CHICAGO — Alex DeBrincat scored in overtime to give Chicago Blackhawks interim coach Derek King a 2-1 win over the Nashville Predators in his debut Sunday night at the United Center.
DeBrincat and Patrick Kane engineered a two-man rush, and DeBrincat snapped the game-winner.
The Hawks got on the board first on Brandon Hagel’s goal 7 minutes, 15 seconds into the second period.
Hagel played a puck that bounced off the end boards and flipped it over Juuse Saros’ leg. Seth Jones and Jonathan Toews assisted.
Alexandre Carrier answered for the Predators less than 2 minutes later with a soft backhander that squirted through Kevin Lankinen’s legs. It was Carrier’s first goal of the season and second of his career.
King reunited the top line of DeBrincat and Kane with Kirby Dach centering, but it didn’t seem to improve their effectiveness. They had a minus-65.76% relative expected-goals-for percentage.
Dach had a forgettable second period. He was tagged for two high-sticking penalties and couldn’t score on two prime looks, one from the doorstep.
Saros had 30 saves and Lankinen had 20.
King said at his introductory news conference after the morning skate that he didn’t plan to make major changes to the scheme before the game, instead taking at least a couple of games to assess things.
The Hawks at least played better defensively, holding Nashville without a shot on goal for almost 13 minutes in the third period and breaking up the counterattacks that seemed to come in bunches and contributed to Jeremy Colliton’s firing Saturday.
Lankinen made a huge pad save on Matt Duchene midway through the third.
King kept the power-play units relatively intact, aside from opting for Philipp Kurashev in Hagel’s place.
The power play had a flurry of premium chances during a third-period advantage, including a moment when Saros was out of the crease, but couldn’t capitalize. The Hawks went 0-for-3 on the power play for the night.
King, the former coach of the minor-league affiliate Rockford IceHogs, focused on getting his bearings.
“Behind the bench before the game starts, I’ll just step back, take it all in,” King said before the game. “Crow (assistant coach Marc Crawford) has been around this game a long time. He’s probably coached against me too. So he’s huge support and I told him I’m going to lean on you a lot and we’re going to work well together.
“It’s day to day. It’s game to game. It’s me getting comfortable and guys getting comfortable with me — the trust factor — and we’ll just keep moving along.”
