(670 The Score) The Blackhawks have fired coach Luke Richardson, the team announced Thursday afternoon.
The Blackhawks were an NHL-worst 8-16-2 entering play Thursday. Rockford IceHogs head coach Anders Sorensen has been tabbed as the Blackhawks’ interim head coach, effective immediately.
“Today I made the difficult decision to move on from Luke as our head coach,” Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson said in a statement. “We thank him for his efforts and contributions to the organization and our community. As we have begun to take steps forward in our rebuilding process, we felt that the results did not match our expectations for a higher level of execution this season and ultimately came to the decision that a change was necessary. We wish Luke and his family all the best moving forward.”
Richardson was 57-118-15 in his three seasons leading the Blackhawks, who had the second-worst record in the NHL last season.
“On behalf of the entire Blackhawks organization, I’d like to thank Luke for his dedication over the past three seasons,” Blackhawks chairman Danny Wirtz said in a statement. “I fully support Kyle’s decision in making this change as he continues to do what is needed to move our team forward. I have the utmost confidence in him and the rest of our hockey operations team as they begin their search for the next head coach of the Chicago Blackhawks.”