Rather than the softballs Neil Milbert lobbed to Bill Wirtz (“Chief Blackhawk,” Tribune, March 3), here are the questions that should have been asked:
– Knowing Alpo Suhonen’s personality and coaching orientation, why in the world would you have hired him in the first place? (You can take the coach out of the dinner theater, but you can’t take the dinner theater out of the coach.)
– At this point in your career, why would you rather turn a profit than win a Stanley Cup?
– After firing Mike Keenan, why did you insist on hiring coaches (Darryl Sutter, Craig Hartsburg, Dirk Graham, Alpo Suhonen) without any NHL head coaching experience?
– Why did you completely ignore the immense European talent pool that other teams began mining more than 15 years ago?
– Why do you vow to retain the Blackhawks’ young talent (an oxymoron if I ever heard one), yet trade away successful fan favorites whom your season reservation-holders pay a lot of money to watch play?
– Why do you think the season reservation-holders in cities such as Detroit, Boston and Philadelphia attend home games even though most of the home games are televised?
