Martin Havlat Speaks His Mind

Ever since news broke late Monday night that the Blackhawks were replacing Dale Tallon as general manager with Stan Bowman, former Blackhawk Martin Havlat has been a Tweeting machine on his Twitter page. He's been letting his thoughts be heard in 140 character or less bursts.

Here are some examples of what Havlat had to say.

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 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

What do you people think? Interested to know your thoughts.

Just so everyone begins to understand, Dale was like a 2nd father to me.

Want to be clear. I loved my time in Chicago but moved on. Very excited about Minny,going to give everything I have to the Wild.

Well, it seems Marty got tired of having to confine his thoughts on the subject on Twitter, so he decided to give TSN's Darren Dreger an exclusive interview about his feelings on the Tallon firing. Havlat did not hold back.

"My negotiation with Chicago was not between Dale and my agent, it was between Dale and McDonough," Havlat said "Why? Because McDonough couldn't stand that Dale was so successful and getting the credit for building the Hawks from a last place team to making the Conference Final in three short years. Remember, we were also the youngest team in the NHL last year."

"I was too closely identified with Dale," he continued. "McDonough knew long ago he was going to fire Dale. He wanted someone he could claim as his own He wanted to stand up at the convention and claim credit for signing this guy or that guy."

Havlat's candor won't be easily accepted by the Blackhawks, and there may be claims of this being nothing more than the backlash of a jilted player, but Havlat's appreciation for Dale Tallon is what drove him to speak up mere hours after Tallon's firing was confirmed.

"Dale and I were very close and I stand for loyalty. The players loved Dale and they are with him. Every single player on that team is with Dale. I still talk to the guys all the time, hockey players know a phony when they see one."

"I was part of a very special team but that team doesn't exist anymore. I am really disappointed that Rocky Wirtz would let something like this happen," Havlat told TSN.ca.

Well then.

I'm not really sure which side to take on this story. While I'm not entirely sure why Tallon was let go, I can't be sure that Havlat isn't just bitter at this point. As he said on his Twitter page and in the TSN interview, Tallon was like a second father to him and they were very close. So it's likely he's just upset that something like this happened to somebody he cares about.

There's also the fact that Marty thought he was going to be getting a big multi-year deal from the Blackhawks and instead that money went to Marian Hossa.

There's also Havlat's contention that McDonough did all of this so he could take credit for "signing this guy or that guy" at the convention this weekend and be a hero for the fans. Well, if you listened to the press conference yesterday in which the Tallon firing was announced, McDonough made it clear a number of times that he has absolutely nothing to do with any player decisions, saying "I know what I don't know."

Doesn't sound like somebody hogging all the credit to me.

Blackhawks color commentator Eddie Olczyk had some pretty harsh words of his own this morning about the situation, but his were reserved for Havlat. Appearing on ESPN1000's Waddle and Silvy show Olczyk went off on Havlat a bit himself.

Now I can't remember what Eddie O. said word for word because I only heard it the once and they haven't replayed it, but to paraphrase, here you go. Basically Olczyk said that Havlat came to Chicago as an extremely overpaid player who had trouble staying healthy. The Hawks gave him a chance here, and he was hurt all the time except last season, which happened to be a contract year for Havlat.

Olczyk then went on to say that if Havlat loved Chicago so much he could have just signed a one-year deal with the Blackhawks to prove to the team he could stay healthy and that he wanted to be here.

Instead he bristled at the idea and took a deal with the Minnesota Wild.

Like I said earlier, I'm not sure how to feel about this thing. While I think there's some truth to what Havlat is saying, I think a lot of it is just sour grapes. At the same time, I don't really buy the story the Blackhawks are selling either.

Listening to their answers during yesterday's press conference, there were some things said that seemed to contradict other things that were said in the same press conference. I mean, in one sentence McDonough said that if the restricted free agent fiasco hadn't happened, Tallon would "probably" still be the general manager.

Then a minute later he was saying the blame for the offer sheets laid with the entire organization, but ultimately, himself.

So frankly I don't think either side is being completely honest with us about it, and if I'm going to be completely honest about it, I'll just say that I can't wait for next season to start so the Blackhawks can start winning some games and we can all just move on.