Last-place Blackhawks fire head coach Luke Richardson
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Mired in last place and in the midst of a four-game losing streak, the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday fired head coach Luke Richardson.
"Today I made the difficult decision to move on from Luke as our head coach. We thank him for his efforts and contributions to the organization and our community," general manager Kyle Davidson said in a statement. "As we have begun to take steps forward in our rebuilding process, we felt that the results did not match our expectations for a higher level of execution this season and ultimately came to the decision that a change was necessary. We wish Luke and his family all the best moving forward."
Richardson, 55, was 57-118-15 in two-plus seasons as coach of the rebuilding Blackhawks, who have missed the playoffs in seven of the past eight seasons, and haven't advanced past the first round since winning the Stanley Cup in 2015.
While the Blackhawks were not expected to make the playoffs with a young, developing roster, they were expecting a noticeable improvement from last year, when they finished with the second-worst record in the NHL.
However, at 8-16-2 so far this year, they're in last place in the league, two points behind the 7-13-6 Nashville Predators. In Richardson's last game as coach, the Blackhawks fell to the Boston Bruins 4-2 on Wednesday, their fourth loss in a row.
Rockford IceHogs head coach Anders Sorensen will take over as interim head coach, and Blackhawks assistant general manager Mark Eaton will replace Sorensen as interim head coach of the IceHogs.
Sorensen, 49, has been with the IceHogs since 2014, including five seasons as a development coach from 2014-18, three seasons as an assistant coach from 2018-21, and as head coach since 2021.
In his first season with Rockford, he led the IceHogs to a 35-26-4-1 record, helping them make the Calder Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2018. They have made the playoffs every season under Sorensen.
