The Chicago Blackhawks fired coach Jeremy Colliton on Saturday.
With the team mired in a 1-9-2 start, interim general manager Kyle Davidson made the decision, naming Derek King interim coach.
Chicago has lost two straight since posting their first victory, and has allowed a league-high 47 goals.
The decision comes a day after another puzzling effort, a 5-1 loss to the Winnipeg Jets. Marc-Andre Fleury, in his first season with the club, made 28 saves, but allowed some questionable goals in front a porous defense.
“It’s been hard on the players, the stretch we’ve been going through,” Colliton said after the loss. “We’ve had some good performances we haven’t gotten rewarded for, and it weighs on you. There’s no excuse. We can’t give ourselves a chance to win when you have the type of performance that we did tonight. But all we can do is move onto the next one and come out with energy and compete level and do a better job.”
King, promoted from AHL Rockford, will debut on Sunday, when the Blackhawks meet the Nashville Predators at United Center.
Colliton, 36, a former NHL forward, was in his fourth season with the club, and in the first year of a two-year contract extension. Assistant coaches Tomas Mitell and Sheldon Brookbank also were let go with him.
Colliton’s dismissal is the latest chapter in a rough stretch for what was once regarded as one of the NHL’s marquee franchises.
The Blackhawks published a report on Oct. 26 that showed senior leaders with the organization largely ignored allegations that assistant coach Brad Aldrich sexually assaulted former first-round pick Kyle Beach during the team’s run to the Stanley Cup title in 2010. Aldrich told investigators the encounter was consensual.
Stan Bowman, Chicago’s general manager and president of hockey operations, resigned in the wake of the report, and the NHL fined the team $2 million.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.