Earlier this week, Chicago Blackhawks coach Derek King appeared genuinely delighted that his predecessor, Jeremy Colliton, had been cast in the role of head coach of Canada’s Olympic men’s hockey team.
“That’s great for him, that’s awesome,” King said. “He’s a good coach. He’s a smart hockey coach. That’ll be nice for him to get back into things, and he’ll do a good job.”
Then King, whom the Hawks installed as interim coach after firing Colliton in November, reflected on his own situation.
“If I’m not back, I wonder what happens to me? I’ll have to find a league. Team Scotland or something,” he joked.
King uses humor a lot, but he’s no less a realist.
It wasn’t the first time he made an off-the-cuff reference to not being back behind the Hawks bench next season — not that he wouldn’t jump at having the job on a permanent basis. But he, like anyone, can see where the Hawks stand and the crossroads they’re facing.
An interesting confluence of events is at work here: Before this week’s All-Star break, the Hawks play a couple of critical games against the Vancouver Canucks and Minnesota Wild, two teams ahead of them in the wild-card and Central Division standings, respectively.
Meanwhile, the Hawks have scheduled a town hall before Wednesday’s game against the Wild during which Hawks management likely will address the path it plans to undertake for the rest of the season and perhaps how it will set the table for the future.
Last week CEO Danny Wirtz announced that he’s heading the search for a general manager, and that process is likely to take weeks, not months.
Timing is everything here.
The Hawks have competed well against top teams such as the Colorado Avalanche and the Wild, but close regulation losses — and the Hawks’ 16-21-7 record — have done little to ward off the specter of the March 21 trade deadline.
“You feel like you’re right there,” Patrick Kane said. “You feel like you can win some of those games, and I think we got one point out of six against Colorado. A little disappointing.
“It’s like we’re there — we’re able to compete with these teams — but are we able to take that next step and win games? You could say the last game (a 6-4 home loss Friday) we outplayed them. ... Those are moral victories, but you want to be able to take it to these teams and then have something to show for it at the end of the night.
“That’s the next step for this group.”
Two seasons ago, it felt like the front office and the locker room waged a quiet, internal debate over what the next step should be: rebuild versus retool.
After the front office plugged in some veteran help last summer — and the Hawks still didn’t get the desired results — it’s difficult to argue against drastic changes, especially when the organization is about to bring in a new personnel boss who could start making big moves to establish a new foundation for the franchise.
The main reason interim GM Kyle Davidson switched to King is the former Rockford IceHogs coach could bring the outside perspective Davidson felt was needed.
King was asked what perspective he has shared in conversations with Davidson and Wirtz.
“It’s a good question,” he said. “What we’ve been talking about a lot is just what we have. What type of players we have, what type of team we have. ... I’ve been a part of Rockford and I see what we have coming up.
“That’s our conversations: What do we have coming up, what do we need and where are we going with this? But other than that, it’s just been, you know, stay positive, stay energy, keep upbeat, play these kids, let them feel their way and still, within reason, try to win some hockey games.”
The Hawks were 15-12-5 under King entering Monday night’s game against the Canucks at the United Center. They went 4-1 in his first five games and were 1-3-1 in the most recent five before Monday.
After the break, the rest of the February slate includes conference games against the Edmonton Oilers, St. Louis Blues (twice), Winnipeg Jets and Dallas Stars that could render an early verdict on what the Hawks are — or aren’t.
Kane said starting with wins against the Canucks and Wild “would be big for us, and we (could) regroup and come back and we have some important games right out of the break as well.”
“This next little stretch will probably tell a lot for our team,” Kane said, “and hopefully we can work our way back into it so it’s not a big stretch to make up so much ground after the break.”
Players know the consequences if they don’t make up ground: Usually, that means you’re sellers.
“That’s above my pay grade,” said Ryan Carpenter, a veteran depth forward who’s in his third season with the Hawks. “We try to keep as short-term a focus as we can. That’s up to the GM or whatever management wants to do.
“But, yeah, the longer it goes and you’re not winning games and climbing back, that’s just the reality of the business.”
Carpenter contends enough games remain on the schedule “for us to start clawing back.”
“But the longer we wait, the longer we keep playing .500 hockey, it’s not going to be good enough,” he said.
King added: “I think it’s a close team. Close enough. They’ve made some moves that were good. Bringing in a (Sam) Lafferty, a player like that, I’d like a couple of more guys like that.”
He believes the team has enough skill to score more goals and win more games, but it lacks the consistency and energy up and down the lineup that it needs to get over the hump.
King, whose job in Rockford was to evaluate and develop talent, can’t help but look at a roster through a critical lens.
“I mean, there’s a lot of things we can address,” he said. “But we’re limited to what we can do right now, so we have to deal with what we have and we just have to coach them up and do the best we can.
“You see what these top teams have and that shows you what we’re missing. Whether it’s another guy who can put the puck in the net or a playmaker and some guys who are bottom guys who can bring some energy and a checking line, stuff like that.
“There’s some work to do. Whoever comes in here is going to have a job. There’s going to be some work.”
