The Hawks’ interim coach has emphasized competitive drills in practice and brought an approach as “extremely detailed, down to the finest point.”
Blackhawks interim coach Anders Sorensen has emphasized practice time.Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
The Blackhawks are taking advantage of a rare break in their schedule this week to hold consecutive practices — on Wednesday and Thursday — for just the second time since interim coach Anders Sorensen arrived.
The former AHL boss has been surprised and annoyed by the relative scarcity of available practice time within the Hawks’ itinerary, too, because he places a heavy emphasis on it.
Most of Sorensen’s practices aren’t long — only 30 to 40 minutes — but they’re up-tempo and focused on game-like situations rather than full-rink drills with abundant skating but little contact.
“We’re trying to put [players] in an environment where we’re battling and working on our structure at the same time,” Sorensen said recently. “But just getting into each other is important.”
Said forward Ryan Donato: “We’re not in a position where we can take many days off. We have to continue to get better…and that comes with practice.”
Sorensen has conversely de-emphasized morning skates — a trend in recent years around the NHL that hadn’t reached Chicago until now. Most morning skates have been either nonexistent or optional, in which basically only the youngest players and goalies participate.
Sorensen has also brought a different approach to the video-review sessions that precede practices and the whiteboard teaching sessions within practice. There’s a closer connection between the video topics and the drills he runs the team through on the ice. Forward Jason Dickinson described the approach as “extremely detailed, down to the finest point.”
“He shows us the clips — bad and good clips — and then shows us the practice drill he wants us to do to feel how to do it [correctly],” Dickinson said.
“When he’s explaining the drill, he gives you options. It’s not cut-and-dry that, ‘You have to do this.’ But it’s, ‘You do this so our defensemen can do this, so that the defensemen can drive the middle and kick a play.’ … It’s talked through why we’re doing this because it translates into our game.”
The Hawks are an unimpressive 7-12-2 under Sorensen so far, although their current three-game point streak has at least pulled them out of last place; they’re ahead of the Sharks now. His system changes have seemed logical in most cases, however, if not yet difference-making. Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said Monday he sees “a lot more structure” in the Hawks now.
On a human level, Sorensen — who will coach his 22nd NHL game Friday against the Lightning — said he has learned by now what makes each of his players tick. After practice Wednesday, he chatted with struggling veteran defenseman T.J. Brodie, who’s a quiet type.
“He has done a really good job of pulling different guys daily to talk to them about what they’re seeing, what they’re feeling, how they’re doing, what he wants out of them and so on and so forth,” Dickinson said. “It’s not that he’s talking to only the leaders; he’s talking to everybody.”
Said Sorensen: “I like one-on-one meetings with the guys. If it’s good or bad or both, I think that’s an important part of it.”
Although Sorensen eagerly initiates conversations, his way of speaking in them radically differs from ex-coach Luke Richardson’s.
Richardson was extroverted, loquacious and at times rambling; Sorensen is introverted and succinct. He does say substantive things, but in as few words as necessary.
That has placed more responsibility on the Hawks’ player-leaders, especially captain Nick Foligno, to frequently repeat and rehash Sorensen’s comments to keep them at the forefront of everyone’s minds.
“Having kids, [I know] sometimes you have to repeat yourself over and over until it gets hammered home,” Foligno said. “[The message] comes from the top and works its way down. We can build a guy up through something he said, or we can get on a guy for something he says.”
