To his credit, John McDonough said he knew nothing about hockey when he left the Cubs to take over as president of the Blackhawks.

It was an embarrassment to people in the organization to have a president who referred to the puck as “that hard black disk thingie,” but after two years at the helm, he’s finally getting the hang of hockey lingo.

“I remember the time we were entertaining some potential advertisers and John said a magician must be performing at halftime, because everybody kept getting excited about a possible hat-trick,” said former GM Dale Tallon.

“I had to explain to him that there is no halftime in hockey, nor are there magicians,” continued Tallon. “Needless to say, we lost the account.”

From the December 2009 issue by Michael Kloempken

hecklerbrad