"Typically we're right in the middle of the season at birthday time, so it's a little bit different," said Colliton, who turns 36 on Wednesday. "Yeah, certainly I'm excited about it and grateful for the trust they're showing in me. We're just going to continue on working."
Colliton became the youngest coach in the NHL on Nov. 6, 2018, when at 33 he was hired to replace Joel Quenneville, who was fired 15 games into his 11th season as Chicago coach. Colliton said he's more comfortable with the routines and knowledge of the NHL since he was hired, and will open his third season at the Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday (8 p.m. ET; NBCSN).
"That just allows you to focus more on what you want to do, which is coach and give feedback to players and meet with them individually and as a line," Colliton said. "That's one of the things you need to do as a coach, is know when to push, when to pull back, when they need a hard message and when you need to lay off them. The more you get used to the peripheral, external routines, the easier it is to focus on what's really important, which is getting your team ready to play."
The Blackhawks (32-30-8, .514 points percentage) finished 12th in the Western Conference last season, Colliton's first full season as their coach. They defeated the Edmonton Oilers in four games in the best-of-5 Stanley Cup Qualifiers and were the No. 8 seed for the best-of-7 Western Conference First Round, which was a five-game loss to the No. 1 seed Vegas Golden Knights.
Colliton was 46-31-4-7 for Rockford of the American Hockey League, his first coaching job in North America. He was 40-28-4-4 in his first season, when Rockford advanced to the Western Conference Finals. He joined the Blackhawks 12 games into his second season with Rockford.
"With the direction we're heading, Jeremy's a big part of that and someone I'm excited to work with," Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman said. "The way we see the game, I think he's a great candidate to move that forward, and that's something that I've talked a lot about in the past, is the direction we're heading. Jeremy's strength as a coach is his communication and relationship with younger players, and that's something we'll need as we go forward. We'll need those young players to take a step in their career. Jeremy embraces that, and that's a talent he has. So it'll serve us well."
Colliton's first game as Blackhawks coach was a 4-3 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Nov. 8, 2018. His first win was against the St. Louis Blues, 1-0, on Nov. 14.
"The last couple of years we've had a good amount of time to get familiar with him and adapt to things and play the way he wants us to play," Chicago defenseman Connor Murphy said. "The longer he's been here, it's shown strides for our team moving in the right direction. It's exciting for our future and we definitely look forward to improving this season."
Before joining the Blackhawks organization, Colliton coached Mora IK of the Swedish Hockey League for four seasons and was 98-57-18.
Colliton was selected by the New York Islanders in the second round (No. 58) of the 2003 NHL Draft. He played five seasons for the Islanders, scoring six points (three goals, three assists) in 57 games.
