Blackhawks Wanted The Team To Show Signs of Improvement, Thus a Coaching Change
Dave Pagnotta of the Fourth Period joined Gord Stellick and Scott Laughlin on NHL Morning Skate on Sirius XM NHL Network Radio and was asked why the Chicago Blackhawks made a coaching now.
NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
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Gord Stellick: “So couple of coaching changes, and we know certainly the Boston Bruins and the St Louis Blues want to be in the playoffs. Think they’re going to be in the playoffs, particularly Boston. And the coaching changes have worked so far.
I didn’t think Luke Richardson would be next. And the Blackhawks, I’m curious about the take there, like, why now? I can see maybe the end of the season, looking at the next coach to take them to the next level.
I mean, what? I, a lot of people trying to tie in, okay, Connor Bedard, who’s stats are actually pretty good, you know, all in all. But, just whatever may be concerns in that regard. I mean, what? What have you made about Chicago, who we all expected to be in a middle of a significant rebuild, still making that change.”
Dave Pagnotta: “You’re certainly not the only one that was surprised by it. I think a lot of people where. I was more so with the timing. He’s in the last year of his contract and with the way things have gone, okay, maybe we see something in the offseason. They go in a different direction.
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But, I think part of the reason for making the change now is to kind of highlight the fact that, yes, they’re going through a rebuild, but they want to see improvement. You want to see some type of change for the better. And if things aren’t rolling, we’re taking things seriously, and we want to make this type of change now and give (Anders) Sorenson the opportunity to show what he’s got behind the bench. They want to see what he has and what he is capable of doing.
Yes, Bedard’s numbers aren’t bad, but they expected more. He expected more. I think everybody kind of expected more from this group going into this season, not to take the full next step in rebuilding but to start, you know, showing signs of improvement.
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Why they added some veteran pieces to this lineup to help complement some of the young core that led by Bedard. But they hadn’t seen it with respect to (Tyler) Bertuzzi’s overall performance, (Teuvo) Teravainen and so on. So bringing a different voice see if clicks, maybe he’s going to be the long-term guy behind the bench. They removed the interim tag at the end of the season, but they wanted to show some type of change for the better.
And clearly they feel the coaching change was the way to go in terms of that first step to continue along their rebuild process.”
NHLRumors.com Note: Entering the season, there was talk of Luke Richardson not being the fit for the Blackhawks. Similar to David Quinn in San Jose, it is not so much of the losing but how you lose. Yes, the Blackhawks are rebuilding, but the improvement was not there even last year. Plus, management had an out as Richardson was in the last year of his deal.
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