After the the team practiced on Wednesday, we finally heard from Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson about the state of affairs with the team he built.
Earlier, I shared his comments about being actively engaged in the trade market in an effort to make the Blackhawks better. That was a small but important part of Davidson’s comments to the media. He also spoke about ownership’s messaging to him, his belief in his coaches and players, and the path forward.
Here’s more from Davidson’s press conference on Wednesday, beginning with the focus in the immediate: fixing the defense.
Chicago Blackhawks assistant general manager Mark EatonFix the Defense
The biggest news from Davidson’s media availability is that Mark Eaton is going to join the coaching staff to specifically focus on fixing the defense. Mike Vellucci was working primarily with the Blackhawks’ defensemen; he worked primarily with the Penguins’ forwards in his previous gig in Pittsburgh.
“[The coaching staff] asked that we bring in Mark Eaton to provide extra support. So, starting on Monday, Mark will embed with the coaching staff full time for the foreseeable future. And [we] believe that this is somewhat akin to something you’d see in the NFL with a position coach, someone that’s hyper-focused on improving individual defending skills in this case and not necessarily impacting overall scheme.
“Some of you in this room know Mark Eaton, but he played just over 600 games in the NHL and a lot of what he built his career on are things that our players need to get better at. And so he’s uniquely qualified from that perspective as well as the fact that he’s worked with almost every one of our defensemen since they’ve been drafted and he knows how they learn, he knows their gaps, he knows how they communicate, and he’s also just got that personal relationship with them before he even arrives here on Monday.
“And as well, as I referenced with Blash and being open to new thoughts and opinions, Mark Eaton’s got some great experience and I think he can share some new thoughts coming in from a little bit of the outside even though he will have tracked our team over the season. He’s not around every day and so I think it’s an opportunity for a fresh set of eyes and good discussion within the coaches group.”
You might recall Eaton left his spot in the front office to serve as the head coach of the Rockford IceHogs when Davidson fired Luke Richardson a couple years ago. He’s been with the Blackhawks organization for 12 years and does have a lot of experience working with the Blackhawks’ pipeline.
“Not that he’s the savior, but Mark Eaton can certainly support and provide an extra set of eyes, an extra set of help for the players to get some more in-depth coaching,” Davidson said. “And, again, someone with that experience, who’s done exactly what we want these players to improve in, I think will be very good for this group.”
Blackhawks chairman Danny WirtzBoss Isn’t Happy
One of the first questions Davidson was asked was how his boss, Blackhawks chairman Danny Wirtz, feels about the brutal start to the season.
“I think he’s disappointed like all of us,” Davidson said. “We expected more out of the start of the season for sure. And I think he shares that, [but] also shares that optimism that we did have coming through into the season. Now, despite the spot we’re in — there’s no denying where we’re at and what our record is — we do believe as an organization that we have, while young, some very, very talented, important foundational pieces here that you do build around in the NHL.
“And so I’ve had a ton of really, I’ll call them productive, but honest conversations with Danny. And he’s been, in my view, an extremely good boss. And that’s not just because of support, but because of how he challenges myself, how he challenges our staff. The questions he asks forces us to think differently, get outside our comfort zones a little bit. And so it’s something that we talk almost daily and debrief almost daily on. And so the communication there has been great. But I think we’re all aligned, one, in the disappointment early on, but also that there are very real reasons for optimism looking ahead.”
Davidson was also asked if he had considered making any changes to his front office staff. He mentioned adding Chris O’Hearn a couple years ago, but reiterated that he feels the Blackhawks have a good group with differing, strong opinions.
“This is not a yes man scenario that we have within our group,” Davidson said. “If I wasn’t getting the proper feedback or different opinions or there wasn’t good constructive discussion in the room, then I would probably agree that maybe some other look is good, but I don’t feel like we’ve stagnated on constructive criticism, on difference of opinion. And so I feel like it’s been healthy from that standpoint. There’s a lot of trust in that room, but a lot of honest discourse going on.”
Blackhawks GM Kyle Davidson and head coach Jeff BlashillBlashill’s Job
While Eaton is coming in to help fix the defense, Davidson backed his head coach — to an extent. He did give head coach Jeff Blashill a vote of confidence, but he wouldn’t bite on a question regarding if he’s going to stay the course for the rest of the regular season or if change is still on the table there if there isn’t improvement.
“In bringing someone in that’s going to help to augment and support the staff that are dealing with the defensemen that we need to see improvement from over the next while I think is certainly urgency,” he said. “We’re pulling an assistant general manager out of the field as requested by our coaching staff that … think it’s a good idea. So there’s urgency there. He’s out in the field working with our prospects that are in amateur and pro in Rockford a lot too, and he’s going to embed here.
“And so that’s some pretty meaningful action and some reorganization going on there internally. But at the same time, I believe that the players believe in Blash and the staff. I believe in Blash and the staff. And so we’re going to get out of this together and we’re going to work together to make sure that we keep taking steps and dig our way out of the hole that’s been created. And so I think that’s something we believe in because of the people we have in this organization that we feel can get us out of where we started.”
Davidson was asked what he wants to see from his coaches moving forward, and it really comes down to basic stuff… like… playing defense better.
“I think it’s going back to what I mentioned earlier is this renewed focus on just these fundamentals, these core pieces, especially within the team defensive game,” he said. “We want to see that improving. We want to see the cutting down of these two-on-ones or odd man rushes and breakaways against and high level of high danger chances being put our way. And so those are things that we want to see progress in. … We certainly need to see the improvement of our defensive game, which we believe will then uplift the rest of our play. And so again, starts the back end, we need to see improvement in that.”
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