawks are currently the top team in the Western Conference with a commanding 31-13-4 record and are on a remarkable 11-game winning streak.
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