It’s all business for McDonough
On the Jumbotron inside the United Center, Blackhawks defenseman Brent Seabrook was being interviewed last Sunday night moments after scoring the winning goal in overtime to beat the Sharks.
From his suite, team president John McDonough stopped applauding only long enough to shake hands with other excited members of the front office. Winning the fourth straight game against one of the NHL’s best teams provided the perfect way for the Hawks to begin preparations for a six-game, 11-day trip that begins Thursday night in Calgary.
Well, almost perfect.
As Seabrook spoke on the giant scoreboard, McDonough noticed something.
“See,” McDonough said, nodding to the image of Seabrook’s side profile. “He should be facing the camera straighter when he talks.”
Since McDonough, 56, began rejuvenating the hockey culture in Chicago when he took the job two years ago Friday, no detail has been too small.
This is what McDonough means when he talks about his regimented personality and says, not necessarily with pride, “Whatever gene allows you to be satisfied, I don’t have it.”
This is why the lifelong Chicagoan tells fans in the corridor congratulating him on the Blackhawk resurgence, “Thanks, but we haven’t done anything yet.”
This is how McDonough has helped to historically transform the expansion-like franchise he inherited into the most vibrant sports organization in the city – one whose value jumped 26 percent to $258 million last year, according to Forbes Magazine.
“John has great expectations and for people who aren’t ready for the challenge, he might be hard to work for,” said Al MacIsaac, the Blackhawks senior director of hockey administration. “But for people cut from the same cloth, he’s not.”
But once he walks through the office door, McDonough honors the boundaries between the board room and the dressing room. You won’t see him offering coach Joel Quenneville advice on line changes or high-fiving winger Patrick Kane. You seldom will see McDonough without a dark suit and perfectly knotted silk tie.
“Coaches coach, general managers generally manage and presidents preside,” he said.
