Colliton unable to sidestep myriad land mines during his 3 years with Hawks

Before we close the book on Jeremy Colliton's time as Blackhawks head coach, it's important to acknowledge how difficult these past three years were for the native of Blackie, Alberta.

Not many 33-year-olds are asked to replace a legendary, three-time Stanley Cup winner like Joel Quenneville, or to earn the respect of future Hall of Famers like Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook.

Then came a plethora of unforeseen land mines and gut-wrenching decisions.

After Seabrook was asked to sit out three games early in 2019-20, the defenseman elected to have three surgeries. He never played again.

Robin Lehner's addition forced Colliton to decide how to best utilize the net with Corey Crawford.

Then COVID hit, ending the regular season. Then came the playoff bubble in Edmonton.

The next off-season Crawford was allowed to walk via free agency and the Hawks went into rebuild mode. Two weeks before camp, though, an ill Toews told the Hawks he wasn't able to play, and he missed the entire season.

Still, despite playing in an empty United Center for all but two games, a solid campaign ensued.

Then came last off-season and - wham! - then GM Stan Bowman slammed the brakes on the rebuild, shifted into high gear and acquired Marc-Andre Fleury, Seth Jones, Tyler Johnson and Jake McCabe.

Suddenly, a playoff-worthy campaign was expected.

Instead, disaster struck as Colliton's squad got off to the worst start in franchise history at 0-7-2.

The final nail in the coffin came Friday when a lackluster effort led to a 5-1 shellacking at Winnipeg.

Interim GM Kyle Davidson fired Colliton the next day.

"We didn't really do him any favors," Alex DeBrincat said after the Hawks' 2-1 OT victory Sunday over Nashville at the United Center. "As a team, we have to take his message and be better with it. It's not a great situation for him this year.

"He's been great to me my whole time here. Definitely has made me a better player ... so I thank him for that."

Kane, who missed four games while in COVID protocol, really stuck up for Colliton.

"I give Jeremy a lot of credit," Kane said. "He went through a lot as a coach - coming in for Q, the COVID break and not really having full training camps, players getting hurt and not being here. I think he did a really good job.

"He's got a really bright future as a coach. He's a very smart hockey mind. I'm sure he'll lean on this experience and be better for it."

What's so odd is this team didn't build upon last year's moderate success. The 2020-21 squad - with two unproven goalies and no Toews - possessed a fierce, lunch-bucket mentality and used it to outwork opponents en route to a 13-7-5 start. They were still 22-20-5 on April 21 before faltering down the stretch.

Chemistry and confidence were big factors as well - characteristics that have been completely absent thus far this season. Blame Colliton's defensive system, lineup decisions and/or line combinations if you want. That's completely fair.

But there's still no excuse for the lack of energy we've seen on most nights.

So now Derek King is in charge. We'll soon see if new blood and a new voice equals new life.

"A new voice can help just because of the difference in (the) person," Connor Murphy said. "It's funny how that works. ...

"We were trying things - like we had so many different assistant coaches ... giving us different messages, and it was really on us that we weren't responding in the right ways. We wear that."

King's messages on Day 1 were simple: You've been playing this game since you were a kid. It's fun. So have fun. Stop thinking so much, go play for each other and see what happens.

It worked against the Predators, with DeBrincat scoring 37 seconds into OT to lift the Hawks to 2-9-2.

"It's ... not stressing over mistakes or coming back to the bench feeling just burnt out because we're hemmed in our end again or we're down 3-0," King said. "I told them, 'Just take a deep breath and go out there and let's play hockey.'

"They've been doing it their whole life. The game hasn't changed. We've all been playing since we were probably 5 or 6 years old. The nets haven't moved. Just go have fun. That's what we did."