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CHICAGO — The Stanley Cup is on its way to the Wachovia Center but the architect of the Chicago Blackhawks is not.
Should the Cup be presented to Jonathan Toews on Wednesday night, Dale Tallon will be nowhere near the champagne spray, instead watching from a television screen far away, celebrating the championship he has been awkwardly removed from.
This is Tallon’s 40th year in professional hockey: He has never been fortunate enough to win a title of any kind. But this was his team, this should have been his year. But a not so funny thing happened on the way to the Cup final. Tallon was removed as general manager of the Hawks, victim of some salary-cap errors, a few bad contracts and some dirty background politics.
Replaced as GM, he was pushed to a position with title but no portfolio. The Bowmans, Scotty and Stan, the son named after the Cup, helped facilitate Tallon’s departure. It was nasty business — but business it was. And here are the Blackhawks now, one win away from ending the longest drought in hockey but there will be no parade for Tallon.
“I’m really proud of them,” said Tallon, who has parlayed the Hawks success into his new position as general manager of the Florida Panthers. “The thing I’m most proud of is how they act off the ice. And how they get along. It’s a great character group. And that’s what I want to build in Florida, the same kind of group. They’re still a young team in Chicago by the way. I’m just proud of the way they act on and off the ice.”
When asked if he was bitter or angry about his circumstance, having been pushed aside and ostensibly having this Stanley Cup shot stolen from him, Tallon takes the high road.
“I don’t live in the past,” he said. “You make a bad swing on the tee, you’ve got to forget about it and make the next shot. I take that same philosophy with everything I do. It’s glass half full for me. That’s the way I look at life.”
But what if it was you? What if it was your team? How bittersweet would all this be?
It’s difficult to be this close to the people, this removed from the scene.
Tallon drafted Toews and Patrick Kane.
He signed Marian Hossa, John Madden, Tomas Kopecky, Brent Sopel and Antti Niemi as free agents. He also signed Brian Campbell and Cristobal Huet (contracts that led to his departure).
He traded for Patrick Sharp, Kris Versteeg, Andrew Ladd, Ben Eager, giving up next to nothing in return.
And, oh yeah, he hired Joel Quenneville, first as a part-time scout, later as the head coach who would take this team from good to great.
In Tallon’s time running the Hawks, the team went from 65 points to 71 to 88 to 104 to 112 this season. That’s the kind of stock we like to buy. He started post-lockout, just after John Ferguson’s first season in Toronto, and with patience, a plan, and indeed some luck, they are this close.
Tallon wound up winning the lottery and a whole lot more in choosing Kane first overall in 2007. As things have turned out, Kane is significantly better than any other player selected in that draft.
That was a big win, coming on the heals of the choice of Toews, the most complete player drafted one year earlier.
He was also fortunate to inherit some of Mike Smith’s leftovers, such as Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook and the 245th player selected in 2003, Dustin Byfuglien.
“Listen,” Tallon said, “I’ve got to be thankful to the Blackhawks. They gave them every opportunity, 33 wonderful years with that organization. And I’ve got nothing but good things to say about them all.
“Being there helped me, it raised my stock. It got me this job in Florida.”
It won’t get him the Stanley Cup. Assuming the Blackhawks win, which remains an assumption, many of his players, who text him regularly, who stay in touch, will pay tribute to Tallon. Many of them still consider this team his.
That won’t get him a ring or his name on the Cup. It should but it won’t.