For the Chicago Blackhawks, the only way is up.
Well, technically, they could dig a deeper hole at the bottom of the NHL standings, but the Hawks believe interim coach Anders Sorensen has the tools and new ideas to help them climb out of their morass.
It’s the one the Hawks have found themselves in after a 8-16-2 start, prompting the firing of Luke Richardson on Thursday just 26 games into his third season as coach.
“You have to be realistic with what you’re expecting and what you can demand out of a group,” general manager Kyle Davidson said. “But having said that, I don’t believe this is a last-place group.
“Do I believe we deserve better in some games that we didn’t get a point or two points out of this year? Yes. But dissect that. Why didn’t we get those points? I feel like there were things that could be cleaned up. And maybe some things kept popping up here and there that, again, probably should have been improved upon.”
The Hawks are at a critical juncture at which they’re trying to prevent the season from spiraling and establish a foundation for the future.
Still, Sorensen is very much a man of the present.
“I’ve been a big believer in where my two feet are is where I’m going to work and try to get better and we’ll see what happens,” he said. “You want to strive to improve and get up to higher levels. It’s surreal right now, trying to digest. … I feel ready, but there’s always a part I’m sure I’ll have to learn on the fly here.”
Sorensen lost his first game behind the Hawks bench Saturday, a 4-2 defeat to the Winnipeg Jets at the United Center.
Here are five observations about how the Hawks got here — and where they’re going.
1. Why make the switch now?
Perhaps the most stunning thing about the players’ reaction to Richardson’s dismissal is that few seemed stunned.
“It’s not that it’s surprising,” center Jason Dickinson said. “There’s not a good time. There’s not a time where everybody would’ve been like, ‘This is the day you need to make a decision.’ …
“If you wait until the last few weeks of the season, maybe you’ve got some guys that are checked out, guys that are moving on. But right now, there’s still hope and still a lot to play for.”
Davidson said he started considering firing Richardson late last month.
“I was hopeful that the little stretch we had where we beat Dallas and Florida, that it was going to be a little bit of a turning point for us,” he said.
From Nov. 21-27, the Hawks beat the Carolina Panthers, lost in overtime to the Philadelphia Flyers and beat the Dallas Stars.
“(It) felt like something was happening,” Davidson said.
But the Hawks lost the next four.
For Davidson, the tipping point was the 4-2 loss to the Boston Bruins on Wednesday.
“When I came to the conclusion that I wanted to make a change, you make it,” he said. “I don’t think once you cross that threshold in your own mind you can go back.
“And so I crossed that point after the Boston game. … It was after that point that it was like, OK, you know what, it’s time to step in and make a change.”
2. Understanding went wrong under Richardson is key to moving forward.
Davidson said it came down to execution: advancing the puck through the neutral zone, holding onto pucks, sparking offense, icing — the list goes on.
“Turnovers in bad spots on the ice, let’s peel that back and understand why and how do we fix that,” Davidson said. “Execution on passes.”
Davidson gave Richardson credit for keeping up morale and erasing some of the defensive mistakes from last season.
“Maybe we overcompensated,” Nick Foligno said.
Dickinson added that while the Hawks have improved in areas, especially defense, nothing about the system should be considered sacred.
“We were not giving up a ton,” he said. “Our inner-slot chances against were down, our rush-chances-against were down. So there’s a lot of things that were going better.
“But if we’re not getting wins, then maybe there’s something that could change.”
3. Did Richardson lose the locker room?
Foligno, named the Hawks captain this season, spoke with Richardson the night of his firing, and it was a “tough conversation.”
“I’ve known Luke for as long as I’ve been in the NHL — before that actually. We rented his house in Toronto when my dad was playing there,” Foligno said.
But personal bond aside, Foligno recognized that changes needed to be made “to get ourselves back on track.”
Dickinson echoed the sentiments of teammates and Richardson this week: It’s not a singular problem plaguing the Hawks, it’s random mishaps that led to the other team scoring — or the Hawks failing to find the net.
“It wasn’t one glaring thing that we can say, ‘Oh, guys just didn’t believe in this’ system,” he said. “It was just a new thing every night. We’d shoot ourselves in the foot, we’d ice a puck, we’d take a penalty — we’d do something to ourselves.
“It wasn’t necessarily with us not respecting or listening to Luke as a coach.”
If anyone might have harbored a grudge it would’ve been Taylor Hall, whom Richardson benched out of the blue.
Hall said that despite the “lack of communication at that point, Luke’s a really good man, and he’s been in hockey a long time, and he’s made hockey a better place. It wasn’t like we weren’t excited to play for him every night, but at the same time if it wasn’t working, it’s not working.”
4. What might change under Sorensen?
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Davidson called the interim coach a “new face, a new voice, new ideas,” and it started with the first practice.
Players said Sorensen brought a lot of energy and detail to Fifth Third Arena on Friday, and some of the drills did have a different look than under Richardson.
“Really good pace,” center Connor Bedard said, adding that the team needs to play with pace more consistently. “We were buzzing, everyone was putting a good sweat on, working really hard, and that’s how we want to play.”
Dickinson perked up when talking about one new wrinkle.
“He was sharp to stop a drill and correct us,” he said. “We’re working on some new things as a group to shake things up, create a little bit more energy in our attack. He stops it right away and says, ‘This is what I’m seeing, this is what I want, let’s talk about it immediately, fix it, great, let’s go.’ ”
Sorensen said that’s his preference: Stop the drill, make the adjustment and ensure everyone is on the same page.
“If you don’t do that, it goes by the wayside and that’s when it gets confusing for players as well,” he said.
Hall noticed “a bit more competitiveness” during practice. He noted that Sorensen “comes from a bit more of a modern background. (He) grew up in Sweden, has a different view on how we should play, possibly.”
Sorensen, 49, a native of Södertälje, Sweden, is the league’s first head coach from the country.
“I think structurally, systematically, we’re going to change a couple things that can hopefully allow us to play a little bit faster and with a bit more pace and a bit more on our toes,” Hall said.
Look for Sorensen to be more aggressive on offense.
Richardson employed a one-two-two forecheck so forwards wouldn’t get too low and expose themselves to counterattacks. The idea with that alignment is that if the Hawks suddenly become defenders on a counter rush, they can push attackers to the walls and protect the middle.
Said Sorensen: “We want to encourage our (defensemen) to be up in the rush” instead of hanging back too often, waiting for an opportunity.
“We need to get skating here,” he added. “We have a team that can move and we have some guys that can really fly out there, so try to play to their strength.”
Richardson’s lineups were a revolving door, and Sorensen again shuffled the deck for his first lineup at practice. For example, Bedard — the reigning Calder Trophy winner who has only two goals in his last 18 games and five on the season — last played with Hall and Bertuzzi on his flanks, but Philipp Kurashev and Teuvo Teräväinen joined him on the top line.
Sorensen said coaches and management all had input, and he wants to give lines adequate time to show whether they click.
“There’s been some juggling going on but there’s been some history with some of the guys,” he said. “Chemistry is a big part of it. We want to try to be patient with some of the guys, but there has to be accountability too.”
5. What’s the outlook for the rest of the season?
The Hawks say they’re focused on more than just sparking Bedard’s offense, but it would be foolish to understate its importance to Sorensen’s mandate for the remaining 55 games.
“Anders is experienced with some of our high-end players now, and from other organizations,” Davidson said. “His time in the game of hockey will be really beneficial for Connor.”
Sorensen and Bedard talked briefly Friday, and the coach wants to delve deeper.
“I’m curious to hear his thoughts a little bit,” he said. “He’s one of those guys we have to get him up the ice and get skating. … “We have to get a way for him to get the puck in motion. That’s the biggest thing right now.”
With Richardson is out of the picture, attention shifts to Davidson as much as it does Sorensen. It was Davidson who upgraded the roster in the offseason, and if the team continues to flounder, maybe the GM didn’t assemble the right personnel.
“I don’t think I’ve been underwhelmed by players,” Davidson said. “I don’t know if we’re at that point right now where we’ve got enough information. … We’ll give Anders some run and we’ll see where we’re at the end of the year, take stock of what needs to happen.”
The players aren’t absolved either.
“There’s a lack of excuses at this point,” Hall said.
As a first-time NHL coach, Sorensen will lean on veterans and his assistants (who will remain for now) to help him make the transition from the AHL. Derek King, once his boss in Rockford, can help him do that as Sorensen’s assistant.
He said there’s no weirdness about flipping roles.
“He’s a very humble person,” Sorensen said. “We have a very good relationship, so there are no issues. We actually rode in together this morning, so no problem.”
Sorensen also talked with Foligno and other locker-room leaders.
Said Foligno: “We can help him along. We can help each other.”
Sorensen has some built-in bonds elsewhere in the locker room. He coached several of the players during their upbringing in Rockford, including Alex Vlasic, Lukas Reichel, Kurashev and Joey Anderson.
Among current IceHogs, Frank Nazar is on pace for a 40-goal season, his first with the team. If the Hawks need to infuse some offense or the season looks lost, perhaps they would give him more than just the three-game taste of the NHL he received last season.
Neither Sorensen nor Davidson was willing to forecast Nazar’s arrival, if it even happens this season. Davidson said of the young center: “I don’t think he’s done anything to hurt his case. What that means for recall, we’ve got to take that day by day and see where it goes.”
For the rest of the players, they’re optimistic but realistic.
“We’re not going to just become a Stanley Cup-contending team today, so let’s just get a little bit better today,” Foligno said. “Let’s work on what we can control. If we have that mindset, the mountain won’t feel so steep to climb either. “
Sorensen was asked what he needs to do to keep the job.
“Win games,” he said with a laugh. “We want to see progress with a lot of our younger players. We want to make sure we’re kind of building off this.”
Davidson said Sorenson will get the chance to audition on the bigger stage: “It’s a great opportunity for him to show what he’s got.”
But the GM will still conduct the search for a long-term solution, likely after the season. He couldn’t say whether he’ll place more value in experience, considering the last four men behind the bench — Jeremy Colliton (fired in 2021), King, Richardson and now Sorensen — were or currently are first-time NHL coaches.
“Experience isn’t a bad thing, but I’m not sure where it’ll fall,” Davidson said. “It’s not nothing, that’s for sure. We’ll bake that mix when the time is right and figure out what it is that we’re specifically looking for.”
