CHICAGO — Kyle Davidson looked tired. You could see the emotion of the last couple of days on his unshaven face, and hear it as his voice checked just a little bit at the end of a 25-minute news conference on Friday morning.
Luke Richardson was his guy, his first major hire. And the two had become close, meeting just about daily to discuss the Chicago Blackhawks, the league and life at large. So firing Richardson on Thursday, 26 games into his third season as the Blackhawks coach, was not a decision Davidson, the Blackhawks’ general manager, came to lightly.
“Life is a team game,” Davidson said, recalling words of wisdom he had recently heard. “If you’re looking for teammates in life, Luke and Stephanie Richardson are some of the best you can find.”
He paused, his eyes reddening just a bit.
“It’s tough,” he added.
Tough, yes. But justified in his mind, too. Being in last place, sloppy hockey, underperforming players across the board, an inability to close out games — it all played into Davidson’s decision. Here are eight takeaways from Davidson’s news conference.
The Blackhawks’ loss to the Minnesota Wild on Nov. 29, in retrospect, seems like a game-changing defeat that led to the coaching change.
The Blackhawks had played some of their best hockey of the season leading into that game. They had just defeated the Florida Panthers and Dallas Stars and gained a point against the Philadelphia Flyers. The offense had shown some life, especially with a six-goal output against the Stars.
Even in the opening period against the Wild, things seemed to be heading in a positive direction for Richardson and his team. When the Blackhawks scored the game’s first goal, they had improved their five-on-five goal differential to zero on the season. Considering it was minus-84 last season, that seemed significant.
And then, everything fell apart. The Blackhawks blew a 2-0 lead against the Wild and lost 3-2. They lost 6-3 to the Columbus Blue Jackets in the next game, then 4-1 to the Toronto Maple Leafs and finally 4-2 to the Boston Bruins. In their last four losses, they have also been outscored 14-4 at five-on-five and now have a minus-11 goal differential.
Davidson began thinking about firing Richardson during that span and came to the conclusion after Wednesday’s loss.
“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,” Davidson said. “I think we had five out of six points over that three-game stretch, and it felt that we beat some pretty darn good teams, and felt like something was happening. And then we lost a couple in a row.
“When I came to the conclusion that I wanted to make a change, you make 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. But you’re always evaluating, right? You’re always considering what could be and how you want to change what’s going on. And, again, not just before the Boston game, like, the results haven’t been what we’ve wanted. But in terms of making that final determination and decision, I think it was after that point that it was like, OK, you know what, it’s time to step in and make a change.”
Interim coach Anders Sorensen does have experience working with talented young players. He’s had the players who came through Rockford, but he also has a personal relationship with the Nylander family and has worked with William Nylander in Sweden.
Davidson mentioned how he thought Sorensen could help Connor Bedard. That background training Nylander could come into play.
“Obviously, Connor is essential to what we’re doing now and in the future, but it’s more of a big-picture number of different things than just one specific player,” Davidson said. “And having said that, I believe Anders is experienced with some of our high-end players now, and then, some of the players he’s got experience with from other organizations, and his time in the game of hockey will be really beneficial for Connor.”
Richardson won’t be part of the future of the Blackhawks’ rebuild, but his part in it shouldn’t be underestimated. He was hired into an unwinnable situation and made the best of it.
The Blackhawks’ roster was made up of mostly inexperienced and inferior players who had little chance against most of the league. Despite the constant losing and need for developmental feedback, Richardson’s mood and approach never altered. He carried himself and the Blackhawks’ rebuild message the same way, day in and day out. If the Blackhawks do eventually turn the franchise around, Richardson deserves some credit.
“Those first couple years, they were tough, because where we were in our process, there was a lot of tearing down and a lot of change going out and talent going out,” Davidson said. “Which is difficult for the players in the room, the coaches. One of his strengths was keeping morale up and keeping things positive when it would’ve been very easy for them to go another direction. He was very good at that. That was definitely one of his strengths, making sure the rink was a fun place to come to and an enjoyable place to be even when the results weren’t there.
“Because as I said earlier, you come to the rink and you play this game to win, and the wins just weren’t there, and so it’d be easy for that to go negative. To his credit, he never let it get there.”
Frank Nazar is coming, just not immediately.
“With any player, Frank specifically or as a group these players, you just want to do what’s best for their development,” Davidson said. “Frank’s played very well. He’s been a real bright spot for us and his performance has been really exciting. I think I’d like to let the group settle here a little bit. It was a big shift, a big change. Let’s get a couple games under our belt. Rockford’s got a couple of games this weekend and the middle of next week. We’re always evaluating, we’re always watching. But as it pertains to Frank, I don’t think he’s done anything to hurt his case. What that means for recall, I think we’ve got to take that day by day and see where it goes.”
Nazar has been lights-out as of late for Sorensen in Rockford. He’s second in the AHL with 24 points in 18 games. Over his last 10 games, he’s produced seven goals and nine assists.
When will Frank Nazar be in Chicago? (Jamie Sabau / Imagn Images)
The Blackhawks’ sloppiness with the puck seemed to bother Davidson as much as anything. He mentioned “cleaning” up the team’s game five times. Poorly timed icings, lousy passing, bumbled transitions through the neutral zone — it all adds up. And it’s where he wants Sorensen to focus in these early days as he gets to know his new team.
“It’s just the basic execution, right?” Davidson said. “Why are we icing the puck at tough times? What’s the cause? Let’s peel that back. Turnovers in bad spots on the ice, let’s peel that back and understand why, and how do we fix that? Execution on passes. … Defensively, we’ve been pretty solid. We’ve cleaned up a lot of the mistakes that we saw last year. But in transitioning the puck and possessing the puck, creating offense, that’s been tough. There’s always things to improve upon. We’d just like to see a higher execution game and a cleaner game.”
Davidson, of course, is not blameless in the Blackhawks’ woes this season. If Richardson was the cook, Davidson bought the ingredients. He was careful not to single out the disappointing performances of free-agent signings Tyler Bertuzzi and Teuvo Teräväinen (two five-on-five goals each) or TJ Brodie (outscored 14-6 at five-on-five), pivoting to the team as a whole.
“I don’t think I’ve been underwhelmed by players — our team as a whole has not quite been what, realistically, what we expected us to be at this point,” Davidson said. “I think we expected to be a bit further ahead than we are. Having said that, if you asked almost every player, to a person in that room, they’ll say they need to be better. And so I don’t think that’s a secret that we’d like to see some more execution from the players. I think that’s across the board, though, right? This is a team game. You’re not where you are in the standings because of one, two or three players. It’s a team concept and you’ve got to execute within that team concept. I think the players know that they have to step up and they have to be cleaner in their games. I don’t think that’s anything that’s a secret to anyone in that room.”
Richardson’s assistants — Kevin Dean, Derek Plante, Derek King and Jimmy Waite — will stay on Sorensen’s staff, though Davidson said the interim coach will have the autonomy to divvy up the responsibilities as he sees fit.
King, of course, was the previous interim coach for the Blackhawks, taking over for the last 70 games of the 2021-22 season after Davidson fired Jeremy Colliton barely a week into his own interim tenure as general manager. Sorensen was King’s assistant in Rockford, and now King is Sorensen’s assistant in Chicago. Davidson said King wasn’t under consideration this time around.
“That’s no slight to Kinger,” he said. “It’s just more so Anders is a new face, a new voice, new ideas. It was just something new. We’ve gone down that road with Kinger before, and I think there could be some fear of him just being the de facto interim guy, right? He’s in a role here and (with) Anders coming in, I think that gives a little bit more of a boost to the group.”
If Davidson had been working for former Blackhawks president John McDonough, Davidson likely would have been forced to recall all of Rockford to boost attendance and team interest. Since Danny Wirtz replaced McDonough and then took over for his father, Rocky Wirtz, as chairman, the Blackhawks’ front office seems to be more hands-off.
Davidson was asked Friday whether Danny Wirtz or president of business Jaime Faulkner had been involved in the decision and whether they supported him in it.
“I don’t want to speak for them, but no, it’s full support from Danny and he’s there every step of the way and we talk every single day,” Davidson said. “There are no secrets. I believe that transparent, honest communication between any boss and employee is critical, but certainly with what we’re doing in the long game that we’ve started a couple of years ago and we continue to look at in executing our plan, it’s something we’re always in touch on. Again, I don’t want to speak for him but from my point of view, he’s extremely supportive, extremely understanding of the rationale that we’ve got and what we’re experiencing and why we, in the end, made a change.”
(Photo of Luke Richardson: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
