{"id":225582,"date":"2025-10-19T23:11:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T23:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/225582\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T23:11:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T23:11:11","slug":"joel-quenneville-returns-to-face-chicago-blackhawks-for-first-time-since-being-banned-after-sexual-assault-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/225582\/","title":{"rendered":"Joel Quenneville returns to face Chicago Blackhawks for first time since being banned after sexual assault scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO (AP) \u2014 First-year Anaheim Ducks<\/a> coach Joel Quenneville<\/a> returned to the United Center on Sunday for the first time since details of a sexual assault scandal involving his 2010 Stanley Cup Blackhawks squad were published in October 2021.<\/p>\n

The 67-year-old Quenneville has the Ducks off to a 2-2-0 start almost four years after he was forced to resign as coach of the Florida Panthers<\/a>. He was banned from the NHL for nearly three years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m grateful to be back in the game,\u201d Quenneville said before the Ducks faced the Blackhawks. \u201cI\u2019m excited about being back in here in Chicago.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a long road for Quenneville, the second-winningest coach in NHL history. His 971 career victories entering Sunday trail only Scotty Bowman\u2019s 1,244.<\/p>\n

An independent investigation commissioned by the Blackhawks led to Quenneville stepping down from the Panthers in October 2021. The investigation concluded the team mishandled allegations raised by 2008 first-round draft pick Kyle Beach against video coach Brad Aldrich during the team\u2019s first Stanley Cup run. <\/p>\n

Former Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman and assistant GM Al MacIsaac also resigned and were prohibited from working in the NHL.<\/p>\n

They were reinstated by the league in July 2024. Bowman became the Edmonton Oilers<\/a>\u2019 general manager three weeks later. The Ducks signed Quenneville in May to replace Greg Cronin.<\/p>\n

Quenneville has spent parts of 25 NHL seasons behind the benches of St. Louis, Colorado, Chicago and Florida. He guided the Blackhawks for more than 10 years and led them to championships in 2010, 2013 and 2015. <\/p>\n

The Blackhawks fired Quenneville in November 2018 after a 6-6-3 start. He joined the Panthers for the 2019-20 season.<\/p>\n

Quenneville returned to the United Center for the first time with Florida in January 2020 and received a video tribute from the Blackhawks and a roaring ovation from fans. He was behind the Panthers bench in the arena four times during the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season, but no fans were present.<\/p>\n

Quenneville seemed a little uncertain about how he might be received by United Center patrons this time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe memories we had were all very positive here,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m just happy to be back in that building and hear the crowd being excited, and the crowds look like they\u2019ve been good so far this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked if he expected acknowledgment from fans, Quenneville responded with his signature, \u201cWe\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Ducks conducted background checks and spoke with Beach before hiring Quenneville, who said he has accepted responsibility for his role in the scandal and has engaged in educational activities to deepen his understanding of sexual assault scenarios.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight from the day that we joined the Ducks, it\u2019s been a lot of positivity,\u201d Quenneville said. \u201cJust getting around people that are in the game, being around the organization, having a young team, kind of reminds me of the team when we were here.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Anaheim, Quenneville took over a team with the NHL\u2019s third-longest active playoff drought. The Ducks finished sixth in the Pacific Division last season at 35-37-10 after being in the bottom two for the previous four years.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NHL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nhl<\/p>\n

Matt Carlson, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO (AP) \u2014 First-year Anaheim Ducks coach Joel Quenneville returned to the United Center on Sunday for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225583,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-225582","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}