Girls Youth Hockey Former New York Islanders [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/new-york-islanders/] assistant coach Luke Richardson has been relieved of his head-coaching duties of the Chicago Blackhawks. They have promoted assistant coach Anders Sorensen to interim head coach. Richardson spent the last three seasons coaching Chicago, with the team staying at the bottom of the Central Division for the previous two years and currently in last with an 8-16-2 record. Image [https://thehockeynews.com/.image/c_fit,h_600,w_600/MjExMTkyNzg2ODYxNDM0NTU3/usatsi_24613064.jpg] He served as an assistant coach for one season in the Islanders organization, during the 2017-2018 campaign under head coach Doug Weight. The team went 35-37-10, seventh in the Metropolitan Division and with the league's worst defense, allowing the most goals of any team. Richardson was let go along with Weight at the end of the year, and after being an assistant coach for the Montreal Canadiens for a few seasons, he was named the head coach for Chicago starting in 2022. Richardson was replaced by the Rockford IceHogs head coach, Anders Sorensen, which opened the door for former Islanders defenseman Mark Eaton to fill in for Sorensen. Eaton was formerly the Blackhawks Assistant General Manager overseeing player development. He spent 13 years in the NHL, from 1999 to 2013 and two of those years were with New York right at the end of his career. He played in 96 games, scoring just one goal and six assists. His one goal came in overtime, a nifty backhander to beat the Ottawa Senators which ended up being his last goal in the NHL. Eaton played just one more season at age 35, going back to the Pittsburgh Penguins before retiring after 650 career games played.
