(Chicago) — The Chicago Blackhawks have fired head coach Luke Richardson. Rockford IceHogs head coach Anders Sorensen will be Chicago’s interim head coach.

Richardson was in the midst of his third season with the Blackhawks, who enter play Thursday last in the NHL having lost four in a row. Through 26 games, the Blackhawks are 8-16-2 with 18 points.

Richardson took over as Blackhawks head coach to begin the 2022-23 season. They finished last in the Central Division in each of the previous two seasons.

“Today I made the difficult decision to move on from Luke as our head coach. We thank him for his efforts and contributions to the organization and our community,” Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson said in a news release. “As we have begun to take steps forward in our rebuilding process, we felt that the results did not match our expectations for a higher level of execution this season and ultimately came to the decision that a change was necessary. We wish Luke and his family all the best moving forward.”