NEW YORK — After the Blackhawks‘ loss in Anders Sorensen’s coaching debut Saturday, Jason Dickinson theorized about two possible ways the so-called “new coach bump” could manifest itself.
“There’s the one way where…everybody plays freely and things go great, and then there’s an adjustment period soon after,” Dickinson said. “Or, there’s an adjustment period right away where we try to try to change things…and then we’re going to find our game.”
Technically, the Hawks might have followed the second path. But if so, their adjustment period came and went remarkably quickly, because they looked fully adjusted by Monday.
Sorensen’s new systems worked wonders in the Hawks’ 2-1 win over the Rangers, which snapped the Hawks’ five-game losing streak, marked Sorensen’s first career NHL win and escalated the Rangers’ early-season drama.
“We’ve had so many close games…and we’ve got to start coming out on the right side of them,” Taylor Hall said. “That’s a symptom of just how we’re going to try to play: We’re going to play on our toes.”
Hall set up Tyler Bertuzzi in the first period and finished a two-on-one rush with Connor Bedard in the second, providing all the scoring the Hawks needed.
Forecheck clicks
The Sorensen-initiated switch from a 1-2-2 to a 2-1-2 forecheck seemed to click in the Hawks’ brains much more firmly Monday than it did Saturday.
Bertuzzi’s goal happened after Hall’s forecheck forced a Mika Zibanejad turnover, and the Hawks hounded the Rangers into more miscues in the defensive zone later on. High-danger scoring chances favored the Hawks 11-1 during five-on-five play in the second and third periods combined. They probably should’ve scored more than twice.
“We’re getting more compact as a forechecking unit, not as spread out,” Hall said. “We have a bit more freedom to just go. … One guy goes on the puck-carrier and then everyone else seeks out the other ‘D’-man [and] the low forward, and we get right up there and try to cause turnovers. The best way to play defense is to play in their end, and some of the best offense is off turnovers.”
Defensemen jump
The Sorensen-initiated emphasis for defensemen to jump up more frequently on rushes or pinch down more assertively from the blue line was even more impactful than the forechecking switch.
Hawks defensemen recorded 19 shot attempts and 10 on goal, with Alex Vlasic, Connor Murphy, Wyatt Kaiser and just-recalled Kevin Korchinski all generating prime scoring chances. They also created more space for the forwards by forcing the Rangers defense to watch out for them.
“I think [the defensemen] like it,” Sorensen said. “Most players do — they want to score, too, right? I give them a lot of credit. We want to stay connected as a group. The way to stay connected as a group is to have the ‘D’ up in the rush.”
Korchinski stood out in all three zones in his first NHL appearance of the season. Sorensen said he was “unbelievable” and had earned a second appearance Thursday against the Islanders.
Soderblom solidifies
Hawks goalie Arvid Soderblom worshiped Henrik Lundqvist as a kid growing up in Sweden, so earning a victory in Madison Square Garden — the arena Lundqvist ruled for many years — was extra special for him.
He earned every bit of it, too, stopping 28 of 29 shots — including a game-saving stop on Chris Kreider with 11 seconds left that he later admitted he never even saw.
“That was the most fun I’ve had in a while,” Soderblom said.