SOUTH BEND, Ind. — When the Blackhawks replaced future Hall of Famer Joel Quenneville with 33-year-old rookie head coach Jeremy Colliton in early November, there was an obvious sense that it would take some time for everybody to adjust and adapt to a new voice and new system.
During that adjustment period, the Blackhawks were 3-12-2 in Colliton's first 17 games as head coach, which included an eight-game losing streak where they gave up 4.86 goals per game and an 11-game span where they were outscored by 21 in the first period alone.
It was a challenging time, to put it lightly.
"It's tough," Bowman said on Monday after letting out a big sigh of relief knowing they eventually snapped out of it. "When you're losing game after game, I think everyone starts to think no matter what we do we're going to lose. We had some tough starts there. It seemed like no matter what we did — we tried to change everything up — we were down 2-0 in the first period. We did climb back into all those games, but we just would find a way to lose. When things aren't going your way, that's kind of how it happens and when things are going your way, you find a way to win when maybe you don't play your best. So that was tough.
"But I think one thing is, we really did stick with it. The guys competed hard. And the frustration was from the lack of results, it wasn't from the effort. We did a lot of good things. We would play 55 minutes of a game and then we would find a way to lose it. Once we come out the other side and win some games, you start to get some confidence."
The results are finally starting to come.
After losing eight in a row, the Blackhawks have earned 13 out of a possible 18 points and have given up two goals or fewer in five of their past six games. They're playing more structured, getting better goaltending and are winning the special teams battles that haunted them earlier in the season.
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While a playoff berth is still a long shot, Bowman is encouraged that the Blackhawks are trending in the right direction but knows there's still work to be done.
"The biggest thing now is we look more like a composed team," Bowman said. "There was a lot changing there in the first few weeks. We didn't have much time to practice and we're no different than any other team. We've played more games than anybody ... for a stretch there it seemed like we were playing every other day, no time to really practice. That's a hard thing for a new coach. Most coaches go through a training camp where you practice 20 days. I don't think we've had 20 practices since he took over — I'm pretty sure we haven't.
"So we had a tough schedule in terms of game after game, not a lot of practice time, and then with a new coach, new players came in from Rockford, so it was a whole bunch of newness at the same time and it was just something we had to get through.
"Thankfully we're past that now and we're looking forward, and we like where we are as a team. We don't like where we are in the standings, but we like the way our team looks now but we've got to push forward. We still have things we got to excel at, but now we're more like the team we want to be."
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