OUR FANHOUSE TOOLBAR INTEGRATES THE LATEST SPORTS NEWS INTO YOUR WEB BROWSER AND INSTALLS IN SECONDS.
YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THE TOOLBAR HERE.

NHL

Havlat Uses Twitter to Go After Blackhawks Over Tallon Firing

Posted Jul 14, 2009 3:00PM By Bruce Ciskie (RSS feed)

Filed Under: Blackhawks, Wild, Western, NHL Fans

Text SizeAAA
Former Blackhawk Martin Havlat used his Twitter page to rip Chicago management for the firing of general manager Dale Tallon Tuesday.The four scheduled meetings between the Minnesota Wild and Chicago Blackhawks in 2009-2010 just got quite a bit more interesting.

It wasn't enough that former Blackhawk Martin Havlat appeared to rip the organization on his Twitter page after Chicago chose to sign Marian Hossa and let Havlat go to Minnesota as a free agent. Now, Havlat is taking aim at the firing re-assignment of general manager Dale Tallon.

Using Twitter, Havlat makes it clear that he doesn't think Tallon is responsible for his departure from Chicago, saying the former GM was "like a second father". Instead, Havlat uses the social networking site to go after unnamed members of the Blackhawks organization.

Havlat began the onslaught of Twitter updates with these two posts (oh that silly 140-character limit!):
I guess everyone saw what happened to Dale....yes, the story is starting to come out but it's just the tip of the iceberg.

... Lot's (sic) of people are telling me to stay quiet but shouldn't the fans know the truth? It's your loyalty, season ticket money and emotions here
From there, Havlat was asked by a fan why he left Chicago. He answered back, saying "I didn't leave Chicago, it left me".

Havlat then went out of his way to show some excitement for his new team, the Wild.
By telling truth, don't want people to think I'm bitter. Everyone in Minn has been awesome, they believe in me and I won't let them down
He also told another Twitter follower that his departure from Chicago had nothing to do with the fans, blaming it on "some people in the organization."

Well, since Tallon was apparently like a second father to Havlat, it stands to reason that the forward isn't blaming him for what happened. That leaves the Bowman family, along with higher-ups like John McDonough and Rocky Wirtz.

The most intriguing assertion you could take from these tweets is that it was Bowman, not Tallon, who spearheaded the signing of Hossa. Because of the cap issues Chicago is facing, it basically came down to Hossa or Havlat. Blaming Tallon for choosing Hossa might be a bit short-sighted at this point.

The idea of Scotty Bowman running the Blackhawks from behind the scenes is not new to anyone. It's been percolating for some time, at least as far back as the firing of coach Denis Savard in October.

Havlat's tweets may shed some more light on the goings-on in Chicago, where it appears that a true icon of the sport has found a way to get his son a job as general manager.

Call it unfair, but the reality is that Bowman took the job in Chicago so he could work with son Stan, and now -- barely a year later -- Stan has received a promotion to general manager of an Original Six franchise.

UPDATE: Havlat's agent, Allan Walsh, has also used Twitter to post his thoughts on the Tallon firing and Havlat's departure from Chicago.
Dale Tallon is a stand up guy and I have unqualified respect for him. He is honorable and loyal to a fault. Huge loss for Chicago.

What happened betwwen (sic) Marty and Chicago had nothing to do with Dale Tallon. Dale is a friend and will always be a friend.
Walsh's tweets appear to be more evidence that the Tallon move wasn't thought up over the last couple days.

Tags: dale+tallon, martin+havlat, scotty+bowman, stan+bowman

Related Articles

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)