When you do the same things over and over again, looking for different results, some would say that is the definition of insanity. It’s technically not, but they’re also not wrong. For the Chicago Blackhawks and GM Kyle Davidson, the team continuing to do the same things game after game and expecting results to change became insanity. It led to the firing of Luke Richardson as head coach on Thursday afternoon and was the central focus of Davidson’s press conference on Friday morning.
“The reason things have gone sideways for us were likely fixable,” Davidson said in a crowded media room at the Fifth Third Arena in Chicago. “You have to be realistic with what you’re expecting and what you demand out of a group, but I don’t believe this is a last-place group.”
Davidson’s main focus for letting Richardson go was the way things did not progress this year after giving the third-year head coach more talent to work with on the roster than he had in the previous two seasons.
“We were close in a lot of games, which is good, which is a step forward from last year. But at times I think some of the reasons why we fell short in those games were more, call it maybe habitual, habit things that I think can be cleaned up through feedback and through maybe some different instruction, in practice between games, that kind of thing.”
But following a year-end media availability last April where Davidson and Blackhawks veterans made it known that finishing in the bottom three of the NHL was no longer acceptable, the team is at the literal bottom of the NHL 26 games into the season.
“A lot of nights after games this year have been sleepless ones,” Davidson said. He spoke about the decision to fire Richardson only being a reality “very recently” and that once he went over the line of thinking that maybe Richardson should be let go, he wouldn’t go back on it. “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 the other night.”
In the meantime, Rockford IceHogs head coach Anders Sorensen replaces Richardson as interim head coach in Chicago and Davidson made it clear that Sorensen will be operating with full autonomy. All assistant coaches will remain on staff and Sorensen will be given the ability to implement his philosophies and assign responsibilities amongst the assistant coaches as he sees fit. The opportunity for Sorensen is a “show us what you’ve got” chance for him in the NHL, as Davidson put it. Sorensen will get the rest of the regular season as head coach.
While the habits and lack of offensive production have plagued this Blackhawks team, Davidson as GM bears responsibility for constructing this team as it currently stands. A plethora of free agents came into the organization this summer as the first true free agent class under Kyle Davidson and essentially none of them have lived up to expectations.
While that is undeniably true, Davidson did not single-out any of those underperforming players on Friday morning. “Our team as a whole hasn’t been what we expected to be…You’re not where you are in the standings based on one or two players. It’s a team concept.”
With regards to Connor Bedard, Davidson said he has the belief that Sorensen can “have a positive influence” on the 19-year-old in the interim. It’s evident that he has done the right things in Rockford over the past few seasons when it comes to development and getting the most out of young players.
Guys like Alex Vlasic, Wyatt Kaiser, Colton Dach, Frank Nazar, Lukas Reichel, and Nolan Allan have excelled in recent seasons under Sorensen in the AHL and the hope is that those same results can rub off on Bedard for the rest of this season.
There was a clear need for a change in the room and Richardson took the fall in the process. Sorensen comes in with two important objectives now: Get this current Blackhawks group playing up to expectations and get Connor Bedard back on track in his second NHL season.
