Blackhawks analysis, commentary: What the numbers say about Anders Sorensen’s time as the Blackhawks coach

As we begin our postmortem of the 2024-25 Blackhawks hockey season, our first scalpel into this cadaver targets the coaching change made during the middle of the season.

After Luke Richardson was fired on December 5, just 26 games into the season, Anders Sorensen took over with the interim tag for the final 56. There were some rosier moments during Sorensen\'s tenure which prompted a question or two regarding his possible long-term future as Chicago\'s bench boss. Would a deeper dive into the numbers support consideration for Sorensen having that interim tag removed?

Let\'s find out.

The Blackhawks were 8-16-2 under Richardson and 17-30-9 under Sorensen, resulting in points percentages of .346 and .384, respectively. Playing at that pace over an 82-game season will net a team 57 or 63 points, respectively, so we\'re not off to a good start.

We\'ll dive deeper into the numbers now, though, using the always-excellent Natural Stat Trick website. To provide some additional context, we\'ll toss in the numbers from the 2023-24 season alongside the 26-game stretch for Richardson this season along with the 56-game Sorensen era.

Up first is the data from the 5-on-5 portions of the season:

Stat 2023-24 Rank 2024-25 under Richardson Rank 2024-25 under Sorensen Rank CF% 43.71 Last 44.72 Last 43.80 Last SF% 43.55 31st 46.85 28th 43.11 Last SCF% 41.67 31st 43.47 31st 41.67 Last HDCF% 39.84 Last 42.28 Last 41.38 Last GF% 36.88 31st 44.09 28th 41.29 31st xGF% 42.35 31st 45.05 29th 42.14 Last SH% 6.99 Last 7.56 28th 9.99 6th SV% 0.908 25th 0.915 13th 0.892 30th

Dead last in five categories under Sorensen! Bottom two or three in the league in two more! The only saving grace here is shot percentage, which might be more of a statistical anomaly than anything else and something we\'ll be exploring later on in another part of the game. There\'s nothing here to suggest the Blackhawks made any sort of progress under Sorensen.

Let\'s look at these numbers as rates instead to see if the Blackhawks numbers improved at either end of the ice under Sorensen as compared to Richardson. The offense is up first:

Stat 2023-24 Rank 2024-25 under Richardson Rank 2024-25 under Sorensen Rank CF/60 50.76 Last 51.19 Last 47.78 Last SF/60 25.33 30th 25.5 30th 23.04 Last SCF/60 22.72 Last 21.93 Last 21.77 Last HDCF/60 8.82 Last 8.38 31st 8.87 Last xGF/60 2.11 Last 2.13 31st 2.09 Last

Dead last in every category under Sorensen! No reason to discuss it further.

What about defense?

Stat 2023-24 Rank 2024-25 under Richardson Rank 2024-25 under Sorensen Rank CA/60 65.38 30th 63.29 27th 61.32 24th SA/60 32.82 30th 28.94 26th 30.41 31st SCA/60 31.8 31st 28.51 26th 30.47 31st HDCA/60 13.31 31st 11.43 25th 12.56 Last xGA/60 2.87 29th 2.59 24th 2.86 31st

Not much better! A slight improvement in the rate of shot attempts allowed under Sorensen but, other than that, the Blackhawks got worse under Sorensen in pretty much every other defensive category. There\'s really nothing from the 5-on-5 data which suggests any reason for Sorensen\'s services as head coach to be retained for next season.

What about special teams? Let\'s start with the power play:

Stat 2023-24 Rank 2024-25 under Richardson Rank 2024-25 under Sorensen Rank CF/60 93.9 29th 90.33 29th 81.38 Last SF/60 47.94 30th 47.51 23rd 44.24 30th SCF/60 52.98 24th 56.91 18th 46.82 30th HDCF/60 25.04 16th 27.67 8th 21.31 24th xG/60 7.59 20th 8.28 17th 6.54 31st SH% 12.42 25th 17.58 9th 22.63 1st

The only noted improvement here is in shooting percentage, while everything else trended south. And that shooting percentage was already flirting with an atypically high mark under Richardson which only increased under Sorensen. Considering the Blackhawks were not better at generating scoring opportunities on the power play this season but still found their way into the league\'s top-10 at a 24.87 percent PP conversation rate, there may be some statistical regression on the way for that shooting percentage figure next season.

What about the penalty kill?

Stat 2023-24 Rank 2024-25 under Richardson Rank 2024-25 under Sorensen Rank CA/60 93.8 3rd 93.49 7th 98.67 15th SA/60 51.5 9th 50.99 17th 51.62 17th SCA/60 54.31 6th 59.49 22nd 57.62 15th HDCA/60 24.97 18th 26.84 24th 26.17 22nd xGA/60 7.46 9th 7.68 11th 8.32 17th SV% 0.830 31st 0.877 7th 0.847 17th

There isn\'t as much regression here, with a few stats trending in negative directions and a few trending towards the positive during Sorensen\'s tenure. The penalty kill ended the season ranked 14th in the league at 79.30 percent, which isn\'t too bad and an improvement over the 75.76 percent from the prior season that was 27th in the NHL. This is probably closer to a tie between the Richardson and Sorensen portions of this season, although both were worse than the 2023-24 PK performance, save for the team\'s inability to get a save when it needed one in the prior season.

The overall picture is pretty clear from this perspective, though: there are no numbers from the on-ice performance of the 2024-25 Blackhawks to suggest they were any better under interim coach Anders Sorensen than they were under the coach who was fired in December. And that, among other reasons, is why there should be a new face behind the bench when Chicago takes the ice for the 2025-26 season.

Number Munchers: Evaluating the Sorensen and Richardson eras of the 2024-25 Blackhawks season

Talking Points