Toews, Jones back Colliton amid brutal start
Chicago Blackhawks head coach Jeremy Colliton has the support of his core players amid a horrendous start to the 2021-22 campaign.
"100% this team has faith in Jeremy," defenseman Seth Jones said, per The Athletic's Mark Lazerus. "I've been here a short time but his message has been great for us. ... This isn't a coaching problem. This is a locker room thing, the players on the ice playing the game."
The club lost its sixth consecutive game Sunday night, setting a record for the longest streak (360 minutes) without holding a lead to open a season since at least 1979-80.
Chicago made significant roster changes this offseason, landing Jones, Marc-Andre Fleury, and Tyler Johnson. The failure to live up to heightened expectations has put Colliton's job security in question early on, but Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews also backs his head coach.
"Of course," Toews said. "There's details to our game that when we've done them and we've stuck to them, we have four lines rolling and doing it the right way. It's a fun way to play and everyone feeds off it, we just haven't done it enough."
Colliton replaced Joel Quenneville as Chicago's coach during the 2018-19 season. He owns an 86-88-25 record over that span.