Blackhawks hoping to build off momentum after first win with coach Anders Sorensen

Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images

It hasn’t been an easy 2024-25 season for the Chicago Blackhawks, who now sit 31st in the 32-team NHL.

On Dec. 6th, the Blackhawks fired their head coach, Luke Richardson, after the team had started 8-16-2. Fast-forward four days, and Anders Sorensen is now manning the bench. This team still has its deficiencies, but they’re sitting at 1-1-0 after a 2-1 victory over the New York Rangers on Monday night.

It’s still early days for coach Sorensen, but this group will only get more and more comfortable with each game that passes. One thing they felt comfortable doing against the Rangers was aggressively forechecking, which paid off on Monday.

“The best way to play defense is to play in their end, and some of the best offense is off turnovers,” forward Taylor Hall said after the Hawks won their first game since Nov. 27.

For a team near the bottom of the standings, you can never take a victory for granted. Tina Turner’s Simply The Best was blasting from their locker room, and you could feel the joy they had from playing the right way.

“It’s been five games since we won, Anders gets a win under his belt, and so does Sody [Arvid Soderblom],” Hall said. “Sody’s played really well for us this year, and those are important things to do, especially at the start of a road trip.

“We need to get a winning feeling consistently. One win isn’t good enough; we need to try and stick together two, three, four wins and I think you’re gonna see a lot more guys playing with confidence, playing on their toes, and a bit more smiles out there.”

The Blackhawks will hang around for a few days, with their next meeting coming against the New York Islanders on Thursday night. They’ll head to New Jersey to take on the Devils on Saturday before hosting the Islanders back in Chicago on Sunday. Even though they do have a few days off, they’re hoping to get things rolling again and make some noise with a new coach leading the way.

“We can try to build momentum off it,” forward Connor Bedard said. “In the end, each game is its own thing, and that’s been a problem for us – is kind of getting on a roll. We want to use this and just keep going on the trip and stay motivated to get wins. We know the feeling when we win how great it is, so just keep chasing that and try to get those wins.”

It wasn’t perfect, but last night’s win was something for this group to build on, and there’s no better way for a team to get some mojo going than a successful, lengthy road trip.

Blackhawks hoping to build off momentum after first win with coach Anders Sorensen

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