At Sunday's press conference following a resounding 5-2 loss to the Florida Panthers, Head Coach Derek King offered some thoughts towards the state of the team and their goals moving forward. With the playoffs out of the question, off-ice management failures, and star player Patrick Kane questioning the direction of the team, things seem bleak for Chicago hockey.
However Coach King offered some optimism and assurances the team is competing following the hard loss to Florida on Saturday. As per Ben Pope from the Chicago Sun-Times, King says
«We're trying to win games, obviously. We don't come out here going, ‘Ah, let's pack it in, move on, move on.' We're trying, we're competing. It doesn't always go our way."
King promises the team is continuing to compete throughout this tough season, a testament to the morale and drive of the players to win games. It may be true that this season is lost, or that the roster doesn't have the pieces to make the playoffs, but the Hawks will not give up - even if the odds are against them.
This sentiment can be seen in the team approach to coaching the young Lukas Reichel. Although the player struggled against Florida with top line minutes, King highlighted the importance of improving his game in the video room. Again, Ben Pope reports King saying,
«Reichs was OK. This is a process... He gets a couple of games here against some good opponents. We'll grab some clips, talk to him about it, get a week of practice and then we'll see where we are after that."
The importance of coaching the young players, getting them against tough matchups, and playing them higher up in the lineup will be crucial to the success of the Hawks current roster re-tool. If King can harbour the development of young players today, and ensures the team continues to compete through tough losses, the Hawks could soon become a more competitive team.
