Father-son fun for Hawks
Tuesday was all about fun and family for the Blackhawks. Departing from their normal travel routine, they took a morning flight from O'Hare to Phoenix, with their fathers on board. In the afternoon they conducted a scramble golf tournament at a Scottsdale resort, the first of several activities planned for the five-day trip that includes games against the Phoenix Coyotes on Thursday and the Colorado Avalanche on Friday.
Other NHL teams have held such fatherly ventures, but this was the first for the Hawks. President John McDonough and new general manager Stan Bowman put the trip together, and they invited all rostered players -- even injured ones like Marian Hossa and Adam Burish who are a significant time away from playing in games.
(Richard A. Chapman/Sun-Times)
''It's a great opportunity for everybody,'' said coach Joel Quenneville, who experienced a similar trip while coaching the Avalanche. ''It's going to be a fun week, a special, proud moment for everybody.''
Bowman's father Scotty is the Hawks' senior advisor, but Stan Bowman said that had nothing to do with the Hawks getting involved with the project.
''No, he didn't make me do it,'' said Stan Bowman, ''but I got to spend a lot of time with [father Scotty] at last year's playoffs and I really enjoyed it. I'm sure our players will as well.''
In addition to the golf outing and the two games, the fathers will be part of two group dinners and also be on hand at today's practice.
''They'll get to experience everything we do -- going on the road, to different cities,'' said defenseman Cam Barker, whose father is a retired police officer from Winnipeg who now teaches interrogation techniques to college students.
''It's going to be fun for them, and it'll be fun for us spending some time with our dads during the season.''
''It'll be exciting,'' said winger Kris Versteeg. ''We've never done anything like this before. It's going to be cool having all the fathers see their kids up close and personal and in action.''
It's not like the fathers haven't seen their sons play in games before, but this is different.
''My dad's been there since Day 1,'' said Versteeg. ''He coached me a couple years and that didn't work out very well because any time he told me to do something I'd do the opposite.''
''We got a lot of feedback from our players on this,'' said Bowman. ''It was hard to coordinate because a lot of things go into it. We started working on it last year, and spent a lot of time on it last summer.''
Bowman's not worried that the fun aspects might hamper the Hawks in the first two road games of a November that's filled with travel.
''They'll be fine. They'll probably be eager to put on a good performance for their dads,'' he said.