The Chicago Blackhawks have relieved Jeremy Colliton, Tomas Mitell and Sheldon Brookbank from their coaching duties. The team named Derek King as their interim coach.
The Blackhawks have relieved Jeremy Colliton, Tomas Mitell and Sheldon Brookbank of their coaching duties and have named Derek King Interim Head Coach, effective immediately. https://t.co/2PggeNtIY4
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) November 6, 2021
Blackhawks Head Coach Jeremy Colliton Fired After Slow Start
This season has not been good for the Chicago Blackhawks. After a slow start on the ice, the team has finally decided to part ways with their coaching staff. This has been one of their worst starts, with only one win in 12 games ranking second to last in the league.
Following the past season’s fiasco, Colliton and his bench companions Brookbank and Mitell were hanging by a thread. Chicago also announced coaches Marc Crawford, Jimmy Waite, Matt Meacham and Dylan Crawford will stay in their coaching positions.
The team has named Derek King, their AHL affiliate head coach, as the interim head coach. Anders Sorensen will replace him as the interim head coach with the Rockford IceHogs, beginning on Saturday night. King has been the IceHogs head coach since April 2019, being their interim head coach for the 2018-19 season. He was an assistant coach for the AHL Toronto Marlies from 2009 to 2015.
What Comes Next For The Blackhawks
Chicago has been going through a lot of changes in the past couple of weeks. That happened not only because of their performance on ice but also due to their conduct off the ice. On October 27, former general manager Stan Bowman resigned following the conclusion of the investigations on the Brad Aldrich case. Now, they’ve fired their head and assistant coaches. Things have not been easy on the team.
From a game point of view, some of the players they expected to be great have not been doing so well. After trading for star defenceman Seth Jones and the 2020-21 Vezina Trophy winner Marc-Andre Fleury, the Hawks thought everything would go back on track. That has not happened yet.
Their record is worrying, having a 1-9-2 record and four points in the first 12 games of the season, and the team looks lost and disorganized almost every night. With the coaching changes, Chicago now has the chance to start over and try to put the awful start in the past. That’s what they owe to themselves and to their loyal fans after the chaotic past weeks they’ve had.
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