Blackhawks defeat Predators in OT in King debut as coach

CHICAGO -- The Chicago Blackhawks won the debut of Derek King as coach, 2-1 in overtime against the Nashville Predators at United Center on Sunday.

Alex DeBrincat scored at 37 seconds off a pass from Patrick Kane on a 2-on-1 to give the Blackhawks their second win of the season.
King replaced Jeremy Colliton as coach Saturday. Colliton was fired after going 87-92-26 in four seasons as Chicago coach.
Brandon Hagel scored for the Blackhawks (2-9-2), who are 2-2-0 in their past four games. Kevin Lankinen made 20 saves and had an assist on DeBrincat's goal.
DeBrincat retrieved the puck to give to King.
"It was just nice; it was a nice gesture," said King, who was coach of Rockford, Chicago's American Hockey League affiliate. "I made it clear this isn't about me. I love the fact that it's your first game, you get a win. Obviously, you're pumped about it. But this is not about me. This is about those guys. I told them, 'You guys should be proud of each other because you stuck together and fought through it. And you got a win out of it.'"

Alexandre Carrier scored, and Juuse Saros made 30 saves for the Predators (6-5-1), who are 2-1-1 on a six-game road trip.
"I thought Chicago played well, which we knew was going to happen," Nashville coach John Hynes said. "We found a way to get a point. We certainly would have liked to have gotten two points out of it, for sure. But really proud of the guys' effort, sticking to it, battling through. Tough travel. Long road trip. You want to be able to dig in. I thought we did that tonight."
DeBrincat reflected on the rough start for the Blackhawks.
"It's fun to win games," he said. "It's been tough this first month of the season, but the guys battled hard today, got the win. That's what matters right now, getting wins and having fun. Good for 'Kinger' to get his first win, and [I] wanted to make sure he got that [puck].
"It's definitely a step in the right direction. We did a good job today of playing a bit more free. With everything that happened yesterday, it's a little bit easier to turn the page and start fresh."

Hagel put Chicago ahead 1-0 7:15 into the second period, scoring from the right side of the net after a Seth Jones shot caromed off the end boards.
Hagel left the game at 9:46 of the third period with an apparent upper-body injury after he lost his balance and fell awkwardly in the Predators zone.
Carrier scored unassisted at 9:05 of the second to tie it 1-1. The rookie defenseman skated along the goal line and backhanded his first goal of the season.
Saros was tested after Predators defenseman Roman Josi was penalized for tripping at 5:55 of the third period, making saves against Kane and DeBrincat early in the Blackhawks power play and later on close-range shots by Kirby Dach and Dominik Kubalik.
"It comes to structure and details," Saros said. "I think that we have shown that even if there's been chaotic situations this year in games we've been able to stick together. I think we've handled those very well so far."
Kane became the fourth United States-born player to score 1,100 NHL points (409 goals, 691 assists), joining Mike Modano (1,374), Phil Housley (1,232) and Jeremy Roenick (1,216), and the third Blackhawks player, joining Stan Mikita (1,467) and Bobby Hull (1,153).
"As players, you always feel like you could have done more to make that situation not happen," Kane said of Colliton's firing. "But came in today and I thought (assistant) Marc Crawford and 'Kinger' did a good job of getting the message across that we wanted to play free, we wanted to play on our instincts and also play with a lot of energy, which I thought we did tonight. But it's definitely always I guess sad when something like that happens."
Chicago forward MacKenzie Entwistle left the game with 9:10 remaining with an undisclosed injury.