Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

All John McDonough

07/16/2016 at 8:32am EDT

from David Haugh of the Chicago Tribune,

How did you digest the Hawks' first first-round playoff exit since 2012?

We got beat, period. You can talk about (Brent) Seabrook hitting two posts (in Game 7 against the Blues), but we got beat. We had the plan to acquire (Tomas) Fleischmann and (Andrew) Ladd and (Dale) Weise, and when you do that, of course you think you're going to the finals because that always had been the script. So it was a bit of a culture shock.

But I always say: You better have a plan in case you need to change the plan. And Stan had to look at things differently. He couldn't be more committed or engaged. He's understated, subdued, measured. I have to check his pulse from time to time.

How difficult has the past year been for you — particularly the Kane situation?

Extremely, extremely difficult. I wouldn't be human if I didn't say that. We wear all of this. We take this personally. We second-guess each other, but there was a point in time with that when you had to move on and it couldn't be something that impacted me leading this organization. You learn a lot about yourself, human nature, about other people. I've been doing this since 1980. It's probably been the most difficult year of my career.

But this isn't about me. It's about what am I going to do in leading this organization to a good place. This was something I internalized, quietly, and moved past it. But from an emotional standpoint, it took a toll.

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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

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