Blackhawks assistant Kevin Dean pushing defensemen to get involved offensively

Anders Sorensen, who passed the one-month milestone as Blackhawks interim coach Sunday, has brought a lot of new ideas to the team.

For assistant coach Kevin Dean, the Hawks' de facto defensive coordinator, those new ideas have required him to open his mind and somewhat shift his thinking.

Whereas Derek King, the Hawks' de facto offensive coordinator, has a longstanding relationship with Sorensen dating to 2016, Dean only knew Sorensen a little from chats at recent development and rookie camps. Dean came to Chicago in 2022 as a hand-picked choice of ex-head coach Luke Richardson, and they aligned in their relatively conservative philosophies.

Dean has bought into the newness, though. He understands the logic behind Sorensen's more aggressive approaches, which give his players — and especially his defensemen — more freedom.

"I still believe 'D' should play 'D' first, [and] I don't think I'll change from that," Dean said Saturday. "But in today's NHL, you have to get your 'D' activated and contributing in the offense, or you're going to have a hard time.

"Anders coaches not from a position of overabundance of caution. He's more, 'Let's go outscore the opposition. Let's defend hard when we don't have it, but let's not try to win 1-0. Let's go out and make some plays and score some goals.'"

Back in mid-November, a few weeks before Richardson's firing — when the Hawks were keeping every game close but nonetheless wielding one of the NHL's most toothless offenses — Dean was asked if he had any ideas for how the defensemen could contribute more offensively. At that time, he basically didn't.

"I'll give these young guys a few things to think about — as far as how to get in [the offensive zone and] find the right spacing — and I could honestly do a little more of that," Dean said Nov. 16. "But we're not getting a lot of good attacks right now, so I don't know if that's where my focus should be. Because I don't see a lot of opportunity for a 'D' to come late."

Comparing the above quotes, Dean's mindset shift is very evident. The Hawks' results haven't yet improved accordingly, considering they're 5-9-0 overall under Sorensen and have been blown out in four of their last five games, but they have no choice but to continue trying to improve.

Sorensen has encouraged Hawks defensemen to be more aggressive jumping into rushes as second waves or — during established offensive-zone possessions — pinching down from the blue line to keep pucks in. Whereas Richardson wanted them to pinch only if their perceived odds of success were, say, 75% or higher, Sorensen gives a green light when it's 50% or higher.

"The forwards like it," Dean said. "It was pretty frustrating for the forwards to work their tails off for 20 seconds in the 'O'-zone and then a 50/50 puck comes up [the wall] and the 'D' doesn't go, right?"

Dean believes Alex Vlasic has benefited the most from these changes, and that's a good thing, considering he'll be a cornerstone of the Hawks' defense for a long time.

Meanwhile, Nolan Allan and Louis Crevier have been pushed most outside of their comfort zones as stricter defensive defensemen. Dean knows they're not wired to make spectacular plays at the blue line, but he has told them to try to at least keep possessions alive so somebody else can.

The way the league is headed, Dean believes, good teams will need four defensemen who chip in offensively compared to just two stay-at-home guys — and even those two will need to be competent with pucks on their sticks. And Sorensen has helped convince Dean the Hawks will only get to that point by unleashing their defensemen now.

"The mindset is more positive: 'We're going to make a play here,' instead of, 'Let's not get caught in a jam,'" Dean said.

Assessing Korchinski

Dean's analysis of young Kevin Korchinski's nine-game NHL stint in December mirrored the external view of it. He thought Korchinski started extremely well and then regressed somewhat but was overall still much-improved compared to last season.

"He was terrific in New York in his first game [on Dec. 9]," Dean said. "I was like, 'Wow, his stick is so much stronger. He's so much more assertive.' He played well for a few games after that, but he did tail off a little bit, which every young player does. But I still thought he was stronger. You can see he's physically stronger in battles, his stick was stronger and he was more assertive.

"Hopefully the next time he comes up, [his good play] stays for longer. I do think it's a mental thing. At some point, he'll have it, where he gets over that hump and the inconsistencies round out and he just plays the same way every night."

One key point Dean has emphasized to Korchinski is that when he ventures outside the hash marks in the defensive zone, he needs to kill plays decisively rather than halfheartedly "pretending" to do so.

"[Kevin] just kind of waves [his stick] and thinks the guy is just going to give him the puck or dump it in," Dean added. "When he doesn't dump it in, now Kevin is on the boards and they've got speed in the middle, and he's chasing it."