In Chicago, the inevitable came to pass. The Blackhawks fired their head coach, Jeremy Colliton, on Saturday.
The Blackhawks reached down to their American Hockey League affiliate, Rockford IceHogs, for their replacement in Derek King.
“This team has a lot of talent — talent that I am familiar with from my time in the organization — and I look forward to working with them behind the bench,” King said. “I appreciate the support from (general manager) Kyle Davidson and (CEO) Danny Wirtz through this process and I cannot wait to get going. I understand my role and position and [am] ready to do the work necessary to help the organization succeed.”
Chicago is 1-9-2 and the action was likely long overdue.
“It has been an extremely difficult couple of weeks for our organization, and we have had to come to terms with a number of necessary changes,” Wirtz said. “As we look to move forward, we know we must earn back the trust of our fans, and we are grateful for the support of our entire community as we work to do just that.
“We appreciate all that Jeremy has brought to the Blackhawks, and we look forward to working with Derek as our interim head coach while we work to rebuild our permanent hockey operations leadership.”
The organization has been mired in off ice crises with the fallout of the Kyle Breech allegations of abuse in 2010-11.
“Our on-ice goal remains the same: to build an elite system of hockey, and we have not delivered on that,” Davidson said. “The fact is, our play and competitiveness must improve. Every game, every shift. Today’s coaching changes are difficult, especially given the incredible personal connections Jeremy and others have made with our players in their development. We appreciate Jeremy’s contributions to the organization over the last three seasons, and we wish him and his family the best.”
Remains to be seen whether or not a change in head coach can motivate the roster.
An organizational culture change, and massive instillation of heart and commitment will be needed on the becnh.
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