Chicago Blackhawks: Coaching Change is in Order as Struggles Continue
The Chicago Blackhawks are under the spotlight as the 2021-22 NHL season is underway, and they have failed to live up to expectations just five games in, and head coach Jeremy Colliton is at fault.The NHL may follow an 82-game season, but each game is just as important as the last. Starting out the 2021-22 campaign with an 0-4-1 record is beyond disheartening for fans, especially considering they’ve only scored 9 goals while allowing 21 goals across just 5-games played. Looking at the first game alone against the Colorado Avalanche, the Chicago Blackhawks lost the game on the first shift. Since opening night, the Hawks have been completely and utterly dominated by their opponents both on the road and in the United Center.
With such an abysmal start to a hopeful year, fans have shown no mercy to the team’s social media accounts in comment sections. As losses pile, fans spill their outrage in open forums to express their complete distaste for their team’s performance, with nine out of every ten comments stating “Fire Colliton”, referring to head coach Jeremy Colliton, now in his fourth year as head honcho for Chi-Town. Many fans have yet to accept him since his hiring, as legendary head coach Joel Quenneville was fired to accommodate him. While there may be some overreaction to the current situation surrounding the organization, the termination of the coach’s contract is not at all unwarranted.
The Chicago Blackhawks need to fire head coach Jeremy Colliton.
Over a 4-year span as the leader of the Chicago Blackhawks, Colliton has led the team through 198-games played and boasts an 86-87-25 record, with a lone playoff appearance during the 2019-20 pandemic season in which they reached the feat through battling in a playoff bubble.
Fans watching the Chicago Blackhawks over the years are used to seeing an elite offense and jaw-dropping plays on a nightly basis. Under Jeremy Colliton’s coaching, however, the Hawks have tried to adopt a gritty or chippy style of play, with hard back-checks being the biggest highlight of the night.
While this sounds great in theory, Chicago’s lineup is simply not made to support this style of play. Not only do the Hawks not have the size or physicality to match this play, but they don’t have the mentality to do so either. Watching their latest outing against the Vancouver Canucks alone, you could count on one hand how many times you saw a Chicago player playing hard-nose hockey. Forwards were lazy on the forecheck and defenders were constantly puck-watching. You might as well have been watching a Peewee B practice.
The Hawks need a head coach who can use the offensive firepower of this roster to its maximum ability. You have several players in this lineup who can score 30+ goals, but instead, you have them dumping in the puck and chasing after it.
This team has the potential to go deep into the postseason with an elite, young defenseman in Seth Jones and elite netminder in Marc-Andre Fleury added to this group that almost made magic in the hardest division in the NHL last year. They need a coach who is willing to work with his players and formulate a game plan around them, rather than forcing players into a fixed system that has yet to show success. Given how tight the Central division is today, five games can be the difference between an early summer and a parade through Chicago. They can’t afford to wait this out, they need to act now.
As fans grow more unhappy with the team’s performance, fewer people will buy tickets to home games. When the organization begins to see that money is being lost, they’ll have no choice but to send Colliton packing.